Prices for apartments... opinions?

So, imagine this hypothetical apartment complex for me.

There are six regular rooms around 14mx10m in size that can hold 50 prims each.

Two suite style rooms which are 28mx20m that can hold 100 prims each.

Each resident of the apartment is allowed 10 prims on the first floor, where a store is, so that they can sell a total of ten boxed items that they have made for whatever price they choose.

A stage is on the roof for events; a patio and dock is attached to the build for boating--the apartment's on the water. It's a PG sim.

I understand the prim alotments are not huge; but, what would be a reasonable price to pay per week in L$? My initial thought was 100L per regular room, 200L per suite room.

Please, toss some numbers around here.

I had a short lived career as a landlord. I offered a 15mx30m apartment with a balcony, use of 70 prims. No other amenities like common areas and retail space.

I charged L$40 a week and only rented to people that could not own land due to basic account status. It was sort of hard to rent the space, I never had all six units full at the same time. My place is in Palomarian and in the middle of no where though.

I mostly did it as a service, but charged L$40 to get a commitment out of it. I wasnt looking to really profit on the deal. Considering they will have retail space, a higher rent seems fair. Good luck, hope you have fun with it.

I'm so shocked that me using the word "opinions" didn't generate lots of them! Hehe.. gonna let this thread stay alive for just one more day...

New to the world and at first not able to own land I did some hunting on apartments in world and found this:

Average apartment was 1L$/1 Prim +50

For example:

Apartment offering 100 Prim drop was 150 a week
Apartment offering 200 Prim drop was 250 a week

On an average mind you. There were variations and exceptions but there really are so few apartments in world and most of them are rented already.

There is one place that offers only a 45 Prim drop but if I remember right they do not even charge to rent there I think... if they did it was minimal. But they also had no shop area or anything either.

You can do a Find for places with the keyword Apartment and go see what your competition is. Most have small info boxes out in the garden/lobby areas where you can find out what the rents are and such. Plus you can also see what other amentities they offer for their tenants.

Hope this helps.

Your numbers suggest I hit my estimates right on the nose--except for with the suite rooms, but they're twice in size, so I'm thinking that might separate it from the norm.

Okay, great; I'll watch this thread closely, but will be planning to announce the opening of my apartment complex soon, woohoo!

Mine is the free one. The TigerTor apartments in north Miramare of the city. I'm trying to cover the cost of the land (both the rather expensive startup cost and the US$ fee to keep it) with nothing but dwell. To that end, I require tenants to actually spend time in their apartmetns. I mean, if they aren't, then they don't really need them.

If someone doesn't even log on for 7 days, I release their room, returning all objects to them.

If someone is logging on, but not spending any significant time at the apartments, then I give them five days and some IMs reminding them about the room they have.

With 20 rooms, there's a fairly high turn-over rate, but I get many people each DAY looking for rooms. If I could buy more of Miramare, I would, and make more rooms and/or increase the prim limits. (Limit of 45 per suite.)

But they ARE free, and people are encouraged to have gatherings there or at the nearby park where there is a photoboard and a chess set.

Grignano Towers does 40 prims for $250 a month.

Is that too high or too low?

LF

Apartment owners need to band together and force up
unit prices. $250/mo for 40 prims, no way. Charge'm
$250/2wks or $500/month.

I don't know why anybody needs to IM folks to use their
apartments. If they paided, who cares what they do? When
the next billing cycle rolls around, if they don't pay, they
get booted.

Land cost around $30/USD or $L7500 per acre 1024m2.
So I'd say divide that into 12 (for 12 months) and charge
Lindens around $500-$600/mo. That gives them the option
to pay you something on the average of $2.50/USD a month
or go buy a piece of property themselves, spend money to
build/add to it, etc..

The Apartment market is (New Players). New Players are short
on cash and need a place to live/build. Once they get settled
in the game with cash in their pockets, then move on and
buy house. No different than real life.

So IMO, I say charge $500/mo for 50/prims. Just like
OPEC, apartment owners need a monoply on housing.
Why waste money on a loosing venture if your going to
give away space? You spent money to provide a room,
charge for it.

Problem is, new players (basic account) who need the space, or can actually use an apartment don't make L$500 in a month, they make about L$200 in a month. Those making more than L$500 a month will probably find their own place.

Here is my economic breakdown. Please, correct me if I'm
off my rocker.


I estimated that a 16 unit / 50 Prim per unit complex is gonna cost
me around $L65,000. The land needed is the 99% of the
cost. Something on the order of 8,192m2 to support about
2000/prims.

So thats about $L4,000 per room. If I rent that room at the
rate of $L50/month, it'll take 80 months or 6.7/years to
recoup me cash. Now I donno about you, but I'm not
waiting that long. If I can charge $L500/mo, then in 8/months
the complex and land cost will recouped and I'll be in
pure-profit heaven. Assuming 16 units are maxed at all
times. $L8,000 a month profit would be nice cash flow.
Before taxes.

Overall, Apartments are costly and the return should be too.
$L500/month isn't gonna cut it for somebody to buy their
own plot. Land prices are around $L7500 an acre 1024/m2.
If they are only making $L500/mo, they'll just have to
remain homeless or open their USD for $L on GOM.

In any case, I think Apartment Owners are getting ripped
off by charging so little. Property Owners need to band
together and try to force up prices to recoup their return on
investment.

I paid around $50 US dollars + 35,000 lindens for my 5000-odd meter plot in Grignano. I own a lifetime membership (thank the gods), so I'm only paying 8$/month in land fees. At current GOM rates, I paid around $40,000 lindens for my land.

I can hold a maximum of 30 tenants currently. 30 tenants times $250 a month is $7500 lindens a month. So within 6 months, I'll have paid off my land fees, and I'll still be making enough to cover my $8/month land fees.

Sounds good enough for me

LF

How many Prims are available to tenents at your complex?

40 prims per floor.

LF

*tries to break down pricing*

I have a large plot of land in Miramare, 5,632 m2, a Lifetime account, and more land elsewhere in the game wich puts me in the US$40/mo tier. The land cost me about L$70,000 between the US$ and L$ auctions (6 plots total). Since the monthly payment is used for the other land as well, I'll say the apartments only need to contribute US$10/mo to that, or L$2,500/mo.

The apartements are free, with my returns coming only from dwell, which I can't break down by plot, but I estimate at L$200 a day averaged over the last month. So taking out the apartment's share of the land tier cost leaves a profit of L$3,500... Which would take 20 months to pay back the cost of the land.

So you can see I'm not running the apartments for profit, but as a public service. They may pay for themselves eventually, but if not... No biggie.

In contrast, I've also got a 32 m2 plot that makes L$13,000+ a month.

On my very best day, having hosted three events (all non-linden funded) I recieved 200L for my dwell. Can someone explain to me the dwell variables again?

I really can't understand why anyone would play SL for a profit or just to break even. In otherwords pay for itself. It takes so much out of the enjoyment of being in SL. I'm in the 1/4 region tier now and as far as paying for it. It's not a concern. I am in SL for the sheer enjoyment of it and Im afraid if I changed my point of view much of that enjoyment would be gone

Toy--not everyone can -afford- that kind of thing in real life. And some people, myself included, want to create some purpose in our Second Lives. I want to host homes for people.