The lease buyout market fluctuates along with the general economy. You can assume that when interest rates go up, that the offers that lease buyout companies make will go down unless they have locked in the cost of their capital. This occurred in 2008 when the economy tanked and the lease buyout industry almost shut down. You can also assume that offers will go down when a material event occurs in the industry. An example of this is when AT&T and T-Mobile announced their merger in 2011; the lease buyout industry hiccupped for a few months while trying to figure out how to gauge the risk of future terminations due to the consolidation of both sets of cell sites. Fortunately for almost all landowners, the merger was not approved by the FCC and Department of Justice, and as a result, offers climbed back to their normal rates.
Right now (4Q 2012), we believe that the market is as high as it is likely to ever get. There is currently a confluence of events occurring all together that are driving offers to amounts that haven’t been seen previously. It is definitely a seller’s market these days and Steel in the Air is well situated to help you take advantage of this unique market.