What is the safest way to buy land? (Please help the novice)

I've been running stores through rental for a while but recently considering to buy a small plot of land for personal use. Since there seems to be very limited number of lands available from Linden Lab for auction, what I would like to know is whether it is safe at all to buy non-linden owed lands? Is it a risky business? I have read horror stories about people pay for the land but the sellers fail to honour etc.

And what happens if the sim owner decided to close down the sim or sell it to someone else? What happens to the land I own? I have looked around the SL knowledge base for information but can't seem to get a definitive answer. I would very much appreciate your help. Thanks.

Short answer: Contact Sarah Nerd or Raymond Figtree. They are just about the most knowledgeable land perople here, Sara can help you find a plot to suit your needs be it Estate or Mainland. In general, yes on a private estate you are really renting the space and are at the mercy of the landlord, but if you get a decent one, it can be a good way to go.

Buying Mainland 'Land' is basically safe, as long as your going through the normal automated system Linden Labs have set up to sell/buy such land.

Did a search in the forums and this thread may assist you:

/327/63/254503/1.html

Thanks guys, the thread is particularly informative.

Looks like there isn't one answer to the question. Far from it. In fact, it actually put me off from the idea of buying. For the reasons that although I'm currently looking to buy a small land for private use, I was considering getting a bigger space for my store in the future and hopefully to avoid the rental overhead. But looks like there isn't too much benefit owning the land at all unless you actually own the entire sim. If you buy private estate you run the risk of rouge land owners, and buying mainland you have no control of your surroundings. And both cases you have monthly tier to pay.

Maybe I should stay renting for now...

you won't have tier if you are a premium member and you are only buying a 512 parcel on the mainland. Sounds like you are looking for a small place--there are lots of them around. But you're right... you have no control of your surroundings.

One advantage to owning the land your store is on is that you won't have a landlord who might evict you if they decide to do something different with the land. And it's generally good business to have a fixed location so that repeat customers can always find you.

If you buy mainland, there is very low risk, but yes you have to pay monthly tier for plots over 512 meters and you have to upgrade to a premium account.

NEVER buy land through the auction page. It is much cheaper to buy land using Land Search inworld. The only time to use the auction page is if you want a full sim or land on a specific sim.

I can give you a list of names of reputable landlords should you want to go the estate route. Sarah Nerd would be at the top of the list and I know she just got some new open space sims she will be renting out.

PM me with any further questions.

buying on mainland makes the land essentially yours to do with whatever you please. you can split it up into a shop and residential, or keep it all one parcel and just seperate the spaces with landscaping. if you buy on mainland, no one can take it out from under you (except Linden). after going premium, you can buy a 512m and pay $0 (zero) tier to SL. if you go to 1024, your monthly tier fees are L$5US. if you go to 1536m they are $8US per month. 1536 is a nice starting price because the fees are pretty low and manageable. there are plenty of reasonably priced 512m on the mainland in grassy areas. expect to pay more if you get near an waterfront, and even more than that if the waterfront is within viewing distance of an ocean (but man are the water areas nice).

it's really nice to OWN land (not estate renatl land) because you can do whatever you want, change as often and you want, dictate spacial sounds (music or environmental sounds), etc.

just open your map, click the "land for sale" button so all the spots for sale appear.... they are yellow. start TPing around to spots of interest to you, and compare prices & surroundings before you buy. it might take you a week before you make up your mind.

the old continents are a bit slower than the new ones, so pay careful attention to lag before purchasing. nothing sux worse than trying to move an object while building and having to wait for the lag to catch up with your mind. or chatting with your friends and messages getting all jumbled up because the lag is so crappy. grrrr (as of today) check out Oryx & Katla for price comparisons - good land at reasonable prices for the areas (each has a different feature making one more valuable (price wise) than the other.... then check out Shark. compare lag & prices and surroundings. you'll see wut i mean. good luck.

Also note that the sky is a very big place these days, so if a store or residence doesn't need to be integrated with ground-level surroundings, it can be located anywhere up to 4096m; those surroundings over which one has no control are likely to be well beyond drawing distance, for some altitude in that range.

The biggest risk with mainland is the neighbors. While LL will address some issues (prims intruding onto your land, some ad-farm abuse, etc.), they won't always help if the neighbors cause lag, or the neighbors have guests who shout, or are just plain crowded.

The biggest risk with private islands is the reliability of the estate owner. Many are reputable, but some act arbitrarily. And even someone who means well could either change their mind, or have a change of circumstances that prevents them from keeping up payments to LL. It's also possible that the estate owner won't get involved in disputes, just like LL, but many will.

