Buying Group Land the First Time

I've been teaching a class on real estate 101 and it's a good way to see what people's questions are.

A number of newbies seem quite savvy on buying land and distinguishing among the different options.

They often figure out or have heard from friends that if they form a group, they can get a 10 percent bonus on the land. It does inded pay to make a group of at least 3 people and pool tier in order to have more tier coverage (tier is the maintenance fee you pay on the land, and it is separate from, and applied to, land, and is transferable, tying to land you own, or withdrawn when you sell land.)

The question then is how to do this without messing up and either losing the first-land privilege for some in the group or getting double-billed for tier.

If you have not yet bought first land, and you join a land group and put in tier, you will lose your first-land buying privilege. Not everyone minds this because first land isn't always the best, and isn't always available, and sometimes a group of friends have a better option. Still, you should be aware of the consequences.

If 3 people form a group, they could each put in 512 tier for 1536 tier. But then only one of them will be able to use the "buy for group" function to get a first land for only $512. The others, who are then in a land-owning group with their tier donated, will have used up their first-land function and won't be able to get first land for $512 now. That's why you should NOT do it this way.

Normally, AFTER you have already bought and sold first land, when buying group land, the sensible thing is to FIRST put in the tier THEN buy so that you aren't asked to tier up, and don't get stuck trying to transfer your individual land, on which you already paid tier, and then get asked to essentially pay tier on it again as you try to buy it for the group for $0. You'll be double billed if you do that. You can back out of all the menu prompts if this happens and start over, otherwise, if you confirm all the screen options you will find yourself paying tier twice on the same piece of land.

For the first time, it is better if each person buys their first land for the $512. They make a group in which all three are officers, or at least one is an officer who agrees to perform the deeding function.

Then all there must deed their land to the group. Once deeded, the land becomes group property. It can't be reversed, except for a $0 sale by an officer back to the person who deeded the land.

With all three pieces in the group, a bonus of 10 percent in tier coverage will then become available to make the tier required for the next purchase less.

oops that should have gone in land and economy, but can't seem to delete it and move it.

Moved over to Land & Economy.