Pls hlp to determine my needs regarding property

Hi.
My partner and I began SL last June, and right away purchased a 4096m plot in a private region to set up home. Land purchase was L$0 and paid USD $40 Tier.

We outgrew it in only a couple short weeks, and purhcased a beautiful "Private", quiet 8192 beach lot for about USD $150. Other than a few things we really love the place. USD $66 Tier and been there since July 13.

My partner and I would like to have a try at several businesses which is against the covenant - so looks like we'll be moving again. I myself would like to build/sell high quality luxury homes so would need enough prims.
I have no homes built to sell now, but can imagine 3-4 display homes under 500Prims each, plus a main residence, furnishings etc. Proably use prim saver for most lanscaping objects.

Our current covenant says the land may not be resold on the top of the covenant page, but talks about rules regarding selling the land in the text field window, so I'll have to check with the owner about reselling.

We don't want somebody's covenant at the new place- We want more control over what we had on the private estates -- so I guess we'll be looking to purchase mainland property on a beach facing West for the sunset view.

We were always in a hurry to purchase our past two lots, and although we want to avoid paying current tier again on Sep 13, would like to know what *YOU* think our best options will be.

thanks in advance

Sounds like you've already answered your own question: 1/4 sim of mainland. This should give you plenty of prims and space (don't forget that you can also build UP... those houses don't all have to be at ground level!)

I believe Mainland is selling for around L$7.3/m? Not sure, haven't looked in a while. A quarter sim might be tough to find, but you might try going through the realtors like Sarah Nerd et al to find your parcel.

Talk to the land baron you are dealing with and ask for a straight swap to commercial land, if possible. Might end up costing you nothing at all.

I've never understood why people zoned for purely residential or purely commercial. It tends to create either utterly dead residential area that isn't all that private anyway, or mallish commercial areas that feel... mallish and corporate. Themed small towns and mixed-use cities for the win.

Considering what you want to do - if the mainland doesn't work out for ya, try Charlene Trudeau's Skybeam estates. She has taken care of a lot of people in your exact situation.

1/4 of a mainland sim, which is twice the size of your current lot, will cost 75US$ a month in tier and run around 80,000L$ (300USD) purchase price. This would also give you 3750 prims to use.

If you can get by with your current size lot, tier cost will be 40US$ a month, which is better than the 66 you are currently paying even if you count in the aditional cost of premium membership required for mainland ownership. This would give you 1875 prims, enough for 3 houses and a little landscaping. If you do res on demand houses you could easily set up two areas for display while having your work area in the sky. It's not much room for growth, however, if you ever want to expand more in the future and still no place for your personal living space. Getting more than the 8K lot means a step up in tier so 9096sqm will cost the same monthly as 16,384sqm. Kinda stinks but that's the way it works.

With a 1/4 sim, it does not need to all be contiguous. I would try to be sure 8K at least was one solid block for the show room and another 4K block for personal housing.

And one comment about prim savers. The choice is yours but they really do not save on prims. One, there is the scripting overhead and server load when objects are temp ressed. The other is that temp ressed prims still count towards the sims 15,000 prim limit even if they let you go over the plot limits. But this has all been discussed and argued in the past. Just make sure you have the prim allowance to use the temp ressed prims. Otherwise you will be using your neighbors' un used prim allowance. Whether you consider this borrowing or theft is up to you.

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[edit to add]
just for curosity, I went and looked at the current land auctions.

Zarflabbo (70,94) Mature 5120m $70.00 2 8/21/2008 12:00 PM
Zarflabbo (115,99) Mature 8192m $110.00 2 8/21/2008 12:00 PM

These were under the US$ land auctions. I don't know if they are adjacent or not, nor what the land looks like. Just giving you an idea about what the cost of land will run.

temp rezzers on the mainland will not win you any friends.
if your already paying $60/mo, have you considered spending $15 more and getting an openspace?

I'm pretty sure the group that I rent from does commercial as well. Look up Three Sisters (in Groups).....they own quite a few private islands and they are absolutely wonderful girls. The island I'm on is called Saraluv and it's residential....but there's a kiosk in the back that lists all their properties so you might want to check it out and get in touch with them.
Doesn't hurt to shop around, that's for sure. Good luck.

Good luck finding reasonably priced mainland with a beach front that isn't blocked by anyone and facing west! There are many reasonable landlords who can accommodate that need for water.

I wouldn't run on an openspace if you're going to be using lots of temp rezzers, for the same reasons Yosef laid out. Temp rezzers that are meant to go over your prim limit are a nuisance and I hate them. God knows what it does to the other sims on your server.

For business purposes, it doesn't really matter what land you're on and water is irrelevant. For your home, however, that's a different story. But moving to a mixed use sim is probably your best bet.

Of course I don't know your business plan, but you might consider using temp-rez for your display homes, instead of for your landscaping. Many prefab makers use holovendors to good effect ... check out Ace Albion's place, for example. Then you only budget prims for the primmiest thing you have in each vendor.
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Ive seen plenty of problems with temp rezzers and scripted items on my friends openspace sim..error messages galore..not a good idea imho.

As for zoning purely residential or purely commercial...i can see why that happens, when i used to rent a parcel i ended up with a Mall next to my home, at some point on a mixed sim..someone draws the short straw lol

you can get at 40USd a month tier mainland with group bonus (you and your partner) about 10898m2 (I'm not in world but I know I am close to 11,000sm now and still at 40 (now I have a total of 3 group members, me donating all mine an alt donating 512 and the partner donating her 512 ( I found the 9.95 a month to make a prem. alt was cheaper than going to the 75USD month tier.. I bought back in the 12-20L a M days! now I am adding slowly at about 5L a m (non ocean front.) mainly flat in a very nice older main land sim class 6 now as well... great neighbors to boot 2 years and keeping fingers crossed!

Hmm... I'd forgotten about malls... not something I see a lot of any more. Clubs too I suppose.

Guess I don't get out much!

If what you're thinking of is for home sales, you may well want to go for a void sim/open space sim. No, they don't handle high traffic very well, but what it would do for you is supply you the prims you need with space to spread out your builds and do some amazing terriforming. That, to my mind would be a much better presentation even than a temp rez of a building, which sometimes can vanish while your in the middle of looking at it. I would also second Des's reference to Charlene, she is one fabulous lady, and I've only ever heard fantastic reviews of her as a landlord. Oh, By the way, a great example of what you can do with an open space sim is Poiteau Coeur. The owners terreformed half of it as mountains, and the other half is thick with gorgous plants, a pub, and a mini armada of rowboats. Truely lovely.

There's roadside 33280m next to me for sale for $200,000 in Cochran
And in Sammamish there's 11 adjoining 1024 blocks selling for $6950 each that have been for sale for ages, they'd probably take any good offer by now. I could even put a pathway through to you from my shopping centre in Desire
Also there are quite a few 1/4 sim sized plots in sims around Andraca too.
Basically get mainland in a stable sim with as few other land owners as you can and buy out anyone who leaves