You took the words right out of my mouth

To the OP - I just purchased a 512 plot for my store since it is a relatively new venture and I don't need much space but enjoy not having to pay rent and/or as others have mentioned losing the rental spot because the landlord decided to sell off or do something different with the plot.

Right now the ground level at my plot is attractive. But if that changes, I will just take my shop into the sky. I go to many stores I don't even realize I'm in the sky unless I happen to look up at the altitude bar, so they can be made very attractive as well.

Good luck with whichever decision you make.

buyinhg land need not be an overwhelming situation
first decide if you want to own the land, or have someone else own it and be your landlord
(main land vs estate)

then once you make that choice, open the map check off the land for sale option and look around, tp to the plots, look at the surrounding areas, and when you find one you like, right click the land and buy it

I prefer mainland, I have been in the same location for since sept 06 and even though ppl come and go around me, I would not move

right now, someone build a club next to me that doesn't get used, another has some kind of spaceship, and a good portion of the sim is done up to look like a nice park

I mainly stay inside my own place so do not see a lot of the stuff outside

if you plan to build a home or store that you are not worried about the external, then it will not matter what things look like outside of your plot

Renting is no problems and esy to get out of if it's not what you want worst you can lose is a couple of weeks rent, also if you find a Landlord whose been in SL for a while they should be trustworthy rather than a 2 month old one. There is good mainland about too and renting in a place with good traffic (not cheated trafficbot traffic) can mean better sales than your own plot in the middel of nowhere.

How do I make sure that when I'm TP'ing around and looking for land for sale that I'm on the "mainland"?

Is there an easy way to tell if a property or land that I'm on is on mainland?


Thanks

About Land, Covenant tab, Estate: Mainland

As well as the above method, if you are using the inworld land sales search, you can filter it to "mainland only".

Look at the Covenant tab in "about land" if there is no covenant then I believe you are on the mainland.

As others have posted:
- Select 'Mainland Only' if using the Land for Sale search. Searches that mix Private Island and Mainland can not be evaluated by price.
- Check the Covenant

And
Click Map and zoom way out. You'll always see if you're in a cluster of islands or on one of those dirty great continents of mainland.

Zoom back in and have 'Land for Sale' checked in the Map. Look for the yellow (for sale) parcels in interesting areas. Drag the map around to see surrounding areas.
I have a number of mainland parcels in great unspoilt locations. I found them all by looking at the Map. In Search it would have been difficult/impossible to find them so quickly.

This is my favorite method of finding land to buy. Just keep tp'ing from one yellow patch to the next until you have a good idea of what's out there, what prices are, and what you really want.

It's not really in my own best interests to post this, as such profits as I make, are of course made through the FAR SUPERIOR deals to be found through Linden Auctions.

But it just rankles me to no end to see someone post something that---I have to guess---is intended to deliberately mislead.

Sure, if you're on to a good thing, it's fair to keep quiet about it.

But to knowingly try to steer people away by posting misleading information (and I'm making the assumption that this is what's happened---sure, I could be wrong, but how could a truly-informed person REALLY believe that you only go to Land Auctions if you "want a full sim or land on a specific sim".....????) is...icky.

Just sayin'.

I have and i know others before me have bought land and met with the same or a similar problem.
A landlord that just out of the blue says you must remove all your objects as he is giving up the land.
The major difference with this Landord is that it can only be called theft if that landlord is not going broke, is purchasing other sims (open sims) to continue land rental, takes tier that is payed a full 14 days before it is due and then 3 days after tier date has actually arrives sends out a message to all to remove all.
What protection does the tenant have ...and if none .....WHY not??????
This is direct THEFT as the sim owner Knew while taking tiers that he would not honour the rentals for the coming month.

If the land lord tells you that you can use his land for a certain length of time for a certain amount of rental money, then takes the money but does not let you use the land as promised it is theft. Whether the landlord meant all along to commit theft or just decided later to kick you out and not to refund your money because he was going broke or some other reason not spelled out in the agreement doesn't make any difference, it is still theft.
What defense do you have against this kind of theft in SL? Understand that this can happen when renting from landowners and do not part with more money than you are willing to lose if it does.

Raymond would not deliberately mislead, the only conclusion I can come to is that Raymond has looked in the land auctions infrequently, like me, and thought "WTF" when we see the prices people are bidding.

The land auction regulars probably do find bargains but my impression of land auctions has been overpirced land.

close but what you really need to look at is same page under estate

region: whatever
estate: mainland
owner: (none)

thats how you tell it has to say that on the top of the covenant page. somebody can retype "There is no Covenant provided for this Estate." on an island but can't change those two things