Buying land on a private sim

This is something I'm having trouble finding definite answers on, either I'm not looking very well, or am searching for the wrong words.

Anyway, it's like this, someone I know has a privately owned sim, so they're paying whatever a month for it.

I would like to own a chunk of that land.

Do I still need to pay tier charges to own that land? And if so, is what I pay deducted from what the sim-owner pays?

I'm strongly hoping so because any other way would be really non-sensical, owning a private sims would break even quite happily if they sold off all their land, and could make a profit by charging an additional L$ fee per month (since it's a privately owned sim rather than a public one). Otherwise if you have to pay tier fees AND equivalent rental fees just so a sim owner can break-even then that's not very good

I realise that even if you 'own' land on a private sim that it is still technically the sim-owners (I they can take it back iirc?), but if they did so then you'd have no reason to pay tier fees anymore so all is fine there.


Thanks for any responses, it would be nice to have this cleared up!

Private Sim land cannot be resold. To "own" it, what is generally done, is to deed to land to a group, of which you are an officer. Meaning the sim owner will still pay the full amount.

You never buy land on a private sim (in the SL-technical sense). They merely deed it to your group, with the caveat that they can reclaim it at any time.

As such, any money you can give COULD be taken, but most sim owners have 195 reasons a month to act ethically.

To add: Sims can be resold whole (not parcels, the whole thing), by a transfer, but there is an $100 (US) fee that is incurred in doing so, and is known as a "transfer fee".

Hmm, it's just a small plot of land I'm looking for. Okay then, if a piece is deeded to a group with the owner in it, and I contributed my tier land to it, would that do anything to help them? Can groups even own a sim in this way? I seem to remember reading something like that in the group wiki entry, but it doesn't specify if that's to buy a sim's worth of land, or a private sim.

No, individules cannot deed tier in order to own a private sim. The whole bill has to go to 1 account. The group owned sim N.Burg is done so by having a group paypal account for the pupose of paying the sim fees, I believe.

Either way, the only way to pay your way on a private island is to send payments to the owner in either L$ or US$.

What can be done is he/she can parcel off the bit you want, join the group, deed it to the group, and leave the group. Meaning the officers of the group can edit the things on that parcel.

There are Private Sims that advertise to "Sell" you land. Understanding that you will not OWN it as you do on the main grid what they do is charge you a lump sale price (let's say L$25000) but still charge you their own 'tier' fee (let's say L$400 monthly). And they do advertise that if you 'Purchase' their land that you can RESELL it to someone else.

Of course you have to understand that it IS deeded to your group and that any sale that you make to someone else will have to be facilitaed by the "LAND OWNER" (Sim owner).

I think that is what you may be referring to. LOL

Hmm, that sounds okay then, cheers for all the information!

It would be cool if a load of people could contribute enough land allowance to 'purchase' a sim though, I guess there's the issue of something lowering their tier/withdrawing land but that could be solved by alerting group officers I guess.

This works on the main land of course, and many people do that. But in private estates, donating tier to the group that it's deeded to will not cover any land fees, deeded land in private estates doesn't need any tier. So for example, you wouldn't be able to donate tier to a group and pay land fees to LL instead of paying rent to the estate owner.

This has already been covered by everyone in multiple messages, but I thought it might be good to summarize it here. Since we have just such kind of arrangