How Much Should I Charge Billboard Company for Leasing My Property?

[Hooch ®]

Hi Guys,

I just purchased a house that has a couple of small billboards on it. Two owners ago and about 6 years ago the billboard company leased the land next to the house for $600 per year. The following owner a couple of years ago renegotiated the terms and signed a contract till 2018 for $1,000 per year.

In the contract the national billboard company tried to write terms that required me, the new owner to honor their lease but my lawyer told me that they should have recorded it and not doing so means I did NOT buy the property subject to their lease agreement. So I am now writing them a letter stating that and that new terms must be made immediately and not doing so in a timely manor will mean $500 a month in lease charges.

I did a little homework and found billboard advertising on main roads in Roanoke, VA, not including the highway cost $650 per board plus an additional $150 for printing your ad. I assume they are not making too much on the printing and most of their revenue is from the advertising costs. I have 2 billboards on my property which are making $1,300 per month for the billboard company.

My question is to any landlords out there that have billboards on their property. What percentage of the total monthly income earned by the billboard company have you found they will accept for a lease agreement? In my new negotiations I want to push them to the maximum they will accept but don't really want to be too far off base because they would just remove the boards.

But,,,, I don't think $1K per year or $83 per month is anywhere near their breaking point considering the fact that they are making $1,300 off the billboards per month.