Overview

The famous golden arches of McDonald’s are quite the prolific testament to the sheer volume of success that one company can have. That the McDonald’s franchise has experienced this success, and has seen it throughout the American twentieth and twenty first centuries is a phenomenon unto itself. Famous for their ‘Dollar Menu’, the fast food chain became synonymous with ‘Happy Meals’ and happy foods. Reaching into every market imaginable, McDonald's has leveraged all areas of growth over the decades to outperform their closest competitor Burger King and a host of others. With respect to superior credit, brand strength, and solid operational revenues, net leasing investors can almost always expect a positive experience when performing due diligence. For the aforementioned reasons, one can also expect higher prices per property, especially when factoring in lower purchase price points and low supply side offerings. Combine this with corporate guarantees behind each franchisee with prime real estate selections, and it’s easy to see how they have become a textbook operation; specifically on “how build and brand a company successfully”. McDonald’s typically requires from .75-1.15 acreage to build, selecting top notch real estate to do so. When net leases for a high demand McDonald’s property occurs, they usually prefer ground leasing with standard twenty year terms, alongside three to five separate options to renew. Prior to current times, they would allow rent bumps upwards of ten to fifteen percent per 5 years; now they’ve cut back the percentage to ten at best. They now provide standard flat rates appropriated for the first 10 years of the initial lease. Tenants are also highly unlikely to vacate, due to the fact that each franchisee pays up front costs for the building.