Should I Sell My Cell Tower Lease? 4 Solid Reasons to Say Yes

If you’re considering selling your cell tower lease, you have a decision on your hands that could tremendously impact on your financial future. How do you ultimately make the call? What factors should go into your decision-making process?

Having been on the other side of the table in the business of cell tower lease buyouts for many years, The Filo Group is the ideal advisory partner for landlords in this position.

In this installment of Should I Sell my Cell Tower Lease?, we touch on four good reasons you might opt to sell your cell tower lease.

You could put a significant lump sum of cash to good use in the near future.
Some people are lucky enough to have a cell tower lease that brings in a nice and steady supplementary revenue stream but doesn’t much affect their bottom line. For those individuals, cash in hand doesn’t have the same worth as it does for someone whose life could drastically change for the better by having access to substantial funds.

The number one reason that supports a decision to sell is having a place to reinvest the proceeds such that, in time, the investment will grow beyond the potential of the rental income throughout lease contract’s lifespan. By selling, the landlord eliminates the risk of early lease termination due to changes in the wireless landscape (by way of mergers, technology changes, etc.).

However, a monetary return isn’t the only reason to sell. If you could use that money to, for example, send your kids to college or go on the honeymoon you never had, selling your cell site lease may be well worth it. After all, can you really put a dollar value on things like education, memorable experiences, or your emotional well-being?

The carrier tenant has a right to terminate the lease with little advance notice.

Company mergers and network redundancies can lead to decommissioning of sites, which means there is no sure guarantee that you’ll be collecting a rent check from your current tenant in five years, let alone twenty-five years. Most carriers terminate a lease with only 60 to 90 days’ notice and some as little as 30.

Technology is always evolving.

A disruptive technology could turn the wireless world upside down and replace cell towers. Analysts predict the need for cell towers for at least the next five to ten years, but the future is uncertain.

Your situation could change.

Will you be around to collect the full potential value of your lease? Perhaps you won’t own the same property, in which case it could make sense to sell the lease now to receive as much cash as possible from the asset.

The buyout offer for your cell tower lease will not equal what you could potentially stand to make in the long term (if all goes right), but selling is the only sure way to hedge your risk.

Whichever way you go, ensure that you have all the facts necessary to make a well-informed decision. The best way to go about that is to enlist the help of experienced experts, like The Filo Group, to assess your particular lease, take into account your personal needs and goals, and explain all of the pros and cons.