yikes! The map's half yellow!

I was at a shop in one of Anshe Chung's sims when I noticed that three of the parcels surrounding this shop were empty. I'd been thinking about buying here, but nothing was ever open. THEN I got a look at the map, and it looks like literally half of her property is for sale. And it's not just Dreamland...I got to looking all over SL and I'm shocked at how much land is for sale. Did I miss something?

p.s. please leave breadcrumbs if you move while I'm offline. I still depend on you guys for both witty repartee and actual facts and instruction

..and you KNOW that anytime you try to organize something it takes on a life of its own. SOMEtimes it grows its own heads and bites. Bite back.

Dag

I'd guess it's VAT related...a lot of Europeans seem to be either leaving or reducing their holdings.

This is one of several reasons, I think. One friend of mine sold her 3 islands and deleted her account within days of the VAT announcement. There are definitely other things going on though, some temporary.

The problems started before that. Been in Corsica since August now and if anything, the intensity of yellow marking my part of the continent hasn't changed much at all. Land values have been relatively static since LL unloaded all those sims during the middle of summer, and I think all those people who bought at higher rates earlier in the year are reluctant to price their land at the current going rate (which is much lower).

Wishing I'd never bought land there now to be honest.

I'd say it's far more difficult to sell on the new continents because you're competing with so many other sellers (not even land dealers) in nearby sims. The old mainland doesn't look so bad. I really want a parcel over there actually (it's up for sale right now), but it would depend on me offloading my Corsican parcel and that ain't gonna happen in the near future given current land values.

Edit: I think Anshe's problems started with her Covenant overhaul in August, which involved her removing Paypal support and snatching back a 16m2 piece of every tenant's parcel.

I said it was guess!

Oh, I know that. I just felt like a ramble.

it tops the pile of shit

as an vat victem, i`m open up shop as quickly as i could and fix my previous built houses for sale along with shape and some scripts to survive this crap (and if u see my textures, stuff it, 5 minute work to get it done and fix the next thing )

If I owned any land in Dreamland, those changes alone certainly would cause *me* to sell 100% of my land there.

My thoughts too. She was probably tipped off about the VAT situation, and decided those changes were for the best. Rent out parcels for $Ls instead of $USDs, and there's less of a VAT headache to deal with .. I guess.

She's no dummy, so if she's selling, there is a reason.

It could be VAT. Pure speculation on my part here, butshemight have been tipped off about tier increases inearly '08. In that case,, shemight decide to cut back.

Who knows?

Sooz

From another thread:

So there's less yellow on the mainland than there was a month ago. As far as estate land, I have no info other than what I hear, which is people are dumping their estates.

I'm expanding my estate!

Well it would probably be wiser for them to give Anshe more than a weekend's notice this time, then her sudden change in tactics won't be so obvious. She started snapping up every island for sale just days before last years private island price hike. I even remember her dropping personally into Dreamland Group chat asking for island naming ideas - 24 hours before the bombshell was dropped.

The OP is absolutely spot on about Dreamland. I struggled to find land there last year but now it seems you can take your pick. Having just looked at the map, I can't believe just how many 1/2, 3/4 and full sims are up for sale over there.

this is a great time to buy. i just hate the idea of upping my tier.....

This isn't to suggest that a bunch of yellow is a good thing, but if her stuff is yellow, that means she's renting it out, not selling it, right? I don't believe you would see a bunch of individual plots "for sale" if she were cutting back or cashing out.

My waiting list is longer now than it ever has been, though it was close to this back in Feb/Mar when I'd halted expansion for three months.

Something like 80 names on it now, though, sometimes they get fed up waiting and get a place elsewhere. And I'm sure a few are alts on the list twice, but, whatever.

Not all land is equal. Private land where the owner is off playing Warcraft is worth a lot less than land where the island owner pays attention.

Mainland ad-farm land isn't worth much either, or even worse, land where entire sims one-after-the-other are on some ridiculously impossible stone slope is just plain... ick. No wonder it doesn't sell.

Just saying.

