Interesting ways SIM owners split up their land

I have recently learned some lessons and/or made some observations about how some sim owners split up their land, more specifically in island sims.

Many estate owners provide public water space between island plots of land. Many will divide up their sim using actual public space between islands. (if you view property lines you will see a small area between plots that you cannot own or rent that is set aside as public area) This keeps people from terraforming or having items sit on or over those areas and keeps islands nicely separated. This is the type of setup I prefer.

I have seen some skip the public spaces and run just one property line between plots. They then create a public waterway by using up (by lowering) some of each plot, then request that you do not reduce or allow objects to sit in the public waterway. This seems ok, but what it can do is trick you into thinking you will get a 4096 plot of land (for example) when you are actually getting less land because you are donating to the public waterway. I have even seen SIMSs that take quite a large chunk of land away by doing this. (I saw one that appeared to have lost around 1/4 its land mass to public waterway).

While you are technically getting the land you are paying for (or renting) and certainly you get the prim value, it seems like something people might not be completely aware of when making their decision. I got burned because I knew exactly what land mass I needed only to find much of it had been trimmed for unrecoverable / unusable public waterway. Add to this the idea that many plots are square to begin with, so to give them any character at all you end up further reducing your land mass.

I guess the lesson I learned is to really watch where the property lines are drawn and what the covenant contains and not just rely on the about land details.

I'm not saying its a rip-off or scam necessarily... just that a person really should inspect what they are buying or renting to be sure they are getting exactly what they need. I guess this goes without saying, but for me this one seemed so easy to miss.

If anyone else has similar tips please post... I'd be interested in not learning these types of things the hard way.

read covenant befor buying

Its only really prims you are buying/renting. The estate owners who 'create' open space on their sims usually do so by making an increase in the prim bonus setting in the estate tools.
I set my estates at a 2 x prim bonus so that if someone rents a 1024 plot they get 468 prims with it. This makes it possible to have a 20 mt space between plots so you dont get to 'see' what your neighbours are saying in their bedroom.
It also makes for a more aesthetically pleasing place for everyone. The downside for me is when ppl look for land to rent they see 1024 sq mt at 1000L a week rent and think, WOW thats a bit expensive, not realising they are getting 2048 sq mts worth of prims...if that makes sense.

My first land was double prim land just like this. I really enjoyed being far away from all neighbors, even if you had a plot of land in the middle of the sim. I also enjoyed the additional prims. Unfortunately I started realizing a lot of homes sit much bigger on land than I would have thought and had to go after more land mass... at that point I couldn't afford double the land mass AND 2x prims, so I had to move on.

In general I do like the idea of keeping public land public and increasing the prim value to land owners.

Interesting... I had a similar situation happen to me just this last week. Reading the covenant (even re-reading it) isn't enough. As stated, its a good idea to know the covenant *and* take a look at the property lines.

I found a nice new sim that appared to have good public separation, yet the land I found was too big for me. I asked the estate owner if they would split the land up (seeing a real large open water area to one side of the island making it seemingly simple to slide half the island over) they agreed. What I did not do was to verify that splitting meant breaking it into two then moving one over with a public divider. They simply placed a line through the island and sunk both ends to make a public waterway. I assumed there was a public divider there so I asked if the island could be slid over and they said sure, so they sunk even more of my island to make it appear that it was done. I paid, then went to start moving in.

When I inspected further, I noticed what had happened - by then it was too late, no refunds and no discussion. (What I didn't realize was the big public waterway on the other side was also a large area of that island sunk to build the appearance of public waterway. I hope that island renter realizes this.)

I ended up with the smaller land I wanted, but actual usable land was even smaller yet. Plus the other island is right next to mine instead of being far apart which was why I liked the sim in the first place.

Add to that the areas between islands are sloppy, square and jagged edges vs. nice smooth transitions between islands. The island next to mine is simply cut square rather than rounded.

Yea, the estate owner had a right to split it in the way they saw fit and certainly I wasn't asking for them to lose rentable land. It was a misunderstanding that led me to pay money for land that does not fit my needs.

I have come to appreciate sim owners who take pride in their sim's land and aren't just rental factories. They have every right in the world to do what they want with their land, but I should have been more clear and took more time to inspect before paying.

Another thing I learned is that its nice to get land that already has public space around the edges, especially if there are no others sim's connecting. To get something like waves you have to cut into your land even more.

Lesson learned. Too bad lessons come with a price and a negative experience. Thankfully I rented instead of purchased.

Question:
What is considered a fair prim limit for the market? Is there a set amount somewhere other than the 512 m2 and the 117 prims? I'd really feel bad if I'm ripping someone off and not know it.

I think that's pretty much it, for non-OpenSpace sims. It's 15,000 prims for 65,536 sq.m., or about 0.22888 prims / sq.m. If you offer more, they gotta come from somewhere, so there'd have to be "public" land somewhere with low prim-count, to create a pool from which "bonus" prims could be drawn. For OpenSpace sims, I guess it would be 1/4 of that count now (or, put more positively, four times the area for the same prim limit).

On the topic: Depending what abilities the Estate owner permits the tenants, it could get kinda unpleasant if the separating waterways weren't reserved as public. If the neighbor's half of the waterway is no-object-entry or no-script or just restricted access, one would need good navigation skills and smaller watercraft. (/me ponders the market for particle "buoys".)

No reserved areas between islands also makes setting up a security orb slightly less pleasant as well if the estate owner says they are not allowed in those areas. I had to set a coordinate box to get mine to work.