Take Warning from my Horrible Experience

What's really different is the new hero of this thread...

LAND BOTS!

Think about it. An *advantage* of mainland now is the fact that there is a 'sort' of automated refund system!

Certainly you may not get best price. But compared to nothing, it helps people on exit.

Naturally, there's a sort of balance. Any area that has landbots obviously is a sort of no-covenant, who-knows-what will be your neighbour sort of place. But it's not so bad now!

Fascinating.

that`s how i sold my land befor ordering an island
split it all up into 1024 plots and set each price to see what their limit is, even did the 0.1p/sqm game and u could see the owners pondering over the math as it was on the verge

Estate convenants are not regulated by LL and therefore they don't care if you don't like your landlord, get cheated, lose your money, get evicted for minor reasons or what have you. They will not intervene on your behalf and I have been told via the phone (before they yanked the # to call), the landlord can practically do anything he or she likes to you even bordering on harrassment (making up rules as they go, pushing you to give up) and you can do nothing. If you buy estate land you are trusting a total stranger to be honest and honorable. Think about what game you are in, there are very few people who fit this description. What I don't understand is, since lindens are bought with RL money and the exchange is roughly in effect a real dollar tranaction, isn't either the owner or LL liable legally if you are cheated? The answer from LL: no. I am not taking this out of context or rewording a conversation, I was told this.

Buy land of your own but if you do rent, you are at the total mercy of whom you rent from. The only person I leased from that did not ever cheat me or treat me badly in any way was Desmond Shang. I shall avoid mentioning his diametric opposite who owns some furry residential islands directly. My advice: people are scum, buy your own land.

I'm saddened by the experiences of the OP and Felicie. Myself and most of my friends all rent (or bought) from various island landowners who are not known in the forums. None of us have had any terrible experiences, even in the one situation where a landlord had to liquidate.

I don't feel that people are scum. Nor, however, do I expect that SL is a blessed zone where people are miraculously more scrupulous and competent than in RL. I think renters should do a little legwork ahead of time if they care about the money they invest. In the OP's case, trouble signals were evident from the start.

If I felt that people in SL were scum, I wouldn't play. For me, the people are the main reason to be here.

Or simply rent from someone who isn't scum, like Desmond or the people I listed in post #25. Just because you had a bad experience does not mean there aren't trustworthy folks out there. Anyone who wants to be in this for the long haul is not going to screw a tenant over.

In all honesty if you can't afford to hand onto the land they should buy it back at their basic sell price (what they sell land for and resell). I rent whatever from the most hated land baron in sl at times but I do it for a reason. I can if i want more land trade my parcel in and simply pay the difference. If i want less land I can trade down to a smaller lot and have whatever price is being asked at the time paid. If i have a financial problem and can't hold land I can sell it back to them.

On the other hand Im assuming you have the for sale option to sell the land (i haven't read it all) I never put a for sale sign on land I simply list it in the land listings and it sells. Right now though there is a slump and so its hard to sell land. IN this case they need to buy it back from you its their sim ..


When I do sell estate land I dont try to make a profit and it sells easily (when land is actualy moving that is) I list at the same price the baron would list at and usually its gone in minutes. A lot of people buy the land to mark it up ... (or flip) dont do that. Simply sell it for what you bought it for then your not competing.

I've never understood why people "buy" land on estates, rather than just renting. I've had my land for nearly 6 months, paid nothing up front, just pay the rent. The amount the OP paid up front would have covered my rent for 3 months.

cause if you use the buy option on it then you can terraform etc. Its not really the same as using LL though in the sense that they might leave the game other then that there is not much difference not with the person i use anyhow I can terraform and all that stuff, join land split it blah blah blah..

Because it comes with the option to sell. I made money reselling the two estate plots I paid for. Back in the good old days when waterfront land was rare and worth something.

I paid nothing upfront and have full permissions to terraform my land. The only thing I can't do is reparcel it, but since the landlord cut me the parcel I wanted that doesn't matter.



You only get to sell it if the landlord doesn't take it back, as the OP found. It has always seemed to me that the risk of the landlord evicting you with no compensation was too high to make buying on an estate attractive.

