Now put a seasoned real estate pro together with a telecom leasing expert... and you will see two people that can make a great deal of money together. I would rather give a piece of each deal away and know a guy like that is working for me rather than working for someone else across the street. Time is most important to the carriers and the easier you make it on them from a time standpoint the better your chances at getting deals completed.
Also if you have a good telecom expert in your service they can balance the field with the carriers. As a property owner do you really think your attorney can match wits with the powerful law firms that the carriers use... of course not. The firm I use is great and experts in their field and in our geographic area but they tried to rewrite the Constitution when going through the vocabulary and almost cost me a deal. They were out of their depth. I tend to like Thomas Jefferson approach on attorneys who he said "....... whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?" So playing a game of semantics only benefited them.
So the answer is no and using a telecom pro will save you time and pain as well as maximize your revenue.
Now if you are a person looking to get into this industry I would recommend finding employment with a reputable telecom firm or carrier where you can learn. Having a brokers license will not hurt you and may open up other doors for you when you start working with developers and management companies but it won't make you a telecom pro. Only experience and the proper training could do that.
To the owners of this site..... thanks for the amount of free advice, I appreciate the education.
Jul 19, 2010 Rating
Answer Part One by: J. Anderson, GA
I am the owner of a real estate portfolio that controls commercial properties in six southern cities. I came across this site last week and have been educating myself about the current issues in the Telecom/ Real estate business. I saw this question and decided to attempt to answer this. I assume the question is from a broker/developer like myself who is considering using a telecom consultant or it could be from a person looking to get into the industry and wants to know the requirements. First off lets look at his from a developers/owners standpoint:
About ten or twelve years ago we did a few deals with wireless carriers and thought we did a pretty good job until an older cousin of one of my contractors approached me about marketing our sites and letting him handle our negotiations. His cousin was former manager at one of the carriers in the area and had about ten years experience if I remember correctly.
As a favor to the contractor I signed a short term agreement to see what he could do not expecting very much in the end. I was very surprised... not only did he get three of our properties leased out to major carriers in the first six months but he increased our average wireless lease by over 50% while getting us additional provisions that our attorney did not think of. He made the process "trouble free" and he handled everything from marketing to leasing to construction review and post carrier followup on problems. So I learned my lesson about hiring these experts.
Sadly our representative recently passed away and he was a "one man show" so I had some questions for the owners of this site and a few others as to how the industry has changed and what I need to help qualify an industry expert. I have learned a great deal about telecom leasing but I am no expert and this industry seems to evolve all the time. So I will share what I know about this with you.
No a license is not required, these people are Telecom site experts. Telecom experts do a lot more than what most brokers are capable of and have knowledge most real estate pros lack.
Brokers licenses are not required but sometimes specialized licensing is required by some states. In one southern state all firms working in telecom needed to have a license from the state to perform any type of telecom service. So real estate brokers performing telecom services were actually operating illegally though the law was not enforced very often.
I do know this much, I would not hire a telecom pro to handle your closing on a $15 Million dollar building... so why would I have a Real Estate Pro try and handle a telecom deal. Both parties are experts... just in different areas.
Jul 19, 2010 Rating
Simple answer is no. by: Anonymous
Real Estate License NOT required to lease cell sites. Check some of the job board posting where they are hiring "real estate site acquisition" workers. Most ads say real estate experience preferred but not required. Some of the bigger companies require it, but they are also looking for someone with a law degree or someone with an urban planning degree. Why? It's a specialized telecom project management occupation not a broker's job that any real estate broker can perform.
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