Agreed Desmond about the attentiveness. You and I are here every day online or at least have someone to cover for us. I'm not selling any sims unless things get super horrible. Which could easily happen if LL decides to raise tier prices in January or February.

Basically, her residents are selling up .. en masse apparently. Since autumn 2006, Anshe has allowed Dreamland residents to sell their own parcels (ie. using the About Land controls, as we do on the mainland). Buyers just had to contact a Dreamland angel after buying a parcel, in order to arrange tier.

Apparently, you can no longer rent parcels on Dreamland since the new covenant came into effect during August 2007.

Dreamland residents still buy/sell parcels the old fashioned way, but pay monthly tier in $Ls via the payment box installed on the 16m2 plot she stole from every parcel.

..and now Anshe has a sea of yellow to deal with.

Interesting times.

That all makes sense, Walker, and I totally agree with all of you who suggest that it isn't good.

But I guess what I was getting at is, she still owns every bit of it whether it is rented or "sold" or yellow or not, because buying estate land is still renting, right? So she isn't really selling anything, as people are suggesting. Is there any evidence that the Big A is actually reducing her holdings?

She'd have to be selling the island sims themselves, rather than parcels on them.

Is there a place where an interested party can browse these dumpings? I saw one in the forums, but it appears to have sold in about 5 minutes. (This is an honest request for info, and not a sarcastic remark).

Island transfers are not done publically. I don't know.

If you are patient, just go to Search then to Land Sales. Type in a minimum size or lindens amount. Then you can scroll through them pretty fast by looking at the location on the ad. A bit tedious but thorough.

Well yeah, the terminology is confusing, but kind of important here because until August 2007, Anshe used to "sell" (initial outlay + monthly tier) _and_ "rent" (monthly fee only, which is more expensive than tier) parcels

Also, Anshe does "sell" sim sized parcels to people. That is, she "sells" a 65520 sq. m parcel (the remainder is reserved for the payment meter), so it's not like she's putting sims on the open market. Regardless there are whole sim sized chunks of yellow in Dreamland right now - some are 65520 sq. m parcels, others are cut into smaller pieces.

Wherever "sell" is in quotation marks here, I'm obviously talking about "leasing", but I don't really want to get bogged down with the terminology debate again.

Just a word about sensible real estate practise, from a financial standpoint:

ALL parcels possible to sell or 'sell' (rental rights) should probably, in theory, be yellow from the perspective of the resident on it.

Here's why.


Say you have a dream location on the grid, you are 110% satisfied there, and love it.

There is still a price for which you may choose to leave.

Seriously. It's just virtual land.

Maybe your asking price is $L 1000000. So what? It's still 'for sale' in some sense, and if it's utterly free to play the "land lottery", why not? If someone is willing to give you 3774 USD for a 512m parcel, why not allow them?

If people are reasonably intelligent, there *should* be a lot of yellow on the map, always, even if they are satisfied.

* * * * *

In spite of the above, one might note that I don't allow land 'resale' in my own regions using the automatic process. People have to sort it out by finding someone interested, and then tell me.

Here's why: while speculative real estate is great for a resident with small holdings, it can be devastating to the overall value of a region. For instance, it's sure not helping Anshe right now.

Also, with speculative residents comes the 'lowest common denominator' - formation of community is *not* necessarily hand-in-hand with making big money. I have anti-gouging rules in my sims for this very purpose.

The perceptive will note that yes, I'm running a sort of 'government controlled' region which while very stable for the residents that managed to get some land, creates classic shortages as the price for averting a 'tragedy of the commons'.

It's a powerful, virtual mirror of socialism in the real world (shortages as a consequence) and what happens when you thwart natural market forces by design. Needless to say I'm not a socialist - the advantage to a virtual world is that here, nobody is oppressed or dies if there is a virtual land shortage. It's 100% luxury, 0% necessity.

Were I to meet demand precisely, I'd have no waiting list, but I'd also be far more subject to the vagaries of the global grid economy just like Anshe.

But I'd rather be a small and strong Caledon, than a large, weak, shaky one.