OT CELL TOWER

I was approached by a cell phone company to put a cell tower on my ground, it would be 4 acres used. They want to pay $350.00/month plus I would have to change my insurance plan. I live in southern Iowa 30 miles from any interstate or large town. Do you think this is a good deal, what are the pros and cons?

Talk to some other landowners in your area and see what they are getting for similar tower sites, as it sounds low to me.

You MAY have trouble finding out much as often landowners sign a non-disclosure contract, promising not to reveal what their rent payments are to others.

A farmer near me, in central Texas, erected his own tower and charges I don't know how much for each anntena on it. He is making about $28,000 a month, yes a month, now. It has been up about two years now.

I did a cell tower lease in 97 for a Co I worked for at the time. I got $12,000 per year for 10 years. Your $350.00 per month is too low. Who is the carrier?

Sounds low to me. My neighbor has one, and in the mid- nineties when it went up he got $1,400 a month for 2 acres usage.

That would be a low ball price. I let them put one up here over ten years ago and they paid me 500 a month and another person got over a thousand a month about the same time. Another company bought it out and was giving me guff and said they just might move the tower. I ask if they could start moving it next Monday morning. Last I heard from them and they sold it to another company and that company wanted more space and we did a cash deal with a 50% deal for any of their future added customers.

We have 3 cell sites on our ranch. They range from $1600-$2500 per mo. each. You may not get that much in your area but $350 is way too low.

Way too low from all of the forum threads and what little personal knowledge I have on them.

Please also study and consider electro magnetic fields (EMFs) and draw your own conclusions if you live nearby. Many believe they are a cause of cancer. Studies on them tend to be inconclusive.

While much different than high voltage electric lines you might attempt to learn if there is any impact of EMFs on livestock? I'm not aware of reading any but it might be worth checking into.

I expect it would pay you to consult an attorney. They might have knowledge on lease prices or can find out what is reasonable and proper.

A search engine query for cell phone tower lease rates provides some hits. You may want to do a search.

http://www.wirelessestimator.com/industrydoc.cfm?ContentID=7
Useful information?

Depends on the traffic to the tower( calls), but for 4 acres seems terribly low. I get 1000/ month for a 100'x100' area. A lot of things to look at in the lease, get a good attorney. Don't let them put you in a corner, mines been up 2 years and they want to pay less rent and put new language in the lease, and they threaten termination, I ask when will the cranes be here to take it down.

If they offered to pay me 350/month for 4 acres around here I'd probably go fishing for more but I wouldn't be too upset about that amount either...
It would depend on what it was going to cost me to have it there. I'd want to look into how it affects the property tax and insurance so that I was well covered for liability. Probably want to consult a lawyer on what coverage you would want, etc...
but to be honest if my cell provider wanted to set a tower out here on my land I'd be so elated that I'd give it to them rent free so long as it was cost free to me. Service is so poor here and population so sparse....
If that was a factor you might not want to shoot yourself in the foot looking for big rent.

Rod

US cellular

US cellular

Sounds a little low, should be in the $5-600 range, but given the state of the economy I wouldn't pass it up on that alone. Most cell companies haven’t invested much in rural areas for some time now. Given your location you will likely never see a second offer. If you get in now with automatic increases you could be setting pretty good in a few years. I sure wouldn’t be asking to many neighbors what they think.

Why do they need so much (long access drive vs. right off the road?) Even if they put in a guide tower, it shouldn’t be more than a couple acres. I would be asking why Also find out just what they plan to build. A 200 foot tower and a 100 x 100 lot for shelters is one thing. They plan on constructing a 1,200 foot tower and 5000 square foot building that’s another (not usually done on leased ground).

EMF should be of no concern as long as they don't put antennas at ground level and you stand in front of them or they put up a 5 mega watt transmitter 30 feet in the air. But you do want to know what the lighting requirements are and what they plan to do. The company I work for placed a tower on a lady's place and used a night strobe instead of a red light. Well it took her about 2 hours of the first night it was on to decide that wasn't going to work (this tower was 250' west of her bed room window).

Getting an attorney to look over the paper work is only prudent. Things like improvements and maintenance need to be spelled out in it. Also spell out things like visual, noise, and access issues. You will have to deal with the tax burden ($4200 in added income) and get use to an increase in traffic. Personally as long as it wasn’t in my front yard I would jump on it.

Be very careful dealing with them.

A web site to check.http://www.steelintheair.com/MD7-Lease-Renegotiations.html

Your location says a bunch your area population is low and so are the land values i am north of you and more people so not a bad offer. Why do you have to change insurance they will have coverage on the leased land

So, what is the rational behind (to me) huge payments being made? In my area, (SD) cash land rents are like $200. a year. Four acres would be $800. for the year. Why that much per month? Don't complain about high costs of cell-phone, electricity costs or whatever the towers are used for. The customer is paying the bill. What am I missing here? Who owns the tower when the company can't pay the rent?

