Greedy Land Neighbors - Wondering If I Should Sell?

I recently bought my waterfront lots only a couple of months back - LOVE living there.

In the interim, some greedy guy scooped up every single available lot in the area and has boxed me in completely, including as I found out today, my very nice next door neighbors home. Came inworld today to find more ban lines on my western side of the house. UGH!.

Had I known my neighbor was going to sell, I would have bought his land for sure, just to piss off said greedy other person.

I wrote a thread about all the ugly ban lines this annoying guy has put up surrounding me, which of course, keeps getting worse now (I did, however, find a way around this - having moved my home a bit further up and some other minor adjustments to my land, plus he also did somethings which helped too).

Anyway, I've got the only 5 viable lots available at this time. One of my friends suggested moving, and trying to make money off the property; and I actually had been mulling this over. As they say in real estate "location, location, location" and I did manage to get myself a really nice location.

I keep wondering how much I can screw this guy for. I'm sure I can find something else I love elsewhere, maybe not waterfront, but I'm not married to the idea that I have to live by the sea. I'm flexible on that account. Plus, I had been thinking I might like having 2 homes, as opposed to 1, so this might give me the opportunity to be able to do this.

Curious if people think I should send the guy a message saying I'm contemplating selling, and see what he says. I'd hate to just put a "for sale" sign on the land and buy something else and have a higher tier until this does sell - "just in case". Don't want to pick up and move if I don't have to. But, I am SO positive this person will eat up my lots in a day.

Any opinions? Similar stories and how did you handle it?

I think you are spending too much time worrying about what this person is doing and not enough enjoying your home.

Cristelle, actually - not true. I've been enjoying the house quite a lot, as are my friends. I'm curious from a business point of view. The enjoyment factor has nothing to do necessarily with the financial aspect of it. I'm sort of interested in possibly exploring that end of things here too, so this has presented a new opportunity for me possibly. I'm in this business in RL, so it is natural for me to contemplate the reality of this in terms of what it can do for me for the future. The desire for two homes is a key factor.

And, BTW, it is kind of hard to ignore a person who puts a big huge head of some kind of angry voodoo god on their house facing the far end lot of your property that you only use as a beach, and it suddenly disappears when you coincidently happen to remove your small harem tent from that plot of land and stop using it as a hangout. I can only assume, that he was not happy about me being so close to that particular lot of his.

Hi Elora, personally, I would just pack and go elsewhere. It's just not worth the time and effort, even if it feels galling. Just put up the plot for sale, get rid of it and spend your time on happier things.

If you want a nice seaside parcel with a good view and don't use heavy scripts, consider renting an Openspace sim (either a half sim or a full sim). There nobody can ruin the view and you pay as much as you would for a much smaller mainland parcel.

IM me in-world if this would be a viable option for you or hop over to my home (Rasa Aragonesa - the whole sim) to see what I made out of this.

If the same guy is boxing you in with ban lines on several sides, you may AR him. Just a thought....

What I would do if you don't mind selling is to set the land for sale for a high price. If your neighbour wants the land that much, he will pay that or might come back and offer you a lower but still a good sellable price.

Afterall, there are always other waterfronts lot available of the same quality.

Alt, that was what I thought I might do. My friend suggested about $3000 over what I paid, which IS high, but I paid a high price to begin with.

Again, I'm looking at this from a business point of view. Not trying to be emotional about it. I really AM past that part of it now. I have been looking at other pieces of property, and have found a few things I like, some inland, heavily wooded that are really lovely.

Elora, it really all depends on how much you paid for the land. I would suggest if the person wants that land so much, paying L25-30 /m would be reasonable. much more if he really wants the land. but 3000 is very small gain. land prices have gone up in the last couple of months.

Maybe I wasn't clear enough - it would be L$3000 over each lot, so L$15000 profit total. I paid about L$45000 for 5, 512 sq. meter lots.

Ok, that is a bit better. really it all depends if you can buy the same quality plot for less somewhere else.

Alt, is there someplace where I could go to find out about land prices? I don't mean the usual stuff, I mean about market analysis and such. A blog, website or something? Thanks

If it's on open, protected Linden water, then a MINIMUM of $L10 per square meter, and up to $25 or $30 per square meter. Add on to that the premium you want to charge the guy for "Asshat Tax". Soak him, dearie, soak him good.

I think Raymond Figtree has an In-World Land Group listed in his signature. They may be able to help you find an updated analysis of the SL land market.

