Cell Tower Lease

[TractorGuy]

Does anyone have a cell tower on their property or know the ins and outs of leasing land for one? All I can find by searching is lease negotiator companies claiming you NEED their services to avoid being cheated.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Our church has one on it's property, that came with the property when we bought it. We get nothing from it until the current lease expires, as previous owners had sold the income from the lease. We will have opportunity to renew the lease in 10 yrs or so, and already we have had companies try to trick us into selling the future lease rights for pennies.

Some of these tower lease companies are crooks. Be very careful. I would find a lawyer that specializes in tower leases. Read and understand every piece of paper they send you, cause they will tell you one thing, then sent you papers to sign that basically take it from you if you sign.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Check archives this was discussed a few months ago. One was going to be installed 1/4m in front of our porch...a 200ft one with flashing light. We fought towers and won. They can be smaller, camouflaged, put on existing structures, etc.
A lot of property owners get excited about the $1500/month income (or whatever offer is) without thinking it through. They have access to your property 24/7, can be bad for neighbors, radiation, etc.

 

[bigtiller]

Our church has one on it's property, that came with the property when we bought it. We get nothing from it until the current lease expires, as previous owners had sold the income from the lease. We will have opportunity to renew the lease in 10 yrs or so, and already we have had companies try to trick us into selling the future lease rights for pennies.

Some of these tower lease companies are crooks. Be very careful. I would find a lawyer that specializes in tower leases. Read and understand every piece of paper they send you, cause they will tell you one thing, then sent you papers to sign that basically take it from you if you sign.

Ain't that the truth. We are in negotiations with a tower management company to renew an old contract now.
We have just read the 4th proposal in 2 months and it is still different than what was agreed to. Thank god for attorneys. Maybe the 5th time they will get it right.

 

[TractorGuy]

Fuddy I did search before posting and didn't find the thread you speak of or any other info pertaining to a land lease to a cell tower. As far as the health risk discussion goes the National Cancer Society claims there is no evidence to support that theory. Cellular Phone Towers

Good to know the tower management companies can't be trusted. I wonder if one could deal direct with the phone company with any sucess?

Does anyone know what kind of money offers they provide? Maybe a land owner could sweeten the deal for their neighbors and negotiate free internet and phone service for surrounding parcels.

I have read you should negotiate to a smaller space than they want and to be weary of language allowing them to expand and sub lease to other providers.

We have some towers in town that mimic trees. They obviously don't look exactly like a tree but they are much easier on the eye than a plan ol tower. I wonder how bad the flashing lights are at ground level? I can see some on a 800 Mhz tower nearby but they don't really bother me on the ground. I think some of my property may be desirable since the closest cell tower is about 9 miles away and my land is at the highest elevation in the area.

 

[Fuddy1952]

When we lobbied against cell towers we showed views like this one from my back yard then with towers sketched in. We hired an expert to make a presentation who showed towers that became huge antenna "Christmas trees".
Around here 200ft.+ had to have flashing lights on top.
We weren't against providing service, instead of a few large towers they have more smaller ones, most you can't see.
They can go on existing power line towers, telephone poles, church steeples, silos, etc.
At some point they may switch to satellite technology and antennas would become obsolete.
I would never consider any tower on my place...but if I did I would hire an attorney well versed with them.

 

[cdb2]

When we lobbied against cell towers we showed views like this one from my back yard then with towers sketched in. We hired an expert to make a presentation who showed towers that became huge antenna "Christmas trees".
Around here 200ft.+ had to have flashing lights on top.
We weren't against providing service, instead of a few large towers they have more smaller ones, most you can't see.
They can go on existing power line towers, telephone poles, church steeples, silos, etc.
At some point they may switch to satellite technology and antennas would become obsolete.
I would never consider any tower on my place...but if I did I would hire an attorney well versed with them.View attachment 607471

Whether you mean to or not, you are preventing service for people in your community. It's not so easy as just building more smaller towers. it's tremendously more expensive to built multiple sites than a single higher tower than can serve more people, both in construction and operations costs as well as regulatory costs.

In an area like ours in central VA it's already exteremely difficult for small companies to offer wireless services profitably thanks to the topography and thick forest, so when you force the costs up like this they simple cannot compete. Even the big operators will avoid improving coverage and capacity when it gets too expensive.