4 acres? Seems like a lot of area. Guide wire type? Those are kind of a pain, better to have the small footprint self supporting tower.

Read the fine print, there are issues about what else they can put on the tower; who is responsible to make the tower go away when all is done & over with; access to the tower site; etc.

I don't understand the insurance deal, why would you have to change? Doesn't sound right.

They will look for best location, vs what people will accept for rent. If you have a good location you are probably getting a low offer there. Tho not too bad. The insurance deal & the big area would make me ask questions?

--->Paul

A friend of mine up the road has a cell tower.He gets 1200 a month.350 sounds awful cheap,your loosing control of the land forever.

Keep these thoughts in mind:

1. They are not your friend. Blunt but very true.

2. They will want an access road also, which is your land to I would think.

3. That tower will be an eyesore, for a long time.

4. Tell them you want $800 per month and see what they say. Dont let them jack you around.

Those phone companies have piles of money.

Don't forget to look into the property tax angle of it. Don't know the laws in Iowa,but for the most part,it's a part of the real estate and is taxable for the full value of it.

They offered my friend 13,500 per year to put one up close to his grain bins and grain legs. They figured it would fit in with his grain operation and not look to bad. Local zoning board questioned the legal zoning of it so they just went else where and he didn't here from them again. That was about five years ago in mid-Mi. DoubleR

5 years ago, we put one up in our town... it was $3500 each month but we missed the clause that if they add more carriers it goes up.

Zoning has nothing to do with it. It is a formality but the feds say that the local authority has no way to stop them from putting one up.

US Cellular may be on the way out however. Be careful.

Three thousand is the starting point go check it out and the number is stale.

As a former chairman of a planning commission and attorney, we could reasonably regulate them and make some restrictions but they have a federal mandate through the FCC and we can't stop the.

Issues to consider that may not be in their contract:

Is this a standalone or guy wired tower? Guy wires need a 4 to 8 to 12 posts in the field to tie to. Sometimes a pipe frame or fence around them. The tower base and building will be fenced. Usually covered with gravel but will they take care of all weeds and keep weeds and grass below X" such as 6 or 12. Will they maintain the fence?

They need a ingress/egress road to the place. Same issue for maintenance, weeds, and mowing. You don't want an eyesore. Will the road interfere with your farming operations?

They will probably have to bury a line and maybe install poles to get power even though they usually have a backup generator.

Will they release, indemnify, and hold you harmless if you or your tractor operator snags a guy wire with a disk and pulls the thing down or otherwise causes damage to their property.

There are lots of other issues but I would want a clause that should the tower ever become inactive or no longer used for some period (a year or two or so)(cell technology will probably pass on to satelite someday), that they or any successor company will remove it at their cost and restore your land to original condition. They will pay your legal costs if you have to go to court to enforce the agreement.

There are companies that all they do is own cell towers and install them and then lease the space to the big cell companies. (Just like walmart has a separate company that owns their real estate which rents to the store operating company) Those companies could go belly up and leave you sitting. Make the clause state how they will handle removal.

Have an enforcement clause allowing you to go to court when they belly up, bankrupt, or what ever and quit paying your rent. Cessation of rent payments for x number of months/years will trigger the tower removal clause.

Whose insurance covers things like damages and personal injuries from hurricanes, tornados, planes, cars, vehicles, vandalism by kids breaking in or climbing the pole and falling and dying or end up a paraplegic, and acts of god should the thing end up damaged or down? Don't trust them to maintain insurance and you may be better off having all those things covered and include the cost of insurance in the contract with them paying for any increases in cost.

Gotta go but lots of issues. It is worth having an attorney look at it and negotiate it for you. A few months rent to have a good contract negotiated now is better than signing on the dotted line and getting burned later. I have too many people come in after signing a contract and by then it is too late. Good luck

Just remember that these clowns will take the same offer to everyone in the neighborhood who owns a hill similar to yours. All they will do is find out who needs the money the most. Once the tower is up, things can and do change. Never take the first offer.

Even after you negotiate and sign leases , they try to change things.

cousin down the road gets 40,000 a year and a 6 percent increase a year evrey year, on one acre

Get a lawyer that specializes in these things.
The first offer is always low.

As has already been said get a good lawyer.

Got a neigbor up the road who had an AT&T tower put up in a hay field last summer. It is about a 5 acre tract of ground. Ain't seen the paper work but he says they pay $750/month and he sends them a copy of his tax bill and they pay it. There is about a 50'X50' square chain link fence in the center of the field and they laid it out where the guide wires are at the edge with alittle fences around them, and a gravel dirve way to the tower. Best I can tell after he bailed it last week he lost about 3 bales from what it had always made.

Dave.