Questions About Purchasing Land for a Small Store

I'm a fairly new content creator, and I am looking for a place for my store. I have looked carefully at comments on the forums, and I've pretty well concluded that it's best to own your own land rather than rent.

Owning appears to be particularly important if you want your store to appear in Search.

The best I can afford right now is a 512 plot of land. I have a couple of questions:

1. If I own a 512 plot of land, will it show up in search? In some forum post, long ago, someone mentioned that you need to have more land than 512 to show up in Search. Is that true - or will 512 work?

2. I've looked at various 512 plots but almost all appear to be residential. There appears to be very little land available that is set up for small stores - or even a mix of small stores and residences.

Additionally, everything that I've looked at is incredibly crowded. Really crowded: one house right on top of one another. There's absolutely no public access between lots. It's impossible to even walk from lot to lot. If stores are present in a sim, having the ability to walk from lot to lot would, of course, be critically important.

My main question is this: are there places that you can purchase 512 plots that might be oriented to small stores - or a mix of small stores and residences? I am happy to pay more for land to have this sort of situation - if it exists? Am I expecting too much? Am I dreaming?

Thanks in advance.

A 512 can be set to show in search, yes.

I've never concerned myself with passing traffic, although I'm sure it can help.

Chimera,

A 512 will show up in search if you pay LL 30L a week. If you have a half sim and don't part with the 30L, you don't end up in search.

If you want to build a store, get a blank 512. Mainland is NOT zoned. Walkability is a problem. My own 512 is set three or four properties back from the road. Walk to the road is my favorite game inworld, and I've gotten hemmed in.

Think of it this way. You'll have more foot traffic on the ground than you will in the sky.

They say you advertise and people teleport to your store and landmark it.

All you need for a store by the way is vendors. It's nice to have a pole or wall for them. Some people make the wall part of a box or an enclosure, but that is purely optional.

And mainland requires a $72.00/year $6.00 a month premium membership but you get back most of that in stipend.

The land itself will run between $5.00 and $10.00 but it's a one off price.

I would rent a space in a mall for a while first. If you choose a good mall owner, you should avoid any problems, and you'll be able to walk away at any time without having to worry about money you have invested.

If you do choose to buy and build, don't worry too much about foot traffic. People don't walk in SL, they teleport.

A 512 only gives you 117 prims. Will that be enough to display your wares?

you have to be a paying member to BUY your 512, but you won't have to pay LL any tier, and you get most of your membership $ back with stipend - if you pay for a whole year in advance.

there are TONS of 512's out there that aren't surrounded by residentials. tons that are roadside. you just need to TP around with your map open until you find a place that meets your needs.

Do people still shop at malls? I avoid them myself. I think starting out with a free 512 SM shop is a good way to start. Expanding as you grow. Pick a location you want to stay at, hoping more land will become available when you want to expand in the future. That way all your original landmarks that happy customers keep, will still be valid.

You can rent an empty plot of land and get the landlord to enable the search. Rent or go premium. I think either way you go you will end up with roughly the same amount of lindens at the end of the year. LL seems to be trying to sweeten the preemie deal so maybe you should wait until they roll out free homes to all premium accounts.

I agree its best to own rather than rent

For this you will need to have a premium account
This supports up to 512 square meters of MAINLAND land without you having to pay extra tier
When searching for land set the filter to mainland.

When choosing you plot of land, pick a 512 piece of land that is next to a "protected land" road so passers by can see your shop. This will give some walk in traffic and means you arn't boxed in by other peoples plots of land on all sides.

I always recommend people to choose land which has protected land on as many sides as possible so you wont be so squashed by your neighboors (I have protected land on 2 sides of my land)
Protected land is land owned by the Lindens so means other people wont be building on it.

You MUST check the land next to you really is called "protected land" and is really owned by a Linden as if its not both of these, its not protected land and could be sold

When people sell land next to protected land they often put protected in the name (which can be confusing especially if they are lying). This is why its essential to check yourself that the parcels next to your plot really are linden owned protected land

This is good advice .I own 4000+upto the L$40 tier but still had my free 512 left and did nothing with it.Recently because land had become so cheap I purchased a 512 ,one side protected by a Linden road I paid 1500 for it ,Probably cheaper now lol,I opened a satellite store and made my money back within a week.That was a bit of luck because some weeks the place blanks ,but that's life.

Personally, I would worry less about finding "protected" areas and focus more on locating yourself near other businesses - especially ones that have a fairly steady stream of traffic. When I say "steady" stream, I don't mean 10 dots on the map at all times, I mean more like there is a dot or two there on a fairly regular basis. By locating near a thriving business or two, you take advantage of their traffic and they will take advantage of yours as your business grows. When you are just starting out, getting exposure is your #1 challenge, so park yourself where you can get exposure.

