Cell tower leasing rates

What are the cell tower leasing rates where your potential cell site is located? Assessing lease rates for cell sites is difficult because there is not much comparative data available to the public. What we can tell you about cell phone leasing rates is that all cell phone operators are trying to save money and are not paying as much as they used to pay for roof and tower rent a few years ago.

Homeowners are typically contacted by carriers through third-party site acquisition leasing companies who are paid to identify the sites and obtain a signed lease on a new cell tower site. They get paid on the rental price and the terms they can negotiate. The better the terms for the carrier, the more potential the leasing consultant has for a bigger bonus. Translated, the worse the deal they shove you down your throat, the more money they make. If they tell you that they are not being paid on a schedule that rewards them for giving you a lower lease rate, they are lying. Carrier leasing companies are also paid premiums for quickly changing a lease.

So if you’ve been contacted to install a cell tower on your property or antennas on your roof, the clock is ticking against you. You need to evaluate the offer and find out if the offer they gave you is fair, mediocre, or a stinky bad offer. You should also determine if the wireless service provider has other options for where you can go in your neighborhood, which would be a better location. That will determine the amount of leverage you have in the trade. You must respond to them and are almost always at a significant disadvantage. And they know it.

Of course, you can negotiate what appears to be a good deal at first glance, and still end up with a perfect deal if you don’t pay close attention to the telecom lease terms and confusing language. Chances are, you are not an expert in telecommunications legal terms, and neither is your real estate attorney. Cell phone tower lease rates vary from county to county within a state. In 2009, we negotiated multiple cell site leases with the same carrier in the New York City Metropolitan Area, and the negotiated leases ranged from $ 1,500 per month to $ 3,000 per month. The price difference had a lot to do with wireless ordinances and poor coverage in a critical area.

Here are examples of some recent cell tower lease rates that we’ve seen initially offered to homeowners in various parts of the country for tower leases and rooftop leases:

• New Jersey, T-Mobile $ 1,500

• New Jersey, Clearwire $ 1,100

• New Jersey, T-Mobile $ 1,250

• New Jersey, Verizon Wireless, $ 1,650

• New York, Metro PCS $ 1,300

• Pennsylvania, AT&T $ 750

• Pennsylvania, Verizon Wireless $ 600

• Virginia, AT&T $ 500

• Los Angeles, T-Mobile $ 1,300

• Houston, TX Clearwire $ 900

• San Diego, California $ 1,400 T-Mobile

Cell tower leases offered to owners are heavily skewed in favor of carriers and too burdensome for some. However, there are two types of landlords in life and in the wireless leasing game, the fast and the dead. Don’t let the operators kill you on your cell tower leases. They have hired guns to get them the best possible deal. You should not?