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Show Summary
In this conversation, Zachary Gattrell shares his journey into the billboard advertising industry, starting from discovering an abandoned billboard to making strategic real estate investments. He discusses the challenges faced during the process and how he turned a modest investment into a profitable venture.
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Zachary Gattrell (00:00)
Yeah, absolutely. I was fresh out of college at the time and I was really scared and I didn’t have any capital. So I actually found an abandoned billboard out in the woods from the 80s. had a tree in front of it and approached the landowner said, Hey, I wanted to restart this. I’ll sign up a lease, come out here, cut all the trees, find you an advertiser and start paying you a 20 % of the rent that we get from advertising this sign. After a year of doing that, I felt confident enough that I knew the industry.Dylan Silver (02:08)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest Zachary Gattrell out of Austin is the founder of Bama Billboards, outdoor advertising. Zach, welcome to the show.Zachary Gattrell (02:23)
Good to be here.Dylan Silver (02:25)
Great to have you on here and this is gonna be an interesting one because I haven’t had anybody in the billboard space on the show. So I have to ask, how did you get into the billboard space?Zachary Gattrell (02:39)
Yeah, absolutely. It’s a very niche industry. And I actually got into it because my brother does heating and cooling, owns his own business. And when we were looking at advertising for him, we were getting quotes on outdoor advertising billboards. And the quotes were really high. And I was like, man, like they’re making a killing. And at the same time, my dad was investing into residential real estate. So he had three or four rental properties.And all throughout growing up, we were always dealing with tenants, right? Whether those people moving out and trashing the place or late payments, just all the issues, even HVAC going out or plumbing issues, having to call a contractor out there. ⁓ And I was just thinking about it. was like, man, they’re making a lot of money. Their tenants are businesses. Nobody’s trashing it. There’s not a lot of maintenance required, right?
To me, it was a no-brainer. was like, this makes so much more sense than going around and investing into residential real estate. So that was kind of the biggest thing. Not dealing with the headache was the biggest one.
Dylan Silver (03:38)
You don’t have to evict anybody.No one’s like, I’m my sign
up. You’re not taking my sign down. You’re like, no, this is my sign. What are we talking about here?
Zachary Gattrell (03:51)
Exactly.Dylan Silver (03:54)
I want to ask you about those early days and maybe the first deal that you were looking at or that first billboard. Where was, I know it’s called Bama Billboards, right? So I imagine the first market was Alabama. Where did you put that first one? How did you ⁓ find the deal, the lease, or did you buy the land? Walk me through that first deal.Zachary Gattrell (04:15)
Yeah, absolutely. I was fresh out of college at the time and I was really scared and I didn’t have any capital. So I actually found an abandoned billboard out in the woods from the 80s. had a tree in front of it and approached the landowner said, Hey, I wanted to restart this. I’ll sign up a lease, come out here, cut all the trees, find you an advertiser and start paying you a 20 % of the rent that we get from advertising this sign. After a year of doing that, I felt confident enough that I knew the industry.and I found a really nice piece of property. We bought it for $10,000. It was right off of a major highway in Alabama, and you couldn’t get an entrance legally due to the Department of Transportation. They wouldn’t let you.
It was really weirdly shaped, and there’s a ton of other issues with… ⁓
811 after we were doing due diligence with building, would have been impossible to build anything useful other than a billboard on the property and that’s why we were able to get it so cheap. So bought that and then put a $5,000 sign on it and we’re currently renting both sides of that for $400 each, so $800 a month on a $15,000 investment.
