Thinking of buying an Island.

The short version is I'm thinking of buying an Island/Estate on which to have a rental community.

The long version is as follows. I'm a bit of a simpleton. But I'm a simpleton who likes nice things. So what I'd like to do is live on a nice, quiet island, with enough prims to be comfortable, and a few neighbors who aren't going to build giant pink spinning monstrosities. My vision is this. To buy myself an estate, carve it up into nine equal sized parcels, and then rent them out at a "reasonable" rate. My basic math on it thus far is to carve up the island into 9 parcels, each 7280 square meters and with around 1666 prims. (Give or take. My math isn't the best.) I'd then charge a flat rate of $35 a month in rent per parcel, and hope to keep the place fully rented at all times so I could break even every month. I'd take the center parcel to ensure all 8 other renters had an ocean view on at least one side.

The drawbacks would be of course.....

1. The sim is going to be either Grass or Snow. Most likely grass with a month or two of snow in the winter.

2. I wouldn't be making a profit off the island...even with all 8 parcels rented out. (I'd still have to shell out 20 bucks a month to make tier).

3. I'd be in the center parcel, so whom ever's renting from me is sure to have me as a neighbor.

I'd essentially be throwing money away...but at this point I' just really really really want a sim. So tell me...do you think this could work? (I'd ask if I was crazy but I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to that.) And I really do want some honest feedback as this is a major "investment" of money. Could something like this actually spawn a nice little community of renters and moreover.....neighbors? Or is this just a delirious pipe dream brought about by lack of sleep and slightly less than fresh imitation crab meat?

The biggest drawback is the price they're charging for these places. Everything else in comparison is nothing.

I don't think you'd be throwing money away. You would have a nice plot for yourself for only $15 - 20 per month if it works out the way you hope it will. But the questions to ask yourself is not how you'll handle it if everything goes well, but how you will cope if it doesn't. Unless you are Desmond, 100% occupancy rate may be unrealistic. Can you cope with 75% occupancy? What about 50%. What would your backup plans be if you had to go for a month with no rental income? Two?

You seem to be motivated by adventure and potential pleasure of running a sim. That seems to be just about the best justification for buying one. If you're comfortable with the potential risks, go for it.

I so wish I could afford to buy a sim, and one day I will!!!

(just wish I knew when that day was LOL)

I say if you can handle the cost on your own, without having renters then go ahead and get the sim

if you can't then don't
the rental market is too fickle to depend on it

Don't do 3x3 parcelling.

The best return on your investment is with a 4x4 grid, or 16 parcels.

Contact me in world and I will give you all the financial data, and a host of other tips, tricks, and general advice.

Rock

Hmm, what about either 15/16 with the 16th used for communal walkways and access.

Or near double prim on the same concept but on say a 14/15/16th basis Rock

Interested in your views

Go for it Joseph. You will absolutely love owning your own sim and the controls that come with it. And if you run out of prims it is easy for you to upgrade.

Good luck!

Joseph, this sounds like a wonderful idea!
i would go for it if you can. I would love to be able to do something like this, but simply couldn't manage it all lol.
It sounds like you have good ideas.

The only warning would be to make sure you have enough set aside - untouched - to be able to pay tier for a couple of months just for a fall back. It can be tough getting 100% occupancy, and just in case, it would be sensible to know you can manage to survive without it.

Other than that, go for it! and good luck!

My suggestion is, go for it! Sounds like you've got a plan, if you can or have tested the market and maybe have a few friends interested already, then even better!

I did almost the same exact thing last March - bought an island with the goal of having a spot for myself and my store, and to rent the rest, with the overall goal of breaking even.

I would suggest you have a contingency plan, i.e. prepare for 'the worst' incase you don't get all the lots rented out, but hope for the best. When I did it, I was prepared to carry the cost for a few months incase my idea flopped.

Only other suggestions to add... make sure your covenant is fair and easy to read and understand. I went around other places to check their covenants, to get a feel for what people were doing.

Good luck, and have fun with it!

-Atashi

edited to add: woot! my 1000th post!

The OP makes it sound so easy. I have been debating about doing this. I have a post on here somewhere regarding the matter of island buying also. Doesn't look like my idea of a group buy is going to work.

The thing that stops me right now, besides the initial outlay for the island, is the extra financial outlays. The most being the terraforming of the island, which also includes the infrastructure like roads. You can do it yourself, but boy that is alot of work. Island builders cost quite a bit from what I understand. Do any of the people who rent out their islands find that most renters want flat land or do they want some really nice terraforming with houses and what not already built. Are the majority of the renters, do it yourselfers?

Woot!!!
congrats Atashi!

</derail>

I would love to own an island and move my rentals there. I wouldn't even mine paying the up front cost. The problem though for me is the monthly tier for an island is absolutely ridiculous.

I own a few sims, and I find that people tend to want slopes, but also want their own plot to be flat! I'm not sure how many times I've told people that it's impossible to have a totally flat plot with one side going into the water...

Do you get a deal on tier when you own more than one sim?

No, you pay the same per-sim no matter how many you have (allowing for older sims being cheaper, of course). There's rumours that some of the *really* big estate owners get discounts, but they're nothing more than rumours as far as I'm aware.

Terraforming is easy and fun. I work cheap and don't mind getting dirt under my fingernails (prim nails come off for easy cleaning).

Whether you go with the "waffle grid" of flat land that so many others do, or build a "real" island is up to you. The waffle grid is easy, and gives your renters few problems when it comes to putting down a foundation. The "realistic" terraforming is, IMO, much more satisfying visually. It may cost you some rentable area, though, if you start building a mountain on your sim.

I do agree with the idea of going with a 4x4 division. You can put a big lagoon in the center, and let people use those parcels to moor their yachts. Or combine a center plot with an exterior plot to allow "open ocean" access.

Speaking of ocean access...an island sim with live water around it is a lot more appealing to renters than one surrounded by good-looking, but inaccessible, void ocean. If you can't afford a set of openspace sims to surround your island, maybe you can locate it on the borders of an existing mini-nation, so as to provide your residents with someplace to go.

i bought a sim with it in mind to do the rental thing.
Now me and my fiance have decided to keep it just for ourselves. It's so awesome if you can spare the money do it. I had some extra money sitting around in stocks that didnt do anything so i cashed them out and bought one.

I just can't see myself or why anyone would put up the kind of money they want for these places. Regardless, if you can afford it or not, there's no justification in spending the ridiculous amounts they're asking for as well as none for posting these out of the atmosphere prices. But like any company, as long as they have people willing to spend these amounts they will continue being exploited.


Ok, so you say you'll make the money back in time. First off, there's no guarantee of that happening. Second, only a very small handful of residents make any money in sl. And I don't mean chump change, I mean real dollars in the thousands.

But, to each his own.

I'm not saying this is true for everyone, but I regularly go to islands that are rented out, some fully, some not, but usually the island owner has more than one and I have yet to meet a island owner in world who's ever been to the forums, so it seems that many island owners are actually successful, they just don't have the need to post here saying so. I also discovered that on average island owners with 8 or more islands make a clear $5,000 profit a year, but I don't know if that covers the initial outlay cost.

This brings up another question. I know SL has all kinds of tutorials and courses, but is there one that is geared specifically towards island owning (from soup to nuts) How to build, maintain, etc.? How about outside websites?
I think this would make sense for LL because the more knowledgeable one is the more fun and doable it might turn out to be. (provided of course you can afford it) More money for them due to more people buying. They could grab the people who are sitting on the fence.


P.S. How about this for an idea. Instead of charging an obscene amount for purchase (I'm not saying the OP was thinking this way, I myself wouldn't make anybody pay for land that they are renting.) of the estate land, maybe sell the land for just enough to cover a couple of months tier and keep it in reserve for the lean times (divide it up between the number of parcels)

the knowledge base is reasonably good, go to knowledge base and type estate into search

but i did laugh at "Can I rotate my Private Region?"

There are many islands owners in the forums

I live on a SIM that is part of a friends project - we only pay the running costs, no profit involved. Last year I bought my first SIM, it is sold/rented out with usually 100 percent occupancy - the profit from that pays for my own home.

Later last year some friends wanted low prim SIMs, so I bought a 4pack and gave them to the friends at cost, same for the monthly tiers. And now with the changed policy about low prims I ordered another one just for me and my partner.

To the thread starter: Having your own SIM is great! But be sure to be able to afford it not only in the first 3 months but in the long run, too. If you plan to sell/rent parcels and don't want to make big profit but only covering your own living you can offer good prices and get good occupancy rates. But it also means work! Especially if you only rent out, people can leave quickly if they find a better deal or nicer place, so be prepared to spend a good amount of time promoting your SIM and taking care of customers.

well there's lots of multi-island owners who post here often and with much sage advice; while we wait for them I'll post my own

There's already a lot of good advice given in the posts above. Just summarising my and my partner's experience:

1. have a tier reserve. It will take you a while to fill up, and all the time you're not 100% full it will cost you RL$. Can you afford that?
2. Recognise that your renters, especially if they take larger plots, will look for some continuity. If you're not obviously making a profit, there is a considerable risk to them that you may decide - for whatever reason - to withdraw from renting, leaving them homeless and with a jumble of returned objects in their inventory. This is magnified by the lack of renting history on your part (just saying )
3. Decide on a theme, if you can. You're more likely to attract and retain renters if you have one and you are prepared to put time into it.
4. Landscaping landscaping landscaping..... Expect to put time and resource (and prims) into this.... we found it helps to attract renters if you give them somethng visually interesting to live in. Feel free to drop by our estate and have a wander round to see what we've done. I don't propose it as the best in SL (far from it lol) but we do get regular compliments
5. If you ARE renting (as opposed to leasing/ "buying" then expect a turnover, and expect renters to a) go over their prims b) not pay on time c) leave and not tell you, d) leave and not tell you and leave all their prims behind so you don't know whether they've just gone on holiday etc and forgotten to pay their rent, or can't get in to SL, or have actually found somewhere even cheaper to live

All that said, we have had a great time renting/leasing - but I have never looked on this aspect of my SL as a RL money-making business - as long as it covers tier I'm content and the RoI is RL terms is just laughable

Feel free to IM me in-world if you want to know anything more

Inc

Here are some personal tips:

Everyone fears having nasty neighbors. Write up a covenant stating your policy on the following attributes:

1. Skyboxes- helps to keep them above the clouds and encourage neighbors to stagger their builds at 300, 400, 450, 500, etc.
2. Property lines- build no closer than 20m either side IMO
3. Terraforming- nothing more than +/-50m (ie, mountains and holes)
4. Commercial vs. private- no selling, no events posting can keep it 'quieter'
5. Sex- best kept indoors or in the skyboxes, depending on maturity
6. Noise, shouting- enforce restricted to parcel and constant shouts=ejection
7. Spam from residents/objects- again, ejection on third strike
8. Ban lines/security- no ban lines is best, use security devices that are set properly

Other things to consider:
Trespassing. Some residents think it's a public community, and go 'visit the neighbors' constantly, when sometimes it may not actually be. Depending on your tolerance, you might state that trespassing is unwelcome, discouraged, and considered a bannable offense after some time. This is really not your responsibility though. Particles are another consideration as they cross parcel boundaries and can seriously piss off us nonblingers. Overprimming- this is a HUGE problem in private sims!!! You have 15,000 prims- you can't use them all. You shouldn't even SELL them all. Reserve a couple thousand to keep open somewhere. Turn that parcel into a low prim park or something. Or reduce all your parcels prim count by making yours bigger at the onset, and tell yourself you can't touch those. You'll thank me in the long run when you try to have more than 3 people visit at a time who're primmed out in jewelry. Temp-rezzers- i consider them the devil's spawn because they can seriously lag down an otherwise healthy sim. Don't take my word for it, read about how they work. Themes and/or periods- creating an overall feel for a sim requires an executive decision regarding the overall theme to it. You can't expect really good builders or people with great taste to have their italian grotto next door to rotating lavalamp pink neon guy. You could be subtle with this, and give yourself some wiggle room. It's really painful to tell residents their houses look like Easter egg puke once you "know" them. Nip it in the bud at the onset. Object entry and other griefing issues- encourage everyone to create a group for their land if they have anyone building on it besides themself so that they may use autoreturn for nongroup litter and leave build on for group only, turning object entry off so that neighbors don't sink things in your ground. Roads are really not the best way to go at all times....they are prim wasters for a society that has no need for them besides realism. I say let your tenants make that decision and build their own pieces if they want that. Many of us think it's too urban. Water channels however can be really organic 'roads', and also serve as nice visual boundaries between neighbors for building! You'd be surprised at the number of people who stop at a channel and don't cross because they are thinking like in RL, you don't just walk through the water. Little psychology goes a long way at times.

Incanus and Fatima have done a great job, and if I didn't already own mainland of my own, I'd rent there in a heartbeat! And Incanus is a nice person to talk to, if you have questions (he was very patient with me when I was considering entering the rental business). And he's right that having a theme helps. His beautifully landscaped region, with varying highs an lows in height, and lovely layout, is much more attractive than 16 flat square blocks of sand!

Good luck.
Let us know what you decide to do.

Princess Ivory