Outdoor Billboard Investment Articles & Videos

Driving down the highway, you would think that the standard way to rent a vacant billboard is by putting your phone number on it, just like the sign shown above. The problem is that this is perhaps the worst way to rent the advertisement space. So what are better ways to rent a billboard?

Billboards have been around for over 100 years in their modern format. We all know that the industry standards are wooden telephone pole, I-beam or steel monopole structures in sizes of 12’ x 24’, 10’6” x 36’ and 14’ x 48’. But yet there are new ideas that come up periodically as billboard owners attempt to find even less expensive methods to deliver billboard messages, many of which are in ad sizes all their own. So what are these experimental billboard concepts?

When you think of a billboard, what do you think of? Most people think of an iconic sign in Times Square, while others think about the clever ad they saw on the freeway. But what most people don’t know is that a billboard is a financial work of art: a high-octane performance machine when it comes to making money. In short, billboards have the highest rates of return of any real estate sector.

Frank explains why you shouldn't avoid wooden billboards as they can be built at lower costs than the metal alternatives.

Frank gives you the top 3 ways to easily rent any vacant billboard.

The only thing better than building a billboard from scratch is buying a billboard that is already built and operating at a great price. When you buy a pre-existing billboard, you don’t have the stress of having to build it, or the risk of something going wrong.

A frequent question we get at OBUniversity.com is what billboard signs cost to build. That question is a little like asking “how many shingles does it take to cover a roof?” – it completely depends on the type of billboard that you are constructing.

We all drive by abandoned billboards every day. Maybe they once advertised a business that went bankrupt. Or maybe the billboard company lost interest and never came back. Or maybe the landowner wanted too much money at renewal time, and the billboard company bailed. Every single one of these abandoned billboards has a huge potential upside opportunity if you can take it over and put it back into service.

Here is a recording of the interview with Steve Balaban, who attended our boot camp.

What is bigger than a bread box, made out of wood, and creates cash flow? The answer is a wooden outdoor billboard sign. No other pile of wood can create up to a 100% return on investment annually.

The average billboard ground lease is 20 years. Since you only have one shot every 20 years to negotiate your ground lease, it is imperative that you do a good job at it. And it’s not something you are going to learn from experience – you will only do it about three times in your lifetime!

I started building billboards straight out of college, with no knowledge of what I was doing and not much capital to work with. All I had was the desire to make money and an almost equally powerful fear of failure. Starting from scratch, it took me almost a year to find my first location. And even then, nothing came easy since I had absolutely no idea how to rent the ad space or build the thing.

For most billboard owners, your big boss is city hall. Without their permit and approval, you cannot build, or rent, or maintain your billboard. And because of their enormous power, it is essential that you have a good strategy for dealing with them in a manner that can get you what you want.

We won’t even worry about trashing the stock market – it’s already trashed itself. If you are happy losing 40% of your investment as the end result of chasing after 8%, then stick with stocks. If you have higher goals, however, then a small investment in the outdoor advertising “billboard” business may be right for you.

Listen to our "Intro To Billboard Investing" teleconference.

You can’t be in the billboard business and not have a storm-related accident at some point, unless you live in an area where the wind never exceeds about 30 mph. Many a time, in the middle of the night, I have headed out to look at my billboards after a really bad storm has blown through. I’ve done this because I know how important it is to get to the sign quickly after there’s damage to mitigate the situation. Here’s what to do if this should ever happen to you;

You would be amazed at how many billboards you see advertised for sale that are illegal. Unless you know how the permitting process works, it is easy to get caught in this scam. Often it is not even a scam – the owner himself does not know that the sign is not legal.

It is very intimidating to look for your first billboard location. You feel like you don’t know what you are doing, and that you can’t possibly compete with the big companies. There is a simple exercise to cure you of these feelings, and start you on the road to building your own billboard company.

We've all had biology in high school, and can probably name some of the parts of a frog. But can you name the parts of a billboard, and what they do? Let's take a quiz and see.

When I first got in the billboard business, I assumed that the taller the sign, the better the sign. When I was driving down the interstate and I saw a really tall billboard, I would think to myself “now there’s a valuable sign”.

There is nothing scarier than digging your first monopole foundation. An augur pulls up and starts drilling a hole in the earth about five feet in diameter, and you have no idea what’s down there. Here are some ideas on what you’ll hit, and what it may mean.

Great billboard artwork is a combination of simple concepts steeped in decades of research. As long as you follow these basic, time-proven steps, you will always deliver your client a billboard that is attractive and effective.

So you're building a billboard but you're a little worried about some potential tree obstructions. The time to confront this problem is now, before you begin construction.

So you have a billboard that won’t rent. Maybe you need to change you attitude to get it sold. Here’s the deal: everyone would take it for free, right? Sure they would. Thank God you have a commodity that everyone wants.

There is a right way and a wrong way to build a billboard. Unfortunately, the punishment for not building the right way can be crushing – from $10,000 to move the sign to total loss of your investment if property damage leads to expensive litigation.

Every two-sided billboard has two distinctly different ad faces to rent -- the right-hand read and the left-hand read. The right-hand read is the side of the sign that is seen on the right-hand side of the street, while the left-hand read is the side that is always seen on the other side of the road, beyond the lane carrying traffic the other direction.