Low ball offer from a cell tower lease buyer.

by Amanda
(TX)

Do cell tower lease buyers think that landlords are stupid and can't find out what these cell site leases are worth? I don't really have a question. Just ranting. Sick of getting postcards and marketing materials that look like checks and low ball buyout offers.
I have a 200 foot cell tower on my farm with Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T. I have the only tower around because my property has the high elevation and the all needed it. I know that T-Mobile is starting to expand in my area. And my lease only has a few years remaining. When I leased the tower back in 1999 i didn't know what I was doing and i figured that $500 was better than nothing. I didn't know anything about sub leases or values. So now they've been getting a good deal for a long time. I know that with 3 different antennas my towers worth more money. And the cell site buyers want to get it as cheap as they can so they can renegotiate the lease in a few years.

The tower management company told me that T-Mobile will not attach antennas to the tower if we have less than ten years until the contract expires. But what makes me upset is that the cell tower buyers who have been calling me with offer keep telling me they will market my tower to T-Mobile and they will split the revenue with me 50/50. To me it seems like there is plenty of available space for T-Mobile's equipment inside the fence and there is no need to go outside of the fence. So the 50% revenue share doesn't seem like an honest offer but rather a slick sale pitch.

I want to know if $77,000 is a fair price for a perpetual easement for a lease buyout with the possibility of getting half of the T-Mobile rent?

What about a 50/50 split for new carriers if I take the buyout?