Dylan Silver (06:16)
I don’t want to gloss over that first deal. So I come from the distressed single family space, know, fix and flip assignable contracts, know, foreclosure and all different types of financial and even emotional distress. But that first billboard deal was a distressed billboard deal. It was a, it was a lost and abandoned billboard.Zachary Gattrell (06:36)
Yeah, it’s rare, but you see them every once in a while. If a billboard company goes out of business, maybe the person who started it passes away and nobody wants to get involved in it or trees grow up or there can be other issues involving permitting where maybe a billboard was permitted years ago and things change and it’s no longer active, but maybe you can bring back and get another permit for it.Dylan Silver (07:05)
I imagine too, one of the nice things about billboards as a way to find more clients is the clients find you. They see the billboard itself and they say, I’d like to advertise there. I’m interested in that. It’s not like when you’re a landlord and you have a single family home for rent and it’s maybe indistinguishable from every other home in the block. When you have a billboard, it’s like, well, I’m the only shop on this road, so advertise it.Zachary Gattrell (07:36)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the best thing. I actually, I have a checklist of ways to get signs rented. And usually number one on that is just to put up one of those vinyls that say, rent me and a phone number. And for the most part, most billboard locations will rent themselves. Your phone will start blowing up and you’ll have those people who want to rent the sign. Every once in a while you have some locations that don’t do as well with that. And what we’ll usually do is try to package it in. So.we’ll have a really good location where we’re getting a million calls and we’ll have another location that we get less calls on. We’ll offer, hey, for a discounted price, I know you want this sign that’s in like the best location ever. What about on this side street renting this for both of them together for $2,000 instead of just one for 1800 maybe.
Dylan Silver (08:26)
Hey, I like it. We’re making deals happen now. You get two billboards for the price of one and a half. I’ll take it. ⁓ When we talk about Austin though, Austin, you know, capital of Texas. And when we think about the, you know, highest markets for real estate, Austin is probably going to be at the top of everyone’s list. I imagine the billboard game is pretty hot in Austin. You probably have no issues getting signs rented in Austin.Zachary Gattrell (08:56)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was a little late to the game in Austin. Austin actually banned new constructions for billboards a couple years ago.Dylan Silver (09:04)
Wait, wait, they banned new constructions for meaning you can’t have a new billboard?Zachary Gattrell (09:10)
Yeah, yeah. So all the billboards you see in Austin are about 10 to 15 years old, I think. ⁓ So it’s interesting. Yeah, I think a lot of people just think they’re an eyesore and I totally get that. ⁓ But a lot of a lot of Texas cities actually, especially in central Texas, have done similar things. Same in Alabama. Whole state of Vermont doesn’t allow new billboards. But at least for Texas, city limits usually are banned.Dylan Silver (09:17)
Why did you do that?Zachary Gattrell (09:39)
There’s a big opportunity right now, I mean, I would say all over the United States in what they call suburban corridor areas. areas like I-35 blowing up between Austin.Dylan Silver (09:52)
San Marcos, know,New Braunfels, that whole shoot up there.
Zachary Gattrell (09:58)
Exactly and some of those signs on I-35 there’s such a high traffic count right they rent$7,000 a sign so somebody’s thrown up this sign years ago and they’re making $14,000 now every month off of it.
Dylan Silver (10:47)
One of the things that I love about Texas, Zach, is I actually love the billboards. I love the billboards, you know? Like you’ll have, cause I think I’m from the East Coast, I’m from Northern New Jersey, right? So even like our attorneys, you don’t have like, you know, these attorneys with these catchphrases and like you just dial one number a bunch of times and he’s like riding in on like a bald eagle. That doesn’t happen. Like it’s very under the radar. You know, I don’t even know how people find attorneys.In Texas, you’ll have the attorney on a neon billboard holding a sledgehammer and I’m like, yeah, let’s go. So when I think of the Texas billboards, I’m actually surprised because I would imagine, man, I saw billboards everywhere, but I guess it does maybe make sense that people would be like, hey, we’ve got enough billboards.
Zachary Gattrell (11:36)
Yeah, absolutely. I also just off topic, but I love the Bucky’s billboards. I feel like I see those everywhere. ⁓ They’re a big renter of billboards here in Texas for sure. ⁓ But yeah.Dylan Silver (11:47)
SoBucky’s is a renter of billboards. They probably also have an opportunity to have their own billboards, right? And have other people rent the billboards on their land.
