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Real Estate 4-Sale with a Cell Tower
Article by Andrew
Whether you are the real estate listing agent or the owner of the ‘for sale’ property you are faced with what I call the ‘cell site enigma’. What is this enigma. Let me expound on this.
Most cell tower landlords face a delima on how, when or even if they should sell off the cell site they have on their property. In a nutshell, the owners are afraid to sell off the cell tower because they are afraid that a buyer will be turned off by the fact that there is an ugly tower and they will get no monetary benefit from the site, which I suppose has some validity.
The problem comes when the property owner starts believing that because his/her property has an income built in, there should be a higher price for the property.
Reality is harsh. Buyers won’t buy a cash flow (cell site rent checks) because the lease is subject to cancellation by the carrier with little as 30 days notice and for any reason. Even if the buyer wanted to pay more, no bank will lend the buyer additional funds to buy it.
There are a couple of plausible solutions. You choose.
1. Keep the cell site yourself keep getting the cash flow.2. Sell the cell site or sell ½ the site and get a lump sum and a partial lease payment3. Sell the site having a cellular buyer in the wings and advertise the property at a discount as the proceeds from the cell site can often be quite large.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a cell tower get in the way of a property sale because of this enigma. The cell tower or roof top is an asset that can’t always be valued, but has great value. Ask any real estate appraiser and don’t forget to show him/her a copy of your lease with the ‘termination’ language.
The good news is that there are a number of ways to make lemonade with the lemons given you. In this case I guess it would be ‘enigma-ade’.
Need to talk over your particular cell site delima? We can share some ideas with you that just may make your property more attractive. Our service is free to cell site owners. We’ll never charge you a fee. Click and visit the Cell Tower Broker site.
You a real estate salesperson/broker? I’d love to speak with you also. This is a niche market, but a very lucrative one.
With 40 plus years in the financial arena Andrew has experience in Mortgages, Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, Commodities, Insurance and recently Cellular Tower Acquisitions as a Cell Tower Broker representing cell site owners.
