I agree with the conclusions in Billboard Insider’s July 25, 2023 article on billboard easements.  Just a couple additional observations….

1. We often get asked by sellers who own their land if they are better off reserving an easement and selling the board with a land lease to retain some passive income, even though they know they will get a lower billboard value (due to the lease cost).  Over the past several years we are finding buyers reluctant to purchase billboard locations where the seller is going to remain the lessor post-closing.  Most require the land or easement come with the billboard purchase.  I suppose some of it has to do with bad past experiences where sellers took back over the sites either at maturity or through some sort of technical default under the lease.
2. Landmark Dividend has not been as active with billboard easement purchases and for a few years we saw a dip in the valuation for billboard easements.  However, there are some new players back in the space, and we have seen some offers in the low to mid-teens in terms of annual income multiples.  Certainly higher than what we are seeing for billboard valuations.
3. There is no doubt that controlling the land with an easement is an enticement for a buyer and makes the acquisition that much more appealing (not always resulting in a higher multiple, but clearly making getting a deal done easier).
4. Beyond the key points you mentioned in the article (no risk of increased cost, knowing the site is secured in perpetuity, etc.), another huge benefit to having an easement is the administrative ease…i.e. no lease payments to process and send, no time consuming lease renewals to negotiate, etc.  It really frees up the real estate personal to work on new site development and management of leased properties.
5. When buying or creating an easement, make sure to cover all the details.  We have had some poorly drafted or executed easements hold up M&A closings.  Make sure to have a well defined legal description for the easement area.  A survey with metes and bounds legal description is much better than a sketched exhibit.  Also make sure to define the access to the sign and access to power.  It is also good to protect the visibility along the property subject to the easement.  Finally, pull title and make sure to get a subordination agreement from the lender if there is a mortgage!!!

As a side note, we post what we call expert content on our website every 30-60 days, so there are a lot of articles now.  When we review our analytics with our marketing firm, the top hit on our website every month, and the longest dwell time, is an article we did on the “what’s an easement worth” back in December of 2018!!!!!  Clearly the internet universe is interested in this topic!!!  LOL.