Buying Billboards

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Buying Billboards

Luke Johnson
AL · Member since 2008 · 4 posts · 4 votes

Hey guys and girls. A friend of mine and I really would like to start a business together. We thought about looking into buying and renting out billboards. I was wanting to know if someone could push me in the right direction. I am not even sure if people on here even know much about billboards, but I figure its worth a shot. I know we would have to lease the land the billboard is on and actually buy the billboard. We would start an LLC for all this and get legal support to start out, to make sure we are doing everything right on that side, and possibly a CPA if we think one will be needed. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys.

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Blake Copeland
Real Estate Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2009 · 75 posts · 38 votes
17y

Go to www.outdoorbillboard.com for a whole bunch of information on this topic. I know a bit about this business.

First off, there are a handful of companies that completely DOMINATE the markets all over the country which are Lamar, Clear Channell, Viacom, CBS, and a couple more companies probably control close to 90% of the supply of boards.

The biggest thing you need to know is that digital billboards make a RIDICULOUS amount of money. Example friend of a friend constructed a full size digital board down in Atlanta ((just picture a really gigantic plasma TV over 40 feet accross)) they cost a few hundred thousand dollars as well, but what's mind boggling is the revenue they can produce.

Each ad displayed on a digital board is called a "Loop" you can fit anywhere from 6 to 8 loops on one screen.... here's the crazy part though.... depending on traffic counts you can charge big advertisers like Coca Cola, Hilton etc as much as $5,000 to $6,000 per ad per month. Multiply this by fitting 7 companies per month X the ad price and you're talking some big money.

The hardest part is getting permits approved iin high traffic areas, as most of them are already taken by large outdoor advertising companies. Obviously the further out you get into rural areas your ad revenue per board drops but youd be banking on the development of the city to boost the traffic counts over time and having your ad revenue increase as well... similar to land supply constraints in real estate markets when rents rise higher.

Bottom line, the most profitable arena in this game for the next 20 years is to get into digital boards and tri-vision boards. Less than 1% of the existing supply of billboards are digital... its estimated over 20 boards a day are converted to digital, one of them could be yours..??

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  • Karim El Sheikh
    Boca Raton, FL · Member since 2008 · 16 posts · 1 vote
    18y

    Hey Luke,
    Im down in Florida and I know billboards are mainly run by Clear Channel. How much one cost I think varies of location. I have read that it could cost in between $700 to $2,500 a month but I could possibly be wrong. Other than that, Clear Channel mainly the place for billboards.

    1Reply
  • Dave P.
    Real Estate Consultant · Member since 2008 · 792 posts · 30 votes
    18y

    Luke,

    I know a little about selling bill boards and that the pricing is usually a fairly simple function of traffic count.

    As mentioned above, there seem to be a few big players that dominate the market. In addition to Clear Channel, Summit and Lamar are large too.

    Might be a tough arena to compete in.

    Or it might be a good one to slide in under the radar too!

    0Reply
  • Tami R.
    Real Estate Investor · Atlantic , IA · Member since 2008 · 78 posts · 1 vote
    18y

    I am very familiar with marketing, I worked for Clear Channel Radio for 7 years and I now work for a different radio outfit.
    I think billboards are great but they can be expensive. There's a lot of expense and you have to compete with companies like Clear Channel. You are looking at land rental, putting up the billboard itself and artwork setup, changes and you have to sell it!

    0Reply
  • Luke Johnson
    OP
    AL · Member since 2008 · 4 posts · 4 votes
    18y

    Thanks for the replys. We know this is not a get rich quick scheme. As long as the ad space is paying for the loan and we can pay off the loan in 5 or 10 years(matters where/how much the billboards is) we will be fine with that. We will have other jobs, this will be an investment we hope will pay off years down the road. So if we go for little to no actual profit I believe we can compete with the big boys. Do you guys know of anywhere I can get more information? Thanks again.

    0Reply
  • Luke Johnson
    OP
    AL · Member since 2008 · 4 posts · 4 votes
    18y
    Originally posted by fertilegal:
    I am very familiar with marketing, I worked for Clear Channel Radio for 7 years and I now work for a different radio outfit.
    I think billboards are great but they can be expensive. There's a lot of expense and you have to compete with companies like Clear Channel. You are looking at land rental, putting up the billboard itself and artwork setup, changes and you have to sell it!

