Question:

I have 14.5 acres next to I-45 and a company wants to put a billboard up on my property with a lifetime lease?
They want to pay me $10,000.00 for the lifetime lease. Is this enough money?

Answers:

A-Best: A life time lease? Who's lifetime? Do you know that means you can NEVER sell the property underneath or take down the sign. You set the terms. Maybe a 1-5 year lease, renewable with a rate increase. Depending on the intent of the billboard, location, amount of traffic that sees it, etc, it could go for thousands per month. I have no idea where I-45 is. Not in my state. You need an attorney and or a smart business consultant to hep you with this.  

A: You would need to have a contract that would have a clause that would allow you to sell the property at your will. You should also have a limit on the lifetime say a five year lease with an option for an additional five years. There are plenty of other things to consider, therefore ultimately you should contact an attorney for any legal matters that you might enter. I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck. "FIGHT ON"  

A: I've made a few leases with cell phone companies to erect cell phone towers trees on a portion of some of my properties. The typical lease period is a 15 years with two 5 year options. The rent is $800-$900 a month is tied to the Consumer Price Index for my area (CPI) so the rent goes up yearly with inflation. For a sign, I wouldn't go over a 10 year period, with a 10 year option. It costs a whole lot less to put up a sign so they don't need as long of lease period. I'm guessing but a cell phone tower cost more that $500,000 to erect, so they require a long lease period. Make sure that the sign company pays all the expenses of the sign, including the property taxes, insurance (be sure that you are named on their policy as additionally insured, and full demolition and removal of the sign at the end of the lease period. A sign on a busy highway location is more valuable than the land needed for a cell phone tower which doesn't usually have to be in the greatest location. Sounds like the sign people are trying to take advantage of you. Nobody gives a life time lease. I wouldn't ever go over a max. of 25 years. In my state the longest time period allowed on a lease is 99 years. Also, you don't need a clause stating that you have the right to sell the property. You still own the property and you have the right to sell at any point. The major question is how will the sign effect the use of the rest of the property? Make sure that you have the right to approve or not approve the design and the space that require. Also state that the sign company does not have exclusive right to the rest of the property but you can use the rest of the property for other purposes. Also with a sign, I would have a clause that would prohibit advertising of certain types of products.  

A: look around in the area and if anyone else has a billboard on their property, ask the landowner how much they got or get per year $10,000 for 50 yrs or whatever doesn't sound like much - if it's a busy highway - the rent they get is a lot - probably a couple of $1000 PER MONTH easy better make sure zoning laws allow that in your neighborhood too