I would IM him, tell him you are thinking about selling, and ask him if he is interested and how much he would give you.

Personally I think a good idea in transactions of this type is not to be the first one to name the price. Who knows, maybe if he is as land-greedy as you say, maybe he will offer you much more. best of luck!

Sorry, not aware of such a place. I get a sense of the prices by checking the map then again the standard land prices won't apply for selling a plot when someone really wants it

Thanks Ricky, but not necessary anymore. I managed, as I wrote, to fix the problem by moving my house so that the ban lines more or less disappeared, plus, I had enough land on each side so that I can't see them from the sides, unless I walk close to the property lines, which I rarely do. Some good landscaping helped too

Brilliant Lindal! It IS open protected, Linden water! Love your way of thinking!

Gosh, I hear ya Elora. I appreciate how it ruins enjoyment of your land too. Somebody decided to build a resort in the sim where i had a parcel, and amazingly, the Great Wall of China he would build around the parcels he wanted to buy would miraculously come down once he got them. One side of mine was protected thankfully...when I logged in one day to find aforementioned Great Wall surrounding 2.5 sides of my parcel.

I told him the tier was paid up until Aug 2008 though due to tier donations (much of it was actually, just not 100% of it), and let a "creative" friend borrow the land for a couple of weeks. I left it for sale at a very high price, and what do you know? He eventually caved and bought it.

No way would I entertain the idea of selling it even for market price to scum like that, let alone below. I guess it's more easily said than done though if you're covering 100% of your own tier and have no donations from friends to reduce your costs.

A few angles here. Ethics, morality, finance.

Ethics: the simplest.

If you can momentarily imagine yourself removed from the situation, consider what parties A and B should do, even if only A or B took the high road. Then do that. Yep, it will probably be expensive or annoying. If it wasn't, it would be called 'grab all you can!' not 'ethics'.

Morality: your code versus theirs.

In some situations, it is acceptable to break a few eggs. In the extreme, this is the warrior's code: when to kill, in such a way that you are not a murderer, but simply must. In microcosm, decide where your line is, and follow your own personal code of values. Perhaps that means to sell, and price accordingly.

Finance: everything has a price.

Theoretically, every parcel on the grid should be for sale. Maybe your parcel would cause you to cry for a week if you lost it. Well... would that be worth a million USD? Set the parcel at a fairly ridiculously high price, and see if it moves. Failing that, do it again, kind of going up and down every now and then. Ya never know, maybe it will sell, there are a lot of foolish emotional transactions on the grid. However, if you work this way, the true price is deeper: you have just commoditised your fellow man. Something to contemplate for a long, long time.

The Wildcard: ever talk to the guy?

Might be someone who doesn't realise how awful he's been, or someone who would never set up so many banlines around a friend. Few people are truly evil. Why stay on the outside - it's free to be friendly, and see what's going on. The worst that could happen is that your opinion of him won't change.

Good luck.

If you really wanto to treat it as a business transaction and keep the personal out of it, then get every linden out of him that you can. I have no doubt that with a nice profit and with some of the land moguls around here, you can find something equally nice.

Think of it as supply and demand. Basic economics. It sounds like your lots are of special demand to him, and you're the only supplier.

Given that there *is* a personal aspect to this, I see nothing wrong with being "purely" economical about it.

Wow Desmond - fantastic response. Thanks for taking the time to write all of that, it was extremely helpful.

Basically I agree with everything you wrote. For me, "Finance" and "Wildcard" are the two are work. Finace, because selling at a high price will allow me to purchase 2 homes, which I have had a hankering to do. "Wildcard" - no, I do not know him, but have tried to reach out to him when he first moved in and put his ban lines up. I was very friendly, mentioned getting together to meet and NOTHING came of it - just; more ban lines. So, I have no regard for him in the least.

Which of course, could easily lead back into "Morality" and "Ethics"

Highly appreciated!

Love and Walker - thank you also for your insight, also very helpful

Walker, it helps me to hear about others have been through similar situations. I suppose there are more of us out there than I can imagine.

Love, thanks for the understanding of supply and demand. Very basic, and to the point!

I always ask the neighbor with banlines to add me to the access list just so they won't be visible, promising never to trespass. I have about a 80% success rate getting a positive response.

I have 100% unsucessful rate Only time I had to try, and they didn't want to allow me. And I'm sweet as pie!

You're from Jersey, Hon. Send a couple of guys over to talk to him. maybe take him for a little ride.