Lindens: 1.12 Estate Land Sales

The new estate features of 1.12 are promising, at first glance. When I started looking into it more, and found out that renters would still be required to pay tier to the estate owner (in an unreliable, unsecured, and unprotected way) rather than to Linden Labs, I realized these tools were only introduced to benefit the current system, but the current system lacks a lot of things.

I drew up two proposals below, both of which would create a new and exciting way of which estate land is rented or sold. Benefiting everyone from Linden Labs, estate owners, and the land renters & buyers of Second Life.


Proposal #1. Allow estate owners to choose whether buyers of parcels in a region are to pay tier to Linden Labs as is done with mainland regions, or require the buyer to agree to the estate owners individual tier plan as Anshe is currently doing. Estate owners will then only pay tier for the amount of land they still own in that region.

Proposal #2. Allow estate owners to choose whether renters of parcels in a region are to rent their parcel in L$ or USD which will be automatically deducted from the renters Second Life account monthly. When it is time for renewal the renter will be presented with an option to renew their lease, or release the land back to the estate owner. Estate owners should also be able to determine the rental fees (possibly based on USD amount) per square meter, or per individual parcel.

Linden Labs doesn't currently have the time to manage and enforce the rules and regulations in a zoned community, so they are unable to compete with the appeal of renting on an estate sim. We all know how messy the mainland can get, and this is one of the main reasons why estate sims have become so successful. With the proposed features simplifying the process for both estate owners and renters, Linden Labs will benefit from the increase in estate managers and renters.

Current estate owners and future estate owners will benefit from the simplified task of being a landlord - allowing more time to devote to the care and maintenance of regions, as well a more committed customer service experience.

Common renters/buyers of land in Second Life will benefit from the increased protection and security of owning/renting land in an estate sim, as well as the simplified process of purchasing/renting/renewing/canceling land.

Possibly both proposals could be combined, although my personal preference is proposal #2. With a little bit of help and contribution from the community towards ideas and suggestions, I am confident that something similar to my proposals could be introduced into Second Life. Comments and suggestions, openly welcomed

The problem with #1 is that it eliminates the ability of the sim owner to receive income from the sim, all they can do is offset sim rental.

I wold like to see #2, but not necessarily tied to land ownership. You could have subscription payments for club membership, rentals of objects other than land, and so on.