Checklist/advice for sim ownership xfer?

I've just started a private sim purchase procedure with LL. We've submitted the support tickets so I expect the transfer to happen in the next 5-ish days, I guess.

The sim is a residential rental sim. I understand that sims are sold as a single big parcel. What exactly does this mean? Will all of the parcel info simply be wiped when I'm set as the sim owner, or is there anything I need to do? Does this mean that the sim xfer WON'T work unless I manuall remove all the parcels and set the whole sim is one parcel? I don't read it that way, but I'm not sure. I'm assuming it will just show up as one big parcel owned by me real soon.

Anyone have a checklist of things I should do to prepare for this transfer? I send out a notice telling residents what to expect, that their stuff will still be there, and I'll reparcel their lots and give them ownership as soon as I can, etc. What else should I do (I'm an estate manager so I can do most anything that needs to be done, or ask the current owner to do it if necessary)?

Thanks in advance!

If your buying a Island Estate with residents already on it, the SIM is just that one Island, however, it's more than likely that the present residents already have their parcels defined and they have their boundaries, ie the island will be segmented.

However if your buying the SIM direct from LL as new, you will just get a empty square piece of land undivided, set to the terrain you choose, with nothing on it but possibly a 0.5 meter plywood cube for you to delete. Nothing else, you'll need to advertise to get residents to come to your island, and if that's the case you have tons to do.

Actually I'm amazed you are going to buy an island and have to ask advice, I decided nearly a year ago that I would buy an island and in all that time my purpose in SL is to make sure I know what it requires, how to manage it, what residents will expect from me, what theme if any it will be. I got basic understandings of terrain landscaping, building, scripting etc. etc.

In case of a SIM transfer the parcelling will stay in place, however, there are some things that CAN happen (depending on which Linden does the work):

- the covenant can be erased
- estate managers can be erased
- the SIM can be closed to everyone but the new owner who has to set it back to the old access type
- parcels owned by single owners (not group owned parcels) can be suddenly in the name of the new SIM owner instead of the parcel renters/owners - the new SIM owner has to "sell" them again to the old parcel renters/owners. This can be a BIG problem if on such parcels autoreturn is activated - so better check this before and tell all parcel owners to turn off autoreturn til everything is set again.

As I said, all those things *can* happen, I had transfers with none of them happening, too.

Excellent, thank you. I did think of the autoreturn issue and have been running around telling residents to turn OFF autoreturn and will revert any parcels back to me to turn off autoreturn if I need to. I'll save the covenant, good tip.

Thanks for the advice!

I sincerely hope that you will not be in the unhappy situation of having people wanting money back from you if they decide to leave because of the change. Ciaran will consider you to be a scamming thief.

What in the world are you talking about? Who is Ciaran and why in the world would this person accuse me of being a thief? LOL this is bound to be interesting, please elucidate. I'm curious how you have any personal knowledge of this transaction and the people involved. Or do you?

I believe Cristalle and Ciaran frequently squabble in these forums - nothing personal related to your sim transaction

By the way, sim transfers generally go fairly smooth in my experience from a technical standpoint. I now have three under my belt. Biggest risk in sim transfers in my opinion is people not transfering the sim over to you and scamming you out of your money. Fortunately i've been okay in that respect - but realize it is always a risk. Its always safer to buy from LL directly.

As for the current island residents of the sim you are taking ownership of, sometimes they go along with the change just fine, sometimes they are not too happy about it. This is normally something that should be worked out by the person selling the sim to you, PRIOR to them selling it to you. Otherwise you may find yourself with tough choices as to what your obligations are to the residents after the transfer is complete. Technically, your only obligation in my opinion is to the seller, and you have no real obligations to the sim residents. The previous deals these residents made were never with you. That being said, I always try and make residents happy from sims that I inherit. It just *feels* like the right thing to do, and goes along way for your reputation. I've never had a tenant from a sim i've inherited ask for money back, and I don't know that I would pay them if I were ever asked, but I have had other issues that I have dealt with that I have bent over backwards to make everyone happy - and this has contributed to my having many happy residents enjoying virtual life on my islands ...

Best thing for you to do at this point in my opinion is get with each resident and introduce yourself, tell them your vision for the future of the sim, and try and get a feel now for what if any conflicts you may have. You can try and work out these conflicts now so that everything is peachy for you and your residents after you take ownership of the island...

Hi Sasun,
Honestly the only advice I have is to get the transfer of ownership down in RL writing, get it signed and notarized, and faxed to/from the other party. When you start talking large sums of real dollars, stuff in writing becomes important. Just my 2 cents.

I know nothing of your situation.

We have a general disagreement about the role of buyers when an island transfer results in the "scamming" of its tenants. Ciaran thinks buyers who do not do research about the land are complicit in the scamming. I think that is too strong of a word, really, and goes too far. I think an unwitting buyer such as yourself intends to buy an island, but not the obligation to pay people back if they decide to move because of the change. If you read this forum long enough, you'll see lots of "I got scammed by my landlord" threads, with some people losing a lot of L.

Ciaran's stand is that if you end up evicting people that you're part of the scam. I don't see it that way, I put the blame on the seller of the island. Unless you are keeping the covenant status quo, you could be in for some trouble and you too could be the next landlord to get bitched about in Resident Answers.

Do your homework. You might want the seller to evict everyone first, so you won't be the "scammer." I hope you haven't parted with your money yet.

If they decide to leave, that's their decision to make.

Personally my feeling is this: if I did not accept money from the people, I don't owe them money, the only contractual agreement they may have is with the person they paid money to.

That's my take as an island owner. I do treat those who rent from me very fairly, but asking a new owner for a refund when you haven't paid them a linden is like trying to take a dress back to a store you did not buy it from.

Well I suppose my situation is unusual. I've been living on the sim for a long time now, and everyone there I consider my friend, some of them very long term and dear friends. This is not some kind of money-making commercial venture where my poor tenants have to live by my iron fist rule - they are my friends and I know they have full confidence in me to run the sim the way it was first envisioned, as a place for friends to live. Rent is far under tier, just enough to cover sim fees with the help of a few stores to lower rental expenses even more. I am anything but the "unwitting buyer" you labeled me and I resent the implication, especially from someone that knows absolutely nothing about me, the sim and the residents here.

In my case your proposed solution of evicting everyone first is not what friends do to each other, so that's not gonna happen, but thanks for the advice, even if misguided.

Luckily the transfer is happening right at the time that next month's rent is due, so *of course* any resident is free to leave and I'd be happy to refund any money they are entitled to if that were to happen.

I'm getting the feeling that there's this strong undercurrent of bad landlords running amok in SL. I wouldn't know, I've been living in ignorant bliss on my sim with my good friends for a long long time.

Thanks again for all the advice, everyone.

First things first: there is nothing to resent. Lighten up, for pete's sake. It is not something personal against you, and there is no implication of you being stupid, if that is your problem. As I already said, I knew nothing of your situation. Why would you think that I would attack you? I was just clueing you in to a very serious topic that recurs frequently, and buyers run a risk when purchasing an island. Clearly, you do not have the same level of risk but how was I supposed to know? Grow some thicker skin and get over yourself.

If anything, I am on the side of buyers and want the onus to be on the sellers to do the right thing, since they are the ones with the most information, and the most control over the situation, and have the least to lose.

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Bully for you if you can afford to give people back money that you didn't contemplate shelling out.

Lucky you. Now you will learn about the other side.