Zachary Gattrell (12:01)
Yeah, absolutely. And I think it’s pretty common for commercial businesses that own that real estate beside popular roads, interstates to get a land lease with a large billboard company. And it’s just headache free guaranteed money every month for the next 30 to 40 years.Dylan Silver (12:21)
I mean, yeah, you’re spot on. Also, while you’re mentioning the Bucky’s billboards, I’m picturing in my mind’s eye, Bucky’s coming up three miles, next billboard Bucky’s, and you’re like, let’s go, I’m going to Bucky’s. I had no intent to stop at Bucky’s, but now I’m stopping. So that really is the power of it there. I wanna ask you maybe a granular question about the billboard game.When you’re looking at a new billboard, we were talking before the show was starting about some of the bill costs, whether you go wood or whether you’re having a larger structure, if you’re going digital, right? How much does the permitting play into this? And could you have something and then it falls out because of permitting or different things involved with the local ⁓ municipality that you’re in, for instance?
Zachary Gattrell (13:14)
Yeah, absolutely. So in Texas right now, I’m kind of targeting areas in the county because you have a lot less issue with permitting. You still do have to get permitted with the state. And the state has a lot of rules around that. Specifically, most of the time they want to see that you’re near a commercial building or a commercial property. ⁓ There’s spacing requirements. You have to be a certain distance from other billboards.But the permits are really the valuable part of billboards. So there’s actually people out there that will go around and secure land leases with commercial property owners, get the permit and turn around and sell that to these big billboard companies. And some of them go for quite a bit, especially if it is a very profitable location and they’re able to sign a land lease for a very small amount.
Dylan Silver (13:57)
Wow.Zachary Gattrell (14:08)
If they think they can rent a sign for $2,000 a month on this property and they sign a lease where they’re renting it for only $100 from the landowner, that can go for quite a bit of money.Dylan Silver (14:20)
I just invented, I shouldn’t say invented, I just thought of a strategy in my head because I come from the wholesale background. Let me find someone who’s got, you know, proximity to a highway. Let me sign a lease for some of their land, right? And say, hey, give me, you know, 30 days to come up with whatever it is first payment doing this period of time. Give me the option to assign this contract. And then I’ve got 30 days to go find ayou know, national billboard company.
Zachary Gattrell (14:53)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. So there’s actually a gentleman out of Virginia who started a pretty big billboard company thereposts content on YouTube all the time. I mean I was first starting I watched his stuff all the time When he first started his business, that’s exactly what he did and he was able to sell just a single permit for $60,000 so he turned around and took that $60,000 and built
three signs that were like a lot cheaper, wooden signs or out of a I-beam or something like that.
Dylan Silver (16:05)
Now, when we talk about, you know, getting into this space, right? I’m imagining and I’m picturing you, unless you have experience, you have serious nest egg built up, you’re not going to be able to go to, you know, some of these areas and, know, sign a lease, get the permits, put a metal structure up. So you’re, if you’re just starting out in the billboard game without creating competition for yourself, Zach, so stay out of Austin if you’re listening to this, but.⁓ I’m imagining you’re looking for areas where you’re going to have limited permitting issues and then also where accessibility to the road is not going to be impeded by barriers and things of this sort or know objects in the way so you could have a stick-built sign low to the ground for those who might be thinking about hey I want to get into the billboard space.
Zachary Gattrell (16:59)
Yeah, absolutely. I really think that’s the best way to do it. I mean, the first sign we ever did was $5,000. Super easy to find a contractor for that too. It was four poles set in the ground and then two by fours across it. ⁓ there’s a lot of easy ways to get into it, especially if you’re in a rural area and especially if you’re in a rural area that has high traffic. So a small town that’s in between two cities ⁓ might be the easiest place to get started.Dylan Silver (17:29)
I wanna pivot and ask you an unrelated question to the billboard game, but it made me think about this as we’re talking about advertising. So because I come from the wholesale background, lot of wholesalers will do these bandit signs, which I’m sure you’ve ⁓ seen when you’ve driven on the road. Basically someone just sticks a sign in the ground that says, buy houses or need to sell your home fast. There’s no permits being involved there. It’s basically…You know, you’re not allowed to do that. You know, you’re doing something wrong. There’s got to be something in the law that says you can’t just stick a sign in the ground. But these signs work, right? These signs work. Whether you have a house that you need to sell, whether you have it under contract, or if you’re trying to drum up, you know, some leads for yourself. What this showed me was, hey, people are talking all about digital, digital, digital, know, email campaigns, drip campaigns. I’m a big fan of all that funnels, right?