    We would buy billboards already established. I have seen some for sale online and even when driving down the road. Would this be a bad idea?

    1Reply
  • Matthew Mucker
    Ft. Worth, TX · Member since 2008 · 97 posts · 16 votes
    18y

    Luke, the first thing I'd ask myself is, why is the billboard for sale? If it were making money, would the owner sell it?

    1Reply
  • Luke Johnson
    OP
    AL · Member since 2008 · 4 posts · 4 votes
    18y

    Good point. My friend talked about finding land for sale/lease near a highway and building the billboard. Would any general construction firm be able to build a billboard? I assume not too much is involved.

    0Reply
  • Eric Medemar
    Real Estate Coach · Grand Rapids, MI · Member since 2008 · 204 posts · 188 votes
    18y

    Are you looking to use billboards for another type of investing, or to promote you own investing business.

    if you plan to use them for your own investing business I would strongly recommend buying a memorable and benefit driven domain name to place on the sign. Don't make the mistake that so many other investors make when they buy bill boards and simply put your phone number. People passing buy won't remember it unless you have a very well branded vanity number.

    I bought 1-877-YOU-UGLY and have had a huge amount of success over using my previous phone number.

    Good luck either way.

    1Reply
  • Blake Copeland
    Real Estate Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2009 · 75 posts · 38 votes
    17y

    Go to www.outdoorbillboard.com for a whole bunch of information on this topic. I know a bit about this business.

    First off, there are a handful of companies that completely DOMINATE the markets all over the country which are Lamar, Clear Channell, Viacom, CBS, and a couple more companies probably control close to 90% of the supply of boards.

    The biggest thing you need to know is that digital billboards make a RIDICULOUS amount of money. Example friend of a friend constructed a full size digital board down in Atlanta ((just picture a really gigantic plasma TV over 40 feet accross)) they cost a few hundred thousand dollars as well, but what's mind boggling is the revenue they can produce.

    Each ad displayed on a digital board is called a "Loop" you can fit anywhere from 6 to 8 loops on one screen.... here's the crazy part though.... depending on traffic counts you can charge big advertisers like Coca Cola, Hilton etc as much as $5,000 to $6,000 per ad per month. Multiply this by fitting 7 companies per month X the ad price and you're talking some big money.

    The hardest part is getting permits approved iin high traffic areas, as most of them are already taken by large outdoor advertising companies. Obviously the further out you get into rural areas your ad revenue per board drops but youd be banking on the development of the city to boost the traffic counts over time and having your ad revenue increase as well... similar to land supply constraints in real estate markets when rents rise higher.

    Bottom line, the most profitable arena in this game for the next 20 years is to get into digital boards and tri-vision boards. Less than 1% of the existing supply of billboards are digital... its estimated over 20 boards a day are converted to digital, one of them could be yours..??

    4Reply
  • Harrison Painter
    Indianapolis, IN · Member since 2008 · 759 posts · 185 votes
    17y

    I love seeing entrepreneurs at work!

    Why not compete with the big boys! If you can get the signs cheap enough, price them right, and work hard, why not?

    Good luck and keep us informed on your progress!!!

    - Harrison

    2Reply
  • Winston Parks
    Developer · Nashville, TN · Member since 2016 · 55 posts · 22 votes
    8y

    @Luke Johnson did you ever pull the trigger?

    1Reply
  • Mark Holmes
    Investor · Bettendorf, IA · Member since 2015 · 22 posts · 13 votes
    7y

    is administration on digital difficult and time consuming?  I like making 28k a month but administration has to be a nightmare.

    0Reply
  • Milind Shastri
    Investor · Allen, TX · Member since 2016 · 104 posts · 37 votes
    7y

    Hi @Luke Johnson, I was wondering about this too. Did you move forward?

    1Reply
  • Kyle Varga
    Investor · UT · Member since 2020 · 26 posts · 22 votes
    5y
    Originally posted by @Matthew Mucker:

    Luke, the first thing I'd ask myself is, why is the billboard for sale? If it were making money, would the owner sell it?

    By that logic, no one would ever sell multifamily properties either. Sometimes people sell to extract capital to be used in different projects. 

    1Reply
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