This event is only held twice per year, and we only allow 10 people in the program, to maximize one-on-one coaching.

The course is held in both the classroom and field, and offers a total immersion in the business. How to succeed in all types of outdoor types, and all kinds of markets from small towns to large cities, will be covered.

The course is taught by Frank Rolfe, who built from scratch the largest privately-owned billboard company in Dallas/Ft. Worth. He will show you all the shortcuts, tricks and insider secrets that will give you a distinct advantage over your competition.

For more information call (800) 950-1364 or go to www.outdoorbillboard.com.

Clear Channel will pay the city $330,000 in signing bonuses. It will then pay ground rent to the city of $720,000 per year for five years.

The total lease length is 25 years.

All four signs should be up and in full operations by the middle of 2011.

Norton is proposing to pay $16,000 per year in rent, with a pre-payment of the first three years under the lease.

The school district argues that there are currently billboards on the other side of Interstate 471, in the city of Newport. In fact, Newport has a billboard next to its football field that garners the Newport school district $16,000 per year.

Susan Wilson, a school board member said “I think when the city council sees the parents and children in the audience; they’ll see that it’s not just two or three people asking for this, it’s the entire community asking for this”.

The suit was filed by the President of three outdoor companies and a property rights group. It comes after Keyvan Setareh, the owner of a building at Hollywood Blvd. and Highland on which a supergraphic was placed, was jailed for a weekend in lieu of $1,000,000 bond.

The plaintiffs are J. Keith Stephens, President of L.A. Outdoor Advertising, Valley Outdoor, and Virtual Media Group, California Property Owners Organization, Inc.  The lawsuit lists 15 “parties of interest” including Setareh.

The lawsuit asks that the Los Angeles ban on off-premise signs and supergraphics be declared unconstitutional, and that L.A. City Attorney Carmen Trutanich be enjoined from any action to arrest alleged sign law violators.

The event is two days of complete saturation in the billboard business – including the real-life environment of the field. Rolfe will show participants all the different niches in the industry and how to use each to their own advantage.

The ticket includes all meals and hotel accommodations, and there is a free shuttle from the airport. For more information, go to www.outdoorbillboard.com or call (800) 950-1364.

“We call them weapons of mass distraction” said Abby Dart, executive Director of Scenic Michigan. “If you are distracted and looking at the billboards, then you are not looking at the road.”

On January 1, 2012, a federal study will be completed to determine whether or not digital billboards are a road menace. Billboard companies are fighting back, saying that earlier studies show that the signs are no more distracting than normal billboards.

Here is the wildest story I have heard in my years of signing up ground leases.

The landowner owned a small grocery story, and was married with a daughter. The year was about 1935. He came home one day, and his young daughter was there, but his wife was missing. He assumed that she was at the store. But when she never came home, he contacted the police and filed a missing persons report. She had completely vanished. Months later, he got a letter from her, letting him know that she had run off with a traveling salesman and that he’d never see her again, but that she had not been kidnapped. So he called off the police, and went about raising his daughter. His daughter grew up and moved away, and he devoted his life to running his small store.

Decades passed, and one day he got a call from a nun stating that she had a street person who was dying and claimed to be his wife. They wanted him to come pick up the body, as she would not live more than a couple days. So he took a train up north, and there he found his wife, a bag lady, on her death bed. But a few days passed and she was still alive. He had to get back to his store. He asked the nun if he could take her back on the train, as he could not stay away from the store. She told him that she would probably die on the train, but that it was O.K. So he packed her up and set off for home.

When he got home, she was still alive. So he left her in bed and went to the store every day. Each day she got stronger. Soon she was back to normal. But what could he do with her?

Having no other options, he gave her a job in the store. So every day, they went to the store together. And when she saved up enough money, she rented her own little apartment.

At the store, she would tell him the story of how she ran off with the salesman and then her dumped her, but she was too proud to call, so she lived on the streets.

And they worked together for about a decade, until she died of old age. And after she died, he lost interest in the store and shut it down. I built a billboard in what used to be the parking lot of the store, now just an abandoned structure.

I can only imagine how odd and uncomfortable it must have been all day, every day, in the store with the wife who had deserted him.

Such are the many stories you learn from talking to people. Many are stranger than fiction. But they are all true and heartfelt.

Exchange Compensation To Bind

In many states, a lease is not binding unless the lessee has given the lessor compensation, and it has been accepted. That is why you should pay your landowner a nominal amount, like $100 at signing of the lease, so that the lease becomes bound. I have seen cases where someone signs a lease where payment takes effect only when the sign is built, and then tries to flip this lease and permit to another billboard company, only to find out that the lease is not in effect since there has been no compensation received and accepted.

Record Your Lease

If your lease is not recorded, it is subject to argument as to whether or not a subsequent owner of the land is bound – especially if the sign is unbuilt. Recording a lease makes it a part of the public records with that property, and gives everyone due notice that a lease exists. To record your lease, you will normally need to have the Lessor’s signature notarized, and you should also get their permission to record the lease. Some Lessors will object to the idea. But if they don’t, recording your lease is normally a good idea.

Have The Lender Sign Off To Truly Secure Your Lease

You may have the best written lease in the world, but it can still normally be terminated by the mortgage holder in the event of foreclosure. To protect yourself against this possibility, the only solution is to have the lender sign off on the lease, as well. This is a very complicated and tough-to-sell option with the Lessor. What Lessor would allow you to contact his lender and get their approval in writing of a billboard lease? Just asking seems to suggest that the landowner is about to default. I have only pulled this off one time, and it was a miracle. I was buying a very valuable billboard on a piece of raw land and, when I contacted the landowner to confirm that everything was O.K. with the ground lease, he instead told me that he was about to give the property back to the bank in lieu of foreclosure. So I ask him if I could try to get the lender to ratify the lease before he gave it back to the bank. He agreed, and I was actually able to get the lender to sign off by saying that it was a condition of the bank giving me the loan to buy the sign. Later, after he gave the property back to the bank, the bank called me to cancel the lease. They were horrified to find out that the loan officer had signed off on the lease, and they had no ability to cancel the lease. If you are looking at building or buying an expensive sign on land that is at risk for foreclosure, then you may also have to take this measure.

Make Sure Your Exhibits Are Accurate And Attached

Most groundleases have attachments showing the actual sign location. If your lease has an Exhibit A or B, you have got to have these attachments in order. If your lease is signed but does not have the correct exhibits, an attorney may make the case that the lease is invalid – and he may win. It is always best, if possible, to have the Lessor initial these exhibits to show his agreement to them and receipt.

Make Sure Your Lease Has A Start Date

If your lease is for a term of ten years, it has to have a start date to those ten years. Even if your lease has a start date of the day of construction of the sign, you will need to evidence this by sending a letter to the Lessor to acknowledge the start date, and have them sign it if you can. This may not sound immediately important to you, but it will when the lease is nearing expiration and there is no way to tell when it began or when it ends. It’s kind of like when you hide something in your house to protect it, and you can’t find it again 5 years later.

All Amendments Need To Be In Writing

Any time that you amend the lease, whether it’s a reduction in ground-rent, or an extension of term, or even a minor point, it must be in writing. If you fail to do this, there is really no evidence of its existence when it matters most: when you go to sell or refinance the sign. Even worse, landowners tend to die over time, so you can never get the problem corrected sometimes. It seems like a pain at the time, but always get these things signed, in writing, and put in the appropriate file, at the time they occur. It is so much easier than waiting until later.

Conclusion

Before you feel that your ground lease is a ironclad, be sure to understand the various challenges to its validity. Not to make you nervous. But to understand how to minimize the risk.

To get the right mindset, there are a few assumptions that I need your complete acceptance of. The first is that everyone likes to be given free money. There is nobody that does not feel happy about a stranger walking up and giving them $100 cash for no reason, regardless of how rich they already are. The next assumption is that all good deals are “win/win” in nature. There should never be a winner and a loser in negotiation – only a winner and a winner. Both parties should feel like they got a good trade. The final assumption is that people love consultants. Whether they are psychiatrists, or financial planners, or personal trainers, people naturally love to be guided by experts in that field.
Now put all these assumptions and what you find is all people, regardless of who they are, would really enjoy a consultant to help them find win/win deals that get them free money. And if you do your job right as a billboard landman, that is exactly the service you are providing.

Most landowners have never even thought of a billboard as an option on their property. And many who have thought of it, immediately dismiss it since they have no idea of how much money it can make them. The billboard itself will require no time, effort or risk on their part, and can easily fit on their property with no ill effect. So essentially, a billboard groundlease is free money to them. And everyone loves free money. I once tried to do a groundlease on a piece of property (I couldn’t get the permit unfortunately) that belonged to one of the richest men in Dallas. Here I was offering this guy like a $1,000 a year, and
probably made that much a minute in interest. However, he was so excited, that he asked me if he could get a commission if he convinced his neighboring property owners to lease to me, too. Why? Because everyone loves free money.

And because everyone loves free money, they are equally excited about a consultant who helps them obtain it. And that is what a good billboard landman is. He is a consultant to help landowners get free money. He shows them where a billboard could go, and how much money it could pay them. He goes over the lease in depth, and describes the meaning of every paragraph. He shows the land owner how the sign could have the access needed to build it and maintain it. He obtains, deservedly, the land owner’s trust and respect. He becomes, for the moment, the employee of the landowner, helping his boss make the right decision.

And the right decision is the win/win decision. A good billboard landman never tries to take advantage of the landowner. I once had a meeting with a woman who was blind. She just wanted to sign the lease since she could not read it. I read it to her out loud, and went over what the meanings were of every provision. Then we signed it up. You never want to come away from a deal thinking that you have screwed the land owner. Because it will always backfire on you. If you truly have taken advantage of the landowner, by not paying them enough or not explaining the true meaning of the provisions of the lease, you will end up with a hostile owner who will harass you constantly with complaints and possible litigation – and then you still have to work with them again on a renewal in a few years. At the same time, you can’t let the landowner take advantage of the billboard company. The company has to make money. Unlike the land owner, who has no capital investment in the sign, the billboard company has to invest maybe $50,000 in the sign and must get it’s money back with a nice profit on top. And the entire time, the billboard company has to rent the sign, and maintain it, and worry about it in every windstorm, and fight the city over new ordinances – all while the landowner sleeps soundly.
If you adopt the philosophy that you are a consultant trying to give away free money in a win/win framework, the first positive effect will be a complete lack of fear in cold-calling. Because you know that you will receive a royal welcome. And that you are offering the lucky landowner a great deal.

You will also find that your closing ratio goes through the roof. Who can unseat the landman with that attitude? If another company offers more, you simply show the landowner how the numbers work, and match the amount if it seems fair. Remember, you are effectively his employee for a brief period, so how can he go around you?

The final benefit is that you can look every landowner you ever did a deal with in the eye and know that you did a good job. You don’t have to go around hiding from your clients. I have never run into a landowner at a restaurant or a mall, or once even the zoo, without them being genuinely glad to see me and appreciative of the job I did. Sure, you can have problems over time, whether it’s a check that got lost in the mail, or a piece of a sign that blew off in a windstorm and broke a window. But at the end of the day, the owner still likes you and the job you did for him overall. And that’s a great feeling.

So adopt this mindset, and you’ll reap immediate benefits, both financially and spiritually. And keep spreading that gospel of free money for the taking!