Sell Prefabricated Land

Hi guys!

Im new to SL and i'm thinking about buying land (16km2 for example) and create a complete site with shops, appartments and recreation stuff. The hole place should follow a main topic like "medival style", "asian style" or "future style" ... etc... I have fun creating places and to design and build to a given topic. I dont like to just create for myself, cauze i'm a builder and hence just love to create stuff but I will then almost never use it for myself (like a big house with poolsite etc.., never use that!), when its created and i would have to just delete it and rebuild something else. That sucks a bit! I would appreciate it, when my work would not only reside in my inv. or go to trash. It would be fun to make other people happy with my creations, and i also would maybe earn some money, to spend in sl..

The question now is, if there are lot of people that would buy land which contain already an almost complete (or completely complete ) building complex (In high quality of course)? how much furniture etc is wanted? And whats about the price I can sell the hole place compared to the pure, flat land?

I know, i could also just build strcutures and then just sell components like a house or so, but thats not the thing i like mostly. So when there would be people that would like a prefabricated land, i would concentrate on that. What do u guys think about it??

greetz, b3n

The question now is, if there are lot of people that would buy land which contain already an almost complete (or completely complete ) building complex (In high quality of course)? how much furniture etc is wanted? And whats about the price I can sell the hole place compared to the pure, flat land?


I have seen a few people sell land with items already on it, for example one lady had a big lagoon type set up with suburban house all set up beautifully on land and she sold it all.

As for the price it's like creating content the price should represent the time, quality ect of your creations but not be so high that people wouldn't atleast think of purchasing.

Thats as much information I can give

Hope it all goes well

Nat

Interestingly that was one of the very first ideas I had and tried for the creation of a modest part time income from Second Life, that is buy land (in my case a 4,500 square meter island in a tropical themed sim) develop and landscape it, build on it via a nice prefab house that was transferable, and sell it on complete in the expectation of a profit.

The island purchase price was $L 35,000 (November 2005) and the total build cost was around $L6,000. It took me around 2 months to finish the development to my satisfaction, and even through I say it myself I believed I had an eminently saleable tropical island with plenty of prims left for the next owner.

When it came to selling it on the best price I was able to obtain was $L45,000 and that increase only represented the actual cost increase in land with water access that was happening at the time, together with an increase in traffic mainly due to increasing Second Life subscribers.

After taking tier costs into account ($25 US per month) I actually lost money.

The new purchaser deleted nearly all of my work, which included my build and landscaping.

I now believe that in essence land development will not pay here as in general Second Life land owners want to create their own content, a personal disappointment, but that is after all the free market economy

prefabricated land might be a good idea for those who have only lil time to spend in sl and wish to concentrate much more on socialising. on the other hand many peole wish to be creative, build themselves and have concrete ideas how their land should look like. this of course includes buildings.

if you look at land prices they differ a lot, even for the same quality, so the question of how much more one can ask for prefabricated land is a difficult one. from my perspective: I would only go for the land: a building would not convince me to buy the land and would only be a goody on top of it.

Better sell your goods extra, this is my final recommendation ...

You will probably find yourself a better market - and income - if you simply build and/or landscape to an individual customer's requirements. Advertise through classifieds and word of mouth, maybe offer your services (at a discount initially) to known land dealers, and they might pass that information on to customers. A simple note card giving an idea of prices and what you like doing is an invaluable tool.

Although I often see 'nice builds', they are usually as a complete landscape/build that someone has done. I often re-landscape around something I have created when I place down the final building, things don't look right, you might get a bit of grass poking through the living room carpet, that tree needs to move 2m E to avoid going through the garage, etc etc.

If you can buy a nice lump of land and perhaps make 2 or 3 different build/landscape ideas on it, to give prospective customers an idea of your capabilities, to add to whatever you've already done (when the time comes), if you have talent you could make some serious cash.

Or, like me, you'll keep your talent to yourself, fill up your land with your own nice stuff, and never have time or space to do anything for anyone else

Lewis

This kind of idea would would better with rentals than with selling. People nearly always delete previous builds when they buy land, sooner or later. The alternative would be to create a group that all agree to abide by the zoning restrictions (like Darkwood).

Just to parrot what others have said, people like to build it themselves. I have tried a few experiments w/ developed land, nearly every time the objects were returned within 5 minutes of the land being sold.

Just incase you still have doubts, I have also tried this in my 2 years here in SL, I have not had any luck with even making a profit off the land, let alone have them keep the builds as-is for any extended period of time.

- Sam

This is one case where I actually find myself in complete agreement with Lewis! Amazing!

Seriously, with the skills to do as you suggest, you're better off building to other people's specification, rather than building whatever you like and hoping someone will appreciate and value it as much as you do. I make most of my SL income by doing custom builds and landscaping. There is definitely money to be made there, if you can find clients who have high standards and who don't have the time or skills to build as well as you can.

Good luck!