This suggests a fundamental difference in shopping approach between you and me. When I shop, I usually just go with a LM, either from search or from a friend. Sometimes I can tell that it's a mall from search (e.g. if it's all one parcel), but usually not. Hence I have no way of knowing whether a store is at a mall.

Why would you care? I've seen huge stores that are as crowded and poorly designed as malls, and I've seen malls that are fine for shopping.

Long term, I agree. But I don't agree that starting out by owning is the best way to learn. I'd suggest renting for 1-3 months, just to learn the basic mechanics. Don't plan on a huge amount of advertising or clientele. Think of it as on the job training.

Very true about the teleporting. If people can find your store by advertising &marketing (which is a whole different subject - I'd suggest the "Advice on Sales" thread which began last year when several of us were just starting our businesses), it really doesn't matter where it is located, including in the sky.

Many times when I tp to a store, I don't even realize it's 300, 600, even higher up because the landing point places you right inside. A couple of great examples for you to check out off the top of my head are Eclectic Wingtip's store and Hmmmmm....my mind just blanked but I think the store is called Gentleman Bastards or Gentlemen Bastards (someone please correct me on this). I've even gone to some great "cities" in the sky.

Having a shop in the sky is less laggy. I've always had my home in the sky and just keep adjusting the height until I'm not around other sky homes/shops/work platforms, and now with the ability to go, I think, 4,000 m up, there is a LOT of vertical space.

So even if a sim is crowded or even messy at ground level, it doesn't affect your shop at all because you tp your customers to you (well your advertising does.)

As far as the 117 prim limit, it is low, but especially for just starting out, if you don't have many products and get a low-prim build for the store, it is a good way to build your business. Plus, it depends what you sell: If you sell clothing, jewelry, avatar accessories, generally you just put out a 1-prim sign/vendor for each product so 117 prims will go farther than if you sell home furnishings that customers prefer to see displayed.

I currently have a mall space at Primal Arts. The owner, Rhiannon Boronski, graciously offered free space to those of us on the "Advice on Sales" thread last year free to help us get started. I think there are still a few open spots, so you might want to contact her as another way to get started.

I also sold all my land except for a 512 sqm on a water sim. After the first of the year, I plan on putting a shop there...in the sky.

Good luck to you, Chimera

Thank you, everyone for your replies! This has been a very helpful discussion for me. I wanted to reply to 3Ring Binder first because I've been trying his/her method (sorry, kind of hard to tell gender with name like 3Ring) . . .

3Ring Binder said: "there are TONS of 512's out there that aren't surrounded by residentials. tons that are roadside. you just need to TP around with your map open until you find a place that meets your needs."

Now 3Ring Binder, have you really tried that? If so, I must say you know how to get around!

Using the map, I flew around looking for plots for sale. Many times when I'd find a small plot on map that was suppose to for sale, it wasn't. Most plots of land showing on the map that are for sale are way bigger than 512.

After struggling through a couple of days, flying and coming across many dead ends, I'm frazzled and have a terrible case of jet lag. I'm afraid I'm going to have to resort to a less rigorous method. That means: ask you!

So, 3Ring, tell me where in the world can I find just one or two of the ton's 512's that you spoke of.

Cheerfully thanking you in advance.

3Ring is female.

Trying to find property, especially the first time, can be daunting. Some people like to fly around to find property (and that can be fun) but for others (like me) I would also get frustrated quickly doing that.

You can use the Search button then:

1. click Land Sales

2. On the top left you can put in the most you want to pay for the land, ie. less or equal to

3. Under that is the size parcel you want, in your case 512sqm.

4. In the middle by the blue search button there is a drop-down menu to choose type of land. That would, under your scenario, be mainland.

5. On the right are boxes for the type of sim you wish to be on. You can choose any or all of them. I'll just choose Mature for this example.

6. Now click that blue Search button in the middle of this screen and a listing that matches your criteria appears.

It is listed from least expensive to most, sometimes will give you an idea of type of land (ie. granite flat land is one I see while doing this).

This can still be daunting due to the pages and pages you will pull up, but it at least starts giving you an idea of the current marketplace. I would browse beginning with the most you will pay, then scan the results to see if anything catches your eye.

I hope that helps a bit.

If you like the idea of your shop in the sky, there is a plot next to mine currently selling for $L1812. When I ran through the above steps for search, I found the starting price for a 512 around $L812L, so again, if sky will work there are definitely less expensive plots.

