Land For Sale from *, a potential rip-off ?

Greetings,

I had the recent experience of being banned from a lot of places that has land for sale that do not seem to be a part of the Linden Labs. IN my ignorance of how SL works seems like i asked the wrong questions to the person posted as contact (SL Realtor ?). (name of Relator deleted upon forum member request, i will place the notice in my profile)

I asked new people questions, like who am i really paying, and how all this works. If I buy how can i know if the computer used for the SIM will be available always and that my investment will not vanish some day.

I had to ask this bc she told me that the deals she offered was not a part of Linden Labs. She refused to provide any additonal information to me. With the claim that mine was suspicious questions. She also called me an Idiot (which i might be, but i don't think so, since very few people do call me that in RL)

Seems to me that all she was interested was to get some $'s (aka $L) and had no interest to tell me who i would be sending/paying the Ls to in RL.

Since I could only see an avatar profile with no real life contact, no website for contact i questioned how my investment would be safe?

Her response was to Ban me from all the places she controls, which i dont mind since i now have a better idea on who i would have been dealing with.

I post this as a warning to what seems to be a rip-off.

Maybe someone here can correct me and show to me that my current view of this situation is wrong.

Thanks for reading and responding.

Hi there,
You may want to remove the name from your post, as naming names is against the forum rules.

Just mention in your post to have folks look at your in-world profile if you want to advertise who the offender is.

Thank you, i will try do that. I just have no idea on how to deal with this issues, since i have been less than a month in SL.

The best way to deal with this? Forget it and move on.

You can also ask questions here or check out the Land sticky at the top. There's an SL land answers group you can IM for help in there.

Your questions were fair and valid but this may not have been a scam. The person you spoke to does seem to lack customer relations skills.

Estate land you pay the estate owner, whom then pays LL. So you don't directly pay LL. The deal on your side is between you and the estate owner and if they don't pay LL the land will indeed be lost, there are no guarantees and LL aren't interested in such disputes, they should be, but they're not.

Mainland you pay LL directly if you buy a parcel, LL are the most trustworthy landlords here. However there are estate land owners with good reputations and plenty of experience who would have explained the process to you in a civilised manner.

You are really paying the avatar. The RL person behind it may "cash out" later, but that is irrelivant in such a transaction.



If on the Mainland, then as long as SL and LL is around, the SIM will be available. If on a Private Island, then the SIM will be around as long as that Resident pays LL their month tier fees.



The only land purchases that are part of LL come from LL auctioning off lands. Almost all land purchases in SL come from Resident to Resident transactions.



RL is RL and SL is SL. To put it bluntly, a person's RL is their own and no one in SL has any right to know that information uless the person wishes to give it out. For the purposes of Land transactions, this information is irrelivant in any event.



Depending on your questions and wording, she may have considered you a "stalker". Asking questions about RL is usually frowned upon.

My advice is to use the F1 button in-world to link to LL's Knowledge Base (or use teh Support portal at the top of the forum) and look up Land, Land Sales, Tier, Buying Land, etc, and learn all you can about the system. Return here with any questions you may have AFTER reading all that ^.^

~Jessy

Thanks, i will move on, i thought it my be a good idea to post this, but then again, since im new, it is not. Time will tell.

There's a new Land answers group. When you're in world, go to Groups and search for Land Answers.

(If I remember correctly)

That would actually be worse than naming on the forums here.

Worst that happens here is that Strife locks the thread, it probably won't get sent for "Linden Review" unless it's a recurring problem. Putting it on your profile makes it an in-world AR'able offense in which case a Linden will deal with it, possibly earning you an official warning.

"Naming names" is against the rules on ALL Linden servers, so putting it in your profile is not a good idea.

Kazike, I'm not sure the person's behavior indicates potential fraud. What you described sounds like normal business for a large portion of private islands. Many island owners make people "buy" the land (in addition to weekly/monthly rent), but you as the buyer have no protection.

If you are very concerned about having a middleman between you and LL, you should instead buy on the mainland. As long as LL keeps SL open and you pay your tier, the land is yours.

Good attitude

I had your same question. I now lease land on an island that I paid to purchase from an avatar estate owner who shares no RL information. It is an investment that I can afford to lose, but I've had no trouble so far and it's been 4-6 months or so. There are some private landlords who DO provide real -life info, but they are few and far between. Personally, I pay my landlord only in Lindens because of this; although he would prefer to be paid via Paypal, I see no reason to share any RL info since he shares none.