True. And with the price of mainland being what it is, I cut out the middleman myself and bought a sim. But there are still dozens of estate owners who you can rent from at very low risk.

Agreed, but since it's possible to rent without that upfront payment, why take even that low risk?

It *normally* comes with the option to sell; but these people in particular liked to change things without telling their residents; it's quite possible that they lost the ability to resell. I don't know.

Even so, as a conscientious shopper, I would never have bought from them in the first place. Better luck next time to the OP. That said, I have had good/fair experiences with all of my previous island landlords - Jenna Fairplay, C&F Estates, The Fricker Foundation and a couple others I can't remember offhand.

I did it because I fell in love with Kandee Herrey's sim. The landscaping and nice features made it worth it to me.

maybe because its 1am but I cant for the life of me figure out who we're talking about here. I don't plan to buy (rent) any land anytime soon but always like to point friends in the right (or shall I say away from the wrong) direction.

I checked the sim in question. Land is for sale by the estate owner for 12.5 L/m, but "buyers" can NOT sell their parcel. It can only be abandoned to or taken by the estate owner. So that spectactularly high purchase price is for nothing, absolutely nothing. AND the tier is $10.24/mo for a 1024. I can't even imagine why anyone would "buy" there.

That sounds like a good reason to me!
Luckily the sim I fell in love with, which has got better in the five months I've lived there, didn't ask for an upfront payment.

Do they at least have crabs?

Yes, I did it twice and then was going to live on a Sarah Nerd estate with no upfront fee, but ended up going back to the Mainland. I like the challenge of trying to find a plot with no rotating ads in view.

The owner does, but you'll have to pay up front to see them.

I rent land on the On Com islands. You use the buy option for the first months rent giving you the land tools including terraforming/splitting and no up front 'purchase' fee and no deeding to groups. The owner has around 50 islands and been in SL a long time so really you can't lose.

I wish more island owners didn't expect you to 'buy' the plots, but from what I have seen looking around lately, the majority do.

Nevermind. Hit me like a ton of bricks.

I am kind of bummed though. Apparently they read the forums because they RL pics they have couldnt remotely be considered pornographic. Sigh...I'm just too slow, I guess. Another missed opportunity.

Its funny they wouldnt allow the OP to have a for sales sign since they are all over the place. Considering the covenant they have I'm amazed the entire sim isn't empty.

Er helOOO - did you read my post? We didn't lose the land for not paying the tier. We paid every month on time, in full. And - if you own mainland land, you can RE-SELL it. Duh!

I'm not complaining about any kind of genuine land deal (I have owned land on and off since coming to SL in 2005, and have never had this kind of abuse before), but about all the other bulls**t we were given as a result of a polite request to move on from that land.

Others NEED to be warned not to get involved with this landowner. THAT is why I posed my message.

You seem not to be getting this (whose side are you on, I wonder) - "QUOTE: if you don't pay tier" --- THAT is not the complaint, as we did pay tier, in fact we got ejected from the land BEFORE the due date so the option of paying tier was no longer available.

We did (at the start) consider the option to pay another month - throw good money after bad - to give us more time to find a buyer but, we we were literally kicked off the land before the 15th. Just because she didn't like us. We did not one thing against their covenant, and that is why I abuse reported them.

We have bought and sold land a number of times before, AND on an Estate, but never run into this kind of attitude from the Estate owners. There was some kind of give and take before, some sympathy and understanding. Here there was just - get out.

Bonny, I wondered about that, and read your original post several times trying to be sure, one way or another. I think a lot of responses assumed you'd been ejected for failure to pay the monthly fee. And the reason those posters might well have assumed such a thing is that they've never in their wildest dreams imagined dealing with such sleazy Estate owners as you've just experienced.

I think folks should avoid paying up-front fees to any Estate without a long-term reputation for absolute integrity. For new Estate owners, the decent thing to do might be to earn that reputation by starting with zero-up-front, and gradually apply some of the monthly fee toward eventual "ownership", at which time the fee would drop... a kind of "rent to own" arrangement. Maybe after a few years of responsible Estate management, the owner could offer alternative financing, with an up-front charge and lower monthly tier, as an option to new renters.