(I thought of another person's shop to check out that is in the sky: Jojogirl Bailey. Her shop is Jojo's Folly. I believe she said she moved her shop from land to sky for less lag. She is a successful merchant and occasionally teaches classes (free) on starting a SL business, which I will be happy to send to you if you wish. Also if you want to check out the plot on my sim, just shoot me an IM here or in world.)

I agree, it's hard to rely on foot traffic when most places in SL are empty at a given point in time anyway.

If you want a feeling of a shopping area, you might try looking at some nice malls and rent a space in one to begin with. It's less of a buy-in than buying land. You'll also soon know if you like having a shop or not, and wish to expand or not. By then you might know more of SL and might find or be shown an ideal spot for your own shop.

Thanks a million Czari for taking your time and for suggesting some great ideas! And thanks to everyone else.

I should tell you a bit more about myself. I do currently have a store. I'm one of a dozen or so that has been able to take advantage of free space in a beautiful building which Benski Trenkins of Creative Hearts has provided to new content creators.

The space is provided for several months, and then you need to move out on your own. (I believe that space will be available for new stores at the beginning of the new year for those who might be interested.)

I've decided that buying is the best option for me. But I will say that it is not easy if you would like a 512 plot on the ground in an area where one could find other small stores - or a mix of stores and residences.

It is certainly possible to find such a location if you want to rent. But if you want to buy, a small plot that is, the picture is not very pretty.

At any rate, I'll follow up on your suggestions and will let you know how I come out.

Thanks again.

yes, i am female.

and i apologize for the map idea. i know what a 512 looks like on the map, so it's easy for me to drag the map around and find things that way. just takes practice, and i didn't take into account your newbness.

the search idea is good too, but i never liked the way LL says they are filtering mainland from estate land, but the estate land still shows up in the mainland searches for me.

and yes, sometimes you TP into a spot that has already been purchased, but the map wasn't updated by the time you saw it. usually those were the ones i liked the best. ah poo

if you zoom your map way out, pick a continent, begin on one shoreline and work your way around, you'll surely find some land you like. you never said if you wanted graass or waterfront. i'm a waterfront girl myself, so i always stay near the shores.

btw, try the sim called Shark and work your way around that continent. it's the oldest one, and has lots of character (and lots of 512's). good luck

You're most welcome. And you've had that store beginning so you have at least some experience in deciding if a store is for you.

As 3Ring said, getting used to finding sale property on the map or using the Search feature gets easier as you are in SL longer. And I've basically stayed on the same sim for the last two years, so I haven't ventured out much.

Someone may have already said this (I'm getting "seasonal exhaustion and too tired to check...lol), but when using the map it is important to have the box next to the dollar sign checked at the top right. It is "supposed" to show the price of the parcel to you by just clicking on the parcel's $ sign (be careful of double-clicking...that could tp you there). In reality, sometimes the $ sign on a plot shows up (at least for me on my viewer) and sometimes it doesn't. And it's not always the same plots.

I'm not in the market for more land atm, but something I've gotten into the habit of doing is when I go someplace (shopping, dancing, whatever), the first thing I do is open the map, make sure it's mainland (I'm one of those "prefer mainland" people, see how many plots are for sale and their prices. It's my way of keeping an eye on the going rate for parcels.

3Ring's method works for me.

Be sure that you have the map option to show land for sale in yellow checked. Zoom in on the map and look there first for parcels that may suit. Clicking on the $ on the parcel will show you the asking price and other info.

Once you have a possible find located by using the map, THEN teleport there to see it on the ground.

1) Create a group (cost 100L)
2) Create an alt and add it to the group. (need 2 avatars to make a group, both of them you is safest when it comes to land ownership)
3) Give your 512m Tier to the group.

This allows you to buy mainland upto 560m (128 prims) for your group, for the 512m Tier. 512m + 10% Group Bonus Tier = 560m. Don't buy a 576m lol or you will be auomatically bumped up to the next Tier level.

An example of a 560m on a Linden roadside for 1100L is here: (when I wrote his anyways )

4) When you buy the land, right-click on the ground, go to About Land dialog, use the Buy for Group button. Don't use the Buy Land option on the pie menu. If you buy a 560m in your own name, again it will bump you automatically into the next Tier level. So use the Buy for Group button on the About Land dialog.

Searching for land. My advice is to find any land for sale along a Linden roadway or waterway, regardless of size, that appeals to you. If the owner is a mainland real estate dealer then far more times than not in todays climate they will cut out a 512 to 560m for you from a larger parcel if you can agree on the price. They will also guide you through the Buy for Group process to help you facilitate the purchase if you are unsure how to do this.

Ahhhhh....I always figured the group bonus wasn't too helpful until one owned more land as I'd never seen a 48 sqm lot for sale. Never thought of asking the owner to cut the land. Thanks for mentioning that!