One more way to get help: you can get an actual person to answer land questions when you have them in-world via the group Raymond Figtree started -- from his signature:

"Get live help for your SL real estate questions: Search "Land Answers" in Group. The SL Land Answers Unlimited group will be the first listing. Join the group and start a group chat session to get your questions answered live by a resident land expert!

We now have our own Land Answers Wiki!
land-answers.wiki.zoho.com. Seek and ye shall find! "

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

Thanks to all for all the info.

All that has been written as response do makes sense to me.

If the person (the realtor) had had taken the time to answer me the way that has been done here, this tread would not be here.

I hate to be the bastard weasel around here but..


Or you could have done a little research beforehand and been prepared instead of asking her to explain things to you. She sounds a bit rude and Darwin may well catch up with her but you really can't put all the blame on her..

You have a good point and i respect your view. Keep in mind that no one is born (anywhere) knowing all.

I suggest that it might be a good business strategy to allow a bit of time to get to know a potential buyer, before calling the person an Idiot and Baning the person.

Her action and my ignorance of how SL works is what made this tread be here.

You can also EDIT the title of this message to remove the name.

The reaction from this estate owner/manager was absurd. I asked the same questions when I first bought land on an island as a beginner and no one called me an idiot.

This was just a totally nasty person. Buying land from anyone that unhelpful would be a mistake anyway.

That seems to take a while though. It's a shame it isn't an instant change.

She doesn't sound like she was a rip-off to me, but it's hard to say. Sounds like she was an idiot, though, and you should be happy you found out. I wouldn't bother posting info about her in your profile, etc. Just move on and forget it and be glad you learned about her before you "bought".

Regarding wanting guarantees? You've come to the wrong place. LL can't guarantee the sims will be up so the sim owners sure can't. Even if a sim owner plans to be around for awhile you never know what in their RL could make them vanish suddenly.

Buying an individual lot for private use is NOT an investment. Or if it is, it's an extremely risky one.

As Ciaran stated above. LL land is the 'safest'.

Also see this thread:
/327/a2/225872/1.html

Anyone who owns a private SIM can just poof one day. If you paid a week/month etc in 'rent or tiers' and they poof, you are out the money. This holds true with Linden Labs as well, but I see them sticking around longer then private SIM owners.

There have been many posts by people who have lost lots of their money. Stick to mainland or rent from those who have a reputation for be good/honest. There are quite a few active residents on the forums who rent out land on SIMs they own, I'm sure other resident could suggest reputable landlords also.

She may be a frustrated person who is tired of teaching people who just don't get it. At that point, she should hand off to someone else. Compounded with you asking about RL info, that is a powderkeg waiting to happen.

No offense to the OP, but without knowing what exactly you said to her, this thread is not worth much. If you took the same attitude with her that you took in here, launching suspicion and questions at her, I can see how she would get irritated - especially since you were asking about her RL info.

It is good that you choose to let it go. I would let this thread die now.

I did make the change/edit (i.e. the removal of the name from the title and tread, however it does not seem like a forum user with my privileges can change the original tread title, the main one seen when all current treads are listed.

Thank you all, i realize now that this is how out of Linden Labs land sales/business is done. And that my questions regarding who i was dealing with in rl are irrelevant to many in sl.

I might be one of the few exceptions here in sl, but I like to know who i do business with, and where my money goes.

It might be that other people might learn from this tread, none of this was on the Orientation Island when i started. These things are not that obvious to the new person arriving to sl from rl.

She did mention to me to look at "Wiki" (which i had done, on the main wikipedia we all know) but i had no idea that there was a Wiki for land issues and other SL issues.

I don't think your questions were outofline at all. A fewmonts ago, Isold allmy land and rented from a guy who was reccommended by a friend. Iasked his manger tons of questions and she answered each one cheerfully and completely. I still live there and have NO plans to move.

My best advice is to go to theLand Answers group OR ask a knoweldgale friend or two.

This entire thread is exactly why I wish the term "ownership" would no longer be used. It's very misleading.

That's what it sounds like to me; she just didn't want to deal with any more dumb questions and so she ended her business relationship with the OP. Normally we can mute people; but an estate owner cannot really mute her tennants - that would hardly be practical - so just ending the business arrangeming probably seemed like less hastle.