Fortunately I'm a couple of counties over so your lobbying didn't affect me personally, but I still suffer from lack of wireless service because of the same sort of stuff going on here.

 

[bigtiller]

Fuddy I did search before posting and didn't find the thread you speak of or any other info pertaining to a land lease to a cell tower. As far as the health risk discussion goes the National Cancer Society claims there is no evidence to support that theory. Cellular Phone Towers

Good to know the tower management companies can't be trusted. I wonder if one could deal direct with the phone company with any sucess?

Does anyone know what kind of money offers they provide? Maybe a land owner could sweeten the deal for their neighbors and negotiate free internet and phone service for surrounding parcels.

I have read you should negotiate to a smaller space than they want and to be weary of language allowing them to expand and sub lease to other providers.

We have some towers in town that mimic trees. They obviously don't look exactly like a tree but they are much easier on the eye than a plan ol tower. I wonder how bad the flashing lights are at ground level? I can see some on a 800 Mhz tower nearby but they don't really bother me on the ground. I think some of my property may be desirable since the closest cell tower is about 9 miles away and my land is at the highest elevation in the area.

By the time the ph company goes knocking in doors, they have already ran tests with expensive portable equipment to find the sweet spot for the tower. A spot that will get them the best service and highest population coverage. If your property isn't in that sweet spot they won't be very interested in you.

I doubt you can get a phone out of the deal. It's kind of like trying to buy a tractor from john deere, they don't sell them, they make them.

Forget about controlling subleases to other carriers, that is how they make a profit. Tower space for a competitor's antenna is very lucrative.

Ground elevation isn't near as important as location and easy excess are.

 

[NorTracNY]

I also remember a thread a few months back that I gave some input to. Get an attorney to review the language. Are they leasing the land or getting an easement? Permanent or for a certain period of time? How many carriers? If they add carriers are you getting anything? Where on your property and how will they be able to access it? What annual increase will you get?

Then, if you get a tower on your place, wait till the other companies come in and try to convince you to sell to them. Lot's of offers for 6 figures. I had to do some analysis for someone I know with a tower. The offer sounded very tempting until I showed that it's only about half what they should even entertain. Of course lots of scare tactics were used in the offer. The funny one was that new technology was going to make 3 out of 4 existing towers obsolete! From what I've heard, it's going the opposite way with many more smaller towers needed.

 

[Fuddy1952]

Whether you mean to or not, you are preventing service for people in your community. It's not so easy as just building more smaller towers. it's tremendously more expensive to built multiple sites than a single higher tower than can serve more people, both in construction and operations costs as well as regulatory costs.

In an area like ours in central VA it's already exteremely difficult for small companies to offer wireless services profitably thanks to the topography and thick forest, so when you force the costs up like this they simple cannot compete. Even the big operators will avoid improving coverage and capacity when it gets too expensive.

Fortunately I'm a couple of counties over so your lobbying didn't affect me personally, but I still suffer from lack of wireless service because of the same sort of stuff going on here.

Cell service is fine here...and we don't have to see flashing lights and towers. We only have one skyline.
Also imho it's analogous to lots of things considered safe then years later repercussions.
If you want the best cell service at a low cost at the expense of towers everywhere, radiation exposure 24/7, that's fine for you but not for me.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Get a lawyer and he is the only one going to make any money. USUALLY, there is not that much money involved. Also, a big difference from cell site to Internet provider. Here for the ISP, you pretty much just get FREE Internet!

It all depends on the value of the site. How much revenue they can generate from it. If you are the ONLY one in town with a high building, or have the only big hill around, you are in a better position. If they have options, then you can't ask for much.

Some say, 5G will fry us all.

 

[NorTracNY]

Get a lawyer and he is the only one going to make any money. USUALLY, there is not that much money involved. Also, a big difference from cell site to Internet provider. Here for the ISP, you pretty much just get FREE Internet!

It all depends on the value of the site. How much revenue they can generate from it. If you are the ONLY one in town with a high building, or have the only big hill around, you are in a better position. If they have options, then you can't ask for much.

Some say, 5G will fry us all.

Things are definitely different here. These are very nice sources of revenue. The low ball buyouts I've seen are multiple hundreds of thousands. This is in an area open for many sites to have towers.

