Cell Phone Tower Lease Initial Payment ?

by V
(Not Specified)

I have been approached by a major cell phone company to possibly put a tower on my land. I know about the monthly payments, but how much should ask for/get for the initial down payment ? They are saying $7,500 but that sounds really low.
Thank you!

Comments for Cell Phone Tower Lease Initial Payment ?

Average Rating starstar

Click here to add your own comments

Apr 01, 2011
Rating
starstar 		Sounds like you need help...
by: Tower Genius

I would not jump to assumptions. You mentioned that "You know about the monthly payments" -- well that may be correct, but do you know about the rest of the telecom legalese they put in front of you?

Based on your question, it sounds like the site acquisition representative is dangling the carrot in front of you trying to get you to take a $7500 payment and that sounds like a large amount of money, but that generally means that they are giving it in exchange for horrible terms.

There is no such thing as a "down payment" for a cell tower. Sometimes a carrier will agree to include a one-time payment of perhaps $1-3K to help you cover your legal expenses, but only in cases where they really need your site and you have leverage to negotiate. There are Option Payments that carriers pay for the option to lease your property. Fair market value for these are anywhere from $500 to $1500 per year, and they usually range from 1 to 2 years.

The tower leasing reps offering a large upfront cash down payment are usually the kind of tower developers who give our industry a bad reputation. I would be very cautious.

Since you have not provided any other detail is it difficult to properly answer your question. Give us a call as soon as possible or fill out a Contact Form on this site.

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Cell Tower Lease Forum.

Find out from Tower Genius how we help landlords and property owners in the USA  maximize cell site lease values and get the best possible terms for:
  • Cell tower lease agreements 
  • Tower lease extensions 
  • Cell site upgrades 
  • Small cell proposals 
  • Lease amendments 
  • Tower lease buyouts offers 
  • Rooftop lease buyout offers 
  • Rooftop cell site audits 
  • Lease Agreement defaults 
  • Cell tower valuations 
  • Rent reduction solicitations 
  • Lease optimization questions
  • Verizon Wireless 
  • AT&T
  • T-Mobile
  • DISH Network
  • US Cellular
  • SBA Communications
  • Crown Castle
  • American Tower
  • Vertical Bridge
  • Harmoni Towers
  • Tillman Infrastructure
  • Black Dot, Md7, Lyle Company


Need help with your cell tower lease?

1-888-313-9750

Wireless Telecom Consulting & Transactional Coaching for Landlords and Landowners.

Contact Tower Genius
Please note that all fields followed by an asterisk must be filled in.

Like this page? Show a little Social Love. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.