Rent, Don't Buy Land

To own land, you must have a Premium Account, $10/mon plus tier e.g. 1536 sqm lot would cost $18/mon in fees; that's L$ 5130, or L$ 1930/wk, which could rent a very nice house or lot.
Unless you're buying 1st land, a 512 sqm lot will prob. cost you at least L$ 3000 ($10.70). And you are at the mercy of your neighbor's building whims; land is hard to sell at a profit when a neighborhood is deteriorating.
Apparently, one VERY large land speculator will buy sims, subdivide and sell parcels, but also create mini parcels, 16-64sqm and not sell them immediately. Later these mini's are sold to "ugly sign land extortionists". These folks put up ugly signs and offer these mini lots for 1000-10000 L$, a high price to be rid of such signs.

If you buy land, then buy a private island.

buying land saves you money long term however

How does it do that?
Most people who rent land, set the prices the same as what LL charges for land tier.

How do you figure?

Buying a 4096 will cost you at least US$50, plus US$10 a month, plus US$25 a month tier. Now part of that US$10 is offset by L$2000 stipend, but that still leaves you with maybe US$28 a month net cost.

Renting a 4096 will cost you nothing down, plus US$25 a month rent. Now, some places might charge a bit more than that, but others charge less, so the $25 I'm paying is probably close to average (as well as being what I'm paying).

Where's the savings?

hey, glad to see that post count getting higher!

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i have rented land since i started SL. i rent mainland because it is very cost effective to do so.

i get a lot more bang for the buck. i actually did the math prior to renting.

anyone that asks my opinion, i tell them my experiences and urge them to rent.

perhaps I should have said 'costs you less' rather than will save you money. As a land owner I do not have to worry about monthly rent, weekly rent, or if I am going to be evicted. I can also design my land and builds in anyway I desire. That is, to me at least, a freedom that is priceless.

perhaps you shouldnt have posted at all...oh yeah, youve almost reached 1000 posts!

i dont think anyone is going to buy your "new and improved" post. lets see...

i can do all those things you listed on my land as well. the few things that i cannot "just do" like listing my land and changing the description is handled quickly by my established, well known, respected landlord. which has been twice in the past 6 months.

respected landlords with 1000's of US dollars on the line are not going to fuck their tennants over. step outside your comfort zone and think about it...

Its mroe of a personal thing Taco. In rl I rent, in sl I can own. That is part of my decision as well. it comes down to what best fits your budget -and- your personal tastes.

yes, thats exactly what it is. differnet strokes for different folks.

now your tune changes...

you try to make it sound like renting is a poor choice because you cant edit your land and build what you want. that is simply untrue. youre creating unease when it isnt warrented.

why bother commenting on subjects in which you clearly have no knowledge...

wtg 999!

I think there are advantages and drawbacks to both. Pick which suits you and use it.. for a casual person wanting to get into SL and experiment with whats possible - renting is probably a very good idea. No tier - no real obligations - try before you buy.

gonna say that to the OP too?

and ty

I completely agree with renting mostly for reasons already stated:

1) Flexibility--Ease of getting the hay-ell out should something bad happen to the neighborhood. And this isn't just some psychic benefit--flexibility of this kind actually has value according to financial theory. Otherwise, stock options would have no worth. (I'm being very shorthand here, forgive me, but I'm basing this on grad finance courses of a decade ago.) Considering the godawfulness of my first land in Yeppeun, where I'd hear some Silence of the Lambs psychokiller lookalike slaverdork torture his slave girls on one side while dominoes fell every ten minutes on the other and a multicolored tube slide filthied the view from another, followed by a club opening across the sim, flexibility is much more valuable in SL than in RL.

2) Cost--I'd pay $22 for that 4096 at my landlord's rates. God love her, she's the best.

3) Zero Barriers to Exit--I can pack up my build into my inventory and place it somewhere else at a moment's notice.

Add to that the artificiality of the Linden (on any measure its value is arbitrary), renting really wins. Though I'd be glad to know where I'm wrong in my take.

Personally I think there are only two reasons to own land in SL:

1. If you have a shop having the ability to set / change your listings in Find
2. If you cannot rent the type of property you want elsewhere but found it for sale.

I'd say purely financially, the most cost effective course is a basic account and rented land - so long as you have done your homework on how to make the most out of things and accessed good rentals with good options and bought your Linden at opportune times.

That said I own land because of the 2 points above.

it depends on the size of the land you want to rent, the closer you get to full sim size the less reason to rent. for small plots it makes a lot of sense.

I think my plot (my groups plot) of 5120 falls between the cracks of 'large' and 'small' at 1/12 of a sim (12.8 to be exact)

Yes you do, it's called "tier". And if you don't pay your land goes back to Governor Linden.
You can do that on rental land on the islands as well (and could on the mainland if LL would allow mainland estates).

You know what I want to know? How much land the original poster has available for rent...

You made me want to know this as well so I did some research. Would appear our friend and thread poster, Mikhail Pasternak, happens to be renting shops and homes at a sim called Shangri La. You have to love people posting with such a strong bias without informing readers that they have a reason to argue their point. Just to point out I am NOT arguing for or against renting/buying land. Personally I rent but it's not because I don't want to own my own sim or anything just that I am too cheap to spend money on Second Life, been going 2 years without doing so, would like to keep it that way

Any reasonable landlord will assist you with that.

Im not quite following this logic, perhaps someoone can explain...

People are saying it's better to rent than own...

But, why not own land and rent it out?

Why does one even need to rent residential land?

Doubledown, renting can be a better deal than owning land (and I own land), simply because tier gets cheaper as it gets higher. If your landlord has a whole sim, and rents you 1536m, they are getting that 1536m at a lower price than you could if you owned just 1536m and paid the tier. This allows some landlords to rent parcels at a price lower than LL's tier.
In addition, you don't have the cost of purchasing the land. Feel like a change? You can pack up and move anytime. Some rented sims have zoning in place, which is attractive to some, it means no nasty little surprises cropping up next door.
Land ownership in SL is somewhat of a misnomer. Effectively, you are buying the right to rent a particular parcel from LL. Don't pay your tier, you'll find you own nothing.

Malin Arizona,
slick McCoy,

Yes, I do own the private island Shangri La, and do want people to rent from me. And yes, I should have mentioned that.

Admonished,
Mikhail Pasternak

For some people it's not a part of the fantasy life to be a landownder and deal with the hassle. Me, I like to roleplay that I'm the guy responsible for the lettuce preshredder machine for all the Taco Bells in the upper northwest US. It's just a role, sure, but woo the thrills.



I'm sure you mean to ask some meaningful question, but what is it? Maybe internally this made sense, but on the face of it, the plainest answer is the old fallback, 'to have a base of operations for your squadrons of dung beetle tinies as they plot to overrun the Ahern Greeting Area.' You know, pretty much the stock reason for anyone on the grid to own land.

Plus, you get that automatically if you rent on an Island.

Why do your calculations based on the highest fee for a premium, If you pay the annual, monthly fee is only $6 USD per month. With the stipend you get, that account basically pays for itself in the sense that you don't have to buy Lindens unless you are a consumer whore like me!

You get a 512 included in your 6 bucks a month, and can shell out up to 5250L and still the account pays for itself.

Now granted, you can't do much on a 512 plot, so you up your tier to an additional 1024 (total of 1536M) and pay 8 bucks a month. That's a whole $14 USD a month...and since there's no hurry to buy land at first...you can wait, save up your lindens or look for first land.

Overall, I prefer owning.