 

[r porter]

get an attorney -I have told this story before

a big farmer thought he was a business man. he had a cell tower and the lease expired and the phone company came by to renew the lease.

great, he says, but the cost is going up. he said they never blinked, just handed him the papers and walked out. he now owned a cell tower in a flight path that he had to maintain. and no one wanted it. the phone company put up a new tower with in months about a quarter mile away.

 

[cdb2]

Cell service is fine here...and we don't have to see flashing lights and towers. We only have one skyline.

Nope. Actually more than half your county has no internet access. The county administrator says that it's their number one priority to fix and will need ten new towers to be built. I suppose you'll be trying to fight the new towers and keep the folks around you from getting internet access, because your view is more important?

Also imho it's analogous to lots of things considered safe then years later repercussions.
If you want the best cell service at a low cost at the expense of towers everywhere, radiation exposure 24/7, that's fine for you but not for me.

Your fear is irrational. It's easy to educate yourself about radiation (especially ionizing vs. non-ionizing) and it's effects on people since you have internet access (unlike many others in your area). You can start with these:

Cellular Phone Towers
Non-ionizing radiation - Wikipedia

 

[Fuddy1952]

Nope. Actually more than half your county has no internet access. The county administrator says that it's their number one priority to fix and will need ten new towers to be built. I suppose you'll be trying to fight the new towers and keep the folks around you from getting internet access, because your view is more important?



Your fear is irrational. It's easy to educate yourself about radiation (especially ionizing vs. non-ionizing) and it's effects on people since you have internet access (unlike many others in your area). You can start with these:

Cellular Phone Towers
Non-ionizing radiation - Wikipedia

Your reasoning is fouled up...no offence.
We were not against cell service. We were against 200+ ft tall towers with lights.
We got along fine before?!?
So they have to install more shorter towers.
In 1965 tobacco was considered safe, as well as DDT, agent orange, etc.
So you trust the radiation statistics? Really?

 

[CADplans]

We are not far away,, if a cell tower guy came up the driveway,, and asked about installing a tower,,
I would ask him where he wanted to put it,,
and,, that I would have the graveled road to the tower site completed by Monday,,, :thumbsup:

AND, I do have the perfect elevation for the installation,,,

 

[bigtiller]

We are not far away,, if a cell tower guy came up the driveway,, and asked about installing a tower,,
I would ask him where he wanted to put it,,
and,, that I would have the graveled road to the tower site completed by Monday,,, :thumbsup:

AND, I do have the perfect elevation for the installation,,,

No need for that, they like to make their own road and parking areas. No charge to you and you can use their driveway as a field entrance anytime you want to.

 

[TCJatko]

Find an attorney who specializes is such leases. Insist on revenue sharing; we get a cut of every carrier (except the first) that uses the tower. Take them up on the offer; it's like owning your very own money tree.

 

[jmc]

Check archives this was discussed a few months ago. One was going to be installed 1/4m in front of our porch...a 200ft one with flashing light.

I lived on a peaceful lake for many years and it was great being out on it at night. Three or four miles away was the local airport and between the lake and airport, there was a high tension power line. Regulations must have changed because one day, five or six electric towers near the airport had flashing lights on them. Being out on the lake at night after that was never the same.

 

[Fuddy1952]

I lived on a peaceful lake for many years and it was great being out on it at night. Three or four miles away was the local airport and between the lake and airport, there was a high tension power line. Regulations must have changed because one day, five or six electric towers near the airport had flashing lights on them. Being out on the lake at night after that was never the same.

Great example of how technology can and does affect people.
The 200ft tower proposed but we had rejected the landowner saw dollar signs without regard to the effect on other's lives.
This tower would have been less than 100 feet from an adjoining neighbor's house!
The proposed site all that owner said he was thinking of was putting his kids through college...free.
Everything in life one should weight out the impact. Here we have choices for service, fiber optic cable, wired (existing phone) service, cell or satellite. Personally I have Straight Talk $25/ month. Last year we drove all across the US to Palos Verdes, Ca. never lost signal (yes...going all back roads). We only lost service when crossing into Mexico.
I'm in process of building a large horse barn. Legally I could put it anywhere I want...but I wanted neighbor's approval installed so as not to interfere with their views, etc.
It's a matter of priorities. If you want the best man-made services, internet, restaurants, etc., move to a big city.