Facebook, Google Ads, but at the end of the day there’s just something about driving by and advertisement, seeing someone’s name up there and now you just feel like, I know that person or I can resonate a little bit with that.
Zachary Gattrell (18:39)
Yeah, absolutely. And if you look at billboard advertising, CPI wise, it tends to be a lot cheaper than something like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. ⁓ Also, it’s just a great way to build brand awareness, like you were saying. If you get four or five billboards around the same area, specifically in Alabama, where I’m from, we have a personal injury lawyer, like you were saying, that always has these absolutely ridiculous signs. And he has so many around the state of Alabama.that everybody talks about him. He’s a big joke, right? ⁓ So I think it’s amazing for building brand awareness, especially targeted in a geographic area.
Dylan Silver (19:19)
Now, when folks are looking at renting a billboard and I’m going to specifically stick with real estate operators. let’s go, you know, realtors, ⁓ brokers, maybe ⁓ lenders and mortgage providers, maybe investors as well. And you’re tracking your KPI. So you’re saying, you know, how many leads are we getting? How many of these are closing? You had mentioned that they may see a higher ROI with ⁓Billboards and they would with some of these digital ⁓ Tools now is that information common knowledge are most people aware of this because I feel like most people are thinking I’m not gonna get leads from This I’m gonna go put my money into Google ads. That’s what everyone is talking about Is this common knowledge that billboards is actually higher ROI?
Zachary Gattrell (20:10)
It’s higher CPI, so per impression it tends to be quite a bit cheaper. The only problem with it is it is a lot harder to track, right? You can pay per click, pay per impression on Google. You don’t have that option with billboards. There are certain technological advancements. I know some of the bigger billboard companies were actually geofencing. So when you drive past with a phone, they were able to tell that you drove past a billboard and then serve you more ads based on that.Dylan Silver (20:19)
I see.Zachary Gattrell (20:40)
to buy a product and then be able to be like this person drove past this billboard and this billboard and then bought our product. ⁓ Most of the smaller guys like us don’t do that, but it’s not as quantifiable for sure as Google Ads or Facebook.Dylan Silver (20:55)
I got you.I still think, I mean, especially coming from the space that I come from where you’re looking at, you know, just bandit signs in the ground. The next level up from that is a ⁓ more official way to do it. You’ve got, instead of a small bandit sign in the ground, you’ve got a giant billboard. Everyone’s driving past it.
I will say too, there’s a non-quantifiable brand awareness component that comes with this and it’s an investment, right? So, you know, let’s say billboard wise, you’re looking for leads right away. I don’t necessarily know that, like you mentioned, it’s not going to be quantifiable and you won’t be able to track it as easily. But for brand awareness purposes, if you’re trying to drum up, you know, a brand and you’re taking out multiple billboards in an area, what is gonna be more effective?
effective than that.
Zachary Gattrell (21:48)
Yeah, absolutely. it’s funny, I think it works a lot better than most people expect it to. ⁓ I had some abandoned, or not abandoned, but unrented signs in Alabama and just threw my brother’s company up on them. And he was saying, was like, yeah, I’m getting calls from people that are saying they had never heard of me before, or even having repeat customers that are like, you’re so fancy now. Like, I see your billboards all the time, right?I think absolutely brand awareness is one of the biggest things about it.
Dylan Silver (22:20)
Zach, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to learn more about Bama Billboards or to get in contact with ya? Or maybe they have some commercial property near a major roadway and they’re hey, I’d like to have a billboard out here.Zachary Gattrell (22:39)
Yeah, absolutely. My website, bamabillboards.com, has all of my contact information and we’re going to be launching Gattrell Outdoor here in Texas soon, as soon as we can start development. And then also just on TikTok, Zach the Billboard guy. I’ve been trying to grow that recently, so that’s been fun.Dylan Silver (22:57)
Zach, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.
