Trying to make heads or tails of buying land

Right now, I've got 2048m land I'm renting at L$750/wk (about US$12-13/mo) and was thinking of buying my own outright by getting the premium membership to do so. I'd like to be able to have full control over the land. The way I understand it, I'd be looking at $25 in tier and prem. membership. Even if I pre-paid the membership yearly (which I'm not quite ready to do), I'm still looking at paying more than as a renter. It also looks like I'd be able to own 2560m in land at the 2048m tier if I factor in the bonus 512 from the premium, right?

Now here's the kicker...Everyone has said that in the long run, buying is cheaper than renting, which would make sense because the landlord would want a markup over his fees to make money. But as it is, it looks like I'm paying less than enough to cover his basic costs for the land. This begs the question, are landlords making any money off this?

As for me, I'm looking to eventually own 1/8th of a region to use for both my house and a club I'm working on (assuming the club is viable, will rent until then). This way, I can deed the club parcel to it's own group for effecient use of my staff for dealing with various issues. Right now, as a renter, I'd need to get all of my staff added to the landlords group to have build, eject, and ban abilities...which had proved a bit of an issue with a previous landlord.

The cost of the initial land buy isn't much of an issue, I'm just trying to see if the additional monthly costs in owning is that justifiable. I've even looked into "buying" an estate parcal that advertises no prem account needed, but after reading over their covenants and all, it looks like nothing more than glorified renting and I'd still not have full control over the land and its access.

Seems like it should be easier to figure out, but it seems the more I look in to it, the more confussed I get. @.@

Actually it sounds like you have things fairly well figured out. Renting can be cheaper than owning for small amounts of land because most landlords hold and rent at least a full sim worth of land and can take advantage of the significantly lower $L per m2 tier at the full sim rate.

And you are correct, 'buying' estate land is just a variation on renting. If you are running a club that is popular and busy enough to require staff, you probably do want to look into either buying mainland or renting estate property because that will give you greater group flexibility and control for your staff group.

also remember premium gets a 300L a week stipend (not much but it adds up)

If you want total control of your land, then buying via premium on the mainland is the way to go

I am a mainland owner and would never move to living on a private sim, not enough control for me

also a lot of private sims do not allow you to set up things like stores or clubs and if they do then more than likely others are too...

OH and one other thing too, no one mentioned.,..

If you do go the route of buying mainland, deed the land to a group, put your tier into a group and you will get a 10% land bonus in the group (meaning it will up the amount of land the group can own by 10% of what you have contributed to it)

If you need more help on that just ask, there are a lot of very helpful people here who will give you a more detailed explanation.

(just remember to make an alt to put in the group with you to keep it from being deleted and set the alt to owner of the group as well)

Actually if you buy or are renting on a Private Island Estate from a reputable owner you have MORE control than you do on Mainland. You or your group would be named as "owners" of the parcel giving you full control over the About Land options which includes banning, freezing, ejecting rights. Renting on the Mainland you have to join your Landlords group. Plus, private estate owners have more control over the SIM with Estate Tools. If an private SIM is very laggy or slow, the Estate Managers can have the SIM restarted. They also have the tools to track down script offenders that are creating lots of lag... and remove/disable them.

As far as a club, a responsible private estate owner is not going to allow more than 2 clubs on any one SIM. Performance would suffer... However on Mainland you have no control over who your neighbors are and they can all open a Club if they want.

Does that mean if I donate 4096 tier to the group, the group could hold 4505m of land at that monthly tier? Also, does it have to be done this way so my "staff" group would have full build, ban and eject use as well? Last, is there any risk in a rogue staff member going nuts and doing irrepairable harm to the land (I.e. selling out from under me, taking control, etc.)


By an "alt", are you referring to an alternate account, and if so, why?

In either case, from the info I've read so far, I think I'll hold off on buying then until I can feasably buy at least 1/8 sim to even come close to a break even point.

Yes, you can hold up to 4505 without paying more thanks to the bonus. And yes, you would need this so that group members with these powers enabled can ban/kick etc. NO, no one can sell out from under you unless you make them an owner or enable the power to sell land.

Security, in case everyone leaves the group. A group of one is not a group, and will be disbanded within 48 hours. You would then have to put in a support ticket to get your land returned to you.


Good on you for taking your time to make an informed decision.

Because a group requires at least two members. You can form a group all by yourself, but it needs an additional member within 48 hours or the group gets deleted.

There are also people you can buy teir from, who can sell it significantly below what you will pay to the lindens. They can join your group, donate their teir and you pay them (a bit like renting, but you still have full control of your land) I have found as long as I own less that ½ of a sim that it is cheaper to “rent” the extra Teir.