Allowing non estate owners to purchase homesteads

In addition to working a normal 8-5, M-F, I am a small business owner; my husband and I own a small table top gaming company. I originally created my Second Life account to research its marketing potential (I have a entrepanuership degree) to see how it may help my small and growing business. Second Life gave me a 'run for my money' (a little southern slang...); there is a lot that can be done through this virtual world.
Many of the friends I have met over the last two months claim that I am a little over zealous for a 'noob'. I looked seriously into starting my own SL business selling clothing, wedding planning, etc. I also looked into renting my own little piece of paradise, too; my own 'full homestead sim'.

Which brings me to my point.

I decided against it, simply for the fact that it is not 'mine', and my income isn't great enough to support a full private region. Renting is appealing and all that, but without owning a full private region, I can't 'own' a homestead. So, that means if the person I am renting from takes my linden I pay them with and does something else with it, I as the renter, have no rights to protect my 'home'....I'm not *really* suppose to be using it anyway. SL doesn't have 'renters laws' like RL (however limited they may be). So, from a business prospective, LL is loosing $95 a month (soon to be $125) from myself and all of the people like me. I agree with the some of the other posters; this is a market that LL should look into. There are a ton of people that want to own their own space without being bothered by 'griefers' or having unwanted neighbors. So, I'll do something significantly smaller until then and save the big money for when LL figures out how to appeal to customers like myself.

It is true that making homesteads available for purchase for everyone will devalue the land on the main grid. So, I only see two options:

1. Eat it. Let everyone that wants a homestead buy one, pay LL every month for it, and move on. This keeps people like me, that want to own their own space, happy. Then make the Homesteads cheaper for Estate Owners...that way they can rent them out for cheaper than owning one, and still make their money. This keeps everyone happy.

and/or

2. Make prices for mainland cheaper. Make it more affordable for the average SL player to have more land on the main grid, if they want it. More land means less neighbors. Club owners can have more land to run their businesses, and home owners on the mainland can afford to keep these clubs far away from them.

LL is a business, not a charity. They have to make money. A Premium account is still cheaper than going to the movies, much less a date, for many many more hours of entertainment. I applaud good business decisions and I'll be clapping (and buying) when they figure something out about the homestead situation.

My account is barely two months old, so maybe I'm missing something big. Just some thoughts.

You mean something like "Mainland Homesteads"? Mainland sims with the lower prim/script/agent limits of Homesteads and with tier discounted 50%? Kind of like the opposite of Bay City and Nautilus? That would be interesting.

Not a bad idea, making a Homestead available as a benefit of premium membership. If the Lindens are reading, I'd certainly be interested in reactivating my premium and taking advantage of this - and I know a lot of other folks would be too.

If they are reading, then I have to say no, having the ability to get a homestead as a benefit for Premium membership would not interest me in the least. LL shall have to have several years of good customer service without their bait and switch tactics before I'll trust them enough to buy any of their land again. Trick me once, shame on you. Trick me twice, shame on me.

But being allowed to create megas up to 200m, that would be worth restarting my premium account for. I currently am doing a task where I create a moving starfield on a giant sphere that surrounds a starship. Would be nice, you know, if I had finer control rather than just using a 256m sphere. But if that's what I have to do, then that's what I'll do.

Earlier in this thread, someone used the example of buying printers direct from HP vs a reseller. I think that was spot on.

One way for LL to recover this whole pricing debacle would be to hold at $95 in July for estate owners, i.e. if you own at least one full sim. But then offer the $125 rate to premium account holders without the need to own full sims. Estate owners can justifiably charge more than $125 if you are parcipating in a multi-sim region and community, enabling them to make a profit on their $95 fees. If you just want a single sim of your own, then direct from LL at $125 is probably going to be cheaper than from an estate. As it stands, the margin on top of $125 come July will price homesteads out of the market for many.

At this stage, no matter what LL does about the pricing of the Homestead sim, it is a no win situation. For instance, I got rid of my Open Space sim, and lost $250.00 US by doing so. I got rid of it because LL said they were going to jack up the tier price to $125.00 US in July. I made a decision based up LL's claim. If LL reneges and leaves the pricing at $95.00, then I have every right to be annoyed... but quite frankly, at this stage, I really don't care any more.

LL is going to do what it darn well pleases, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. SL is NOT a place for people to invest in, in order to make any kind return on the investment, when LL runs around changing the core economic basis - land pricing - every 6 months or so.