Rental advice please

Some advice on renting houses / apartments ?
I have a nice flat 16000m plot currently lying empty and have long planned to try my hand at the rental business in the hope of offsetting tier.
Without giving away your secrets would anyone here give me some basic advice like is it better to go for apartments vs houses and is cheap low prim better than the luxury end ?
I can offer rentals on an unspoilt class 5 sim and the plot is next to a ¼ sim oceanfront park that I’m just finishing off.
What would you build on it, opinions anybody ??

Best thing is not to build any house or apartment at all.

Add some plants and such (which will likely be deleted and replaced), and a place where something can be built, but you aren't really offering land. You are offering creative control. Every prim you add diminishes that control.

Just one man's opinion... good luck

Thx Desmond, I hadn't considered that. What size plots do you suggest ? (the area is square)

It's easier to offset tier if you divide it up. 4 4096's are probably easier to rent than a quarter sim, but you never know!

What you should do is pretty the land up so it looks nice but always remember that the renter will want to delete your stuff as soon as he can. Think of what you put down as a kind of advertisement for your land rather than something practical that people will actually use.

Just a counterpoint...on my sim, the plots that had houses on them are renting faster than the empty ones. But I made sure to rez really attractive homes by Jack Feaver and Ace Albion.

Also a few Lilith Heart palm trees are all you need to greatly improve the landscape.

Well I have to agree with Desmond on this one. I don't think I've ever managed to rent a plot with a house on it. This may have something to do with people telling me I have an awful taste in houses! I'm not convinced mind you, I've used Ace Albion and Jack Feaver homes to try and attract people, but a lot of people prefer their own.

I guess I'll have disagree with the previous posters. (except Raymond)

Although in general they are probably correct, I've been selling rental houses and had a lot of postive feedback from owners/people renting out.

And I have been running a 'themed sim' with existing housing and some scenery, free pools etc. for a while now. And I've had it filled for 80/90% most of the time.

One thing though, usually the fact that a plot if 'furnished' is not a great reason to ask for a premium compared to an empty plot. For me the primary reason to rent out the plots with houses was to keep a general theme more than to add to my profit margin. And I think there are people in SL who appreciate a setup like that.

On plot sizes, i suggest parceling up to 2048 and maybe some 4096. It's always possible people want to rent two smaller plots, which you can join up. But people won't rent a bigger plot if they don't need/can't afford the space.
Also, consider not renting out the middle plot, and put something attractive there, creating more of a 'community feel' to the place.

As a non-themed builder and developer, I have generally had no problems finding people looking for a house or apartment. I have only had a few requests for bare land.

Well it helps that your homes are amazing creations.

Yah. I have two big community areas with features like an underwater reef, a hang glide rezzer, dance pose balls and a Paradise blanket as well as 7000 meters of protected sailing lanes. Not only does it make for a more spacious feel, but the prims I save get passed on to prospective renters. No pool, though. I need to make a trip to Siggy's.

None of the above opinions are wrong, because there are many distinctly different types of renters.

Right now I'm running a huge hotel in a themed land. My renters want a social gathering place, an attractive romantic environment, and a personal space to decorate and invite their friends over to see. Most of them wouldn't have a lot of use for an empty plot. On my property, the hotel and the themed land are the main selling point. One of my renters, who is talented and plans to get a plot to build on in the future, will likely just buy his own land. (He posts in this forum, so -- Hi F.!)

If you are going to provide the structures and expect the renters to live in them, then plan it out and put some work into it. A bunch of pre-fabs stuck in the bare sand is really not attractive to renters.

If you are going to rent out the empty plots, then in my opinion, it's just business and not much fun. But at least landscape it with some Lilith Heart trees like Raymond says, or just plant a lot of Linden trees around (I think the Linden palms are beautiful). The landscaping helps show the renter how big the parcel is. Empty parcels appear extremely small for some reason.

That's my $2 L worth of rental advice!
-Avion

Interesting. Well I've certainly learned something! Can't complain about a thread what makes ya smarter

Yes, take my advice and someday you too may have a single sim renting at 1/4 capacity.

I have been trying to rent out space on the sim I have developed, so far a couple ppl rented then it just ran out
got a couple offices rents and that is nice

one store front plus I use one

thinking dropping the price to 4L per prim on all rentals

*shrug*

yes I tried advertising, but not sure what else to do

it is a city build, with a trailer park, a train system, been working on another project so still have to implement the taxi service

has a motel, an office building, store fronts, cheap housing, plus apartment towers...

hopefully something will start renting, might have to put in a couple more ads in different categories