I was out in Wylie Texas working on some computers and talked with the City’s planning department and they said that no Billboards inside the city limits. While on lunch I saw 2 billboards inside the city limits that looked like they were abandoned. I took some pictures with my crappy camera phone but could not find any place on this forum to upload so I uploaded them on my website for you to hopfully view and comment on.
Couldn’t get that website to work. But I know the Wylie market pretty well. Step one: contact the property owner and find out the story on the signs. Step Two: contact the owner of the signs and see what they want for them. Step Three: Become an expert on the the city and state ordinance relating to the signs, and see if they are legal, or at least in a gray area. Step Four: If the opportuity looks good, buy the signs, sign up a new ground lease with the landowner, and put them back in service. But keep it on the cheap in case you missed something during your diligence.
Thank you for the fast and detailed reply. I downloaded your audio phone conversations to my phone and have been listening to them for the last few days, they are great!
I will do like you suggest and talk with the owners tommorow and update this thread.
I left a message for both of the property owners and the guy with the http://www.excaliburgateopeners.com/BillBoards/bill1.jpg clear Channel billboard called back and said that he is just selling the land, still waiting on the other land owner to call back.
Will update afte he calls back.
PS: Here are 2 better quality pictures of the guy that has not called back yet:
You will find most abandoned signs in markets that are older, since many are part of businesses that went out of business years ago. For example, I bought a bunch of Stuckey’s signs that advertised Stuckey’s stores that were torn down decades ago. They can be found on interstate highways, rural highways and surface streets. But only on old routes. In Texas, where a lot of towns are virtually new, you won’t find many. But if you visit older towns that have been around since maybe 1930, more will turn up. For example, Interstate 20 east of Dallas has a ton of them, since that road has been around for probably 50+ years. But the new Highway 190 won’t have any, since it was only built 20 years ago.
Might i suggest talking to the owner of the property first. Find out if there is a lease. If not, find out of the owner has been paid for the sign being there. If neither are the case, make an offer on the sign to the property owner.
The property owner that owns the http://www.excaliburgateopeners.com/BillBoards/bill1.jpg clear Channel billboard called back and was trying to sell me the land again,(he must have forgot we had already talked) he had for sale and I told him again that I was just intrested in the Billboards.
He said that the company that owns the billboards have not been paying him and that the lease is up with them and he would like for me to take over.
I asked for his e-mail address and told him I would e-mail him with some information but do not know what to do now.
I would not think that he owns the billboards, and if he tells the company that he is not renewing the lease then they will come and take the billboard.
Without the sign owner’s permission, you are going to get into a lot of trouble potentially. There is a statute that says if you use someone else’s billboard, you owe them 100% of the income. At the other range of the spectrum, they could try and charge you criminally for theft.
I wouldn’t do it without permission of both parties.
The billboard in question is in the City limits of Melissa Texas and is granfathered in. If the lease is up and the land owner does not want to renew and the land owner ask them to remove the sign and they do, then a new sign cannot be installed.
So really the land owners only option is to renew the lease with the current billboard operater/owner and take whatever pay he can get or ask them to remove the board.
If I call the billboard operater/owner and ask if I can take over they are going to say: burn in hell
Should I explian the situation to the land owner and move on? Maybe looking at the lease would be a better idea. Maybe the land owner owns the billboards and he is letting the current billboard operater/owner lease them.
***This is another edit: I was just re-reading Bruce’s post and he is suggesting to talk with the owner to find out if there is a lease. If not, find out of the owner has been paid for the sign being there. If neither are the case, make an offer on the sign to the property owner.
I will e-mail the landowner now with the questions and update you with the results.
One way or another, you’ve got to get permission from all parties for the deal to work. Otherwise, you run the very lilkely chance of being sued. If they do not want the sign, maybe you can buy it from the existing billboard owner.
Talked with the guy and asked him about the contract with the other company and he said he would look at it and call me back, but have not heard from him in a week.
That’s pretty standard. You’ll probably need to call him once a week, every week, until he finds it. It might take him a month or more. The other option is that he lied and doesn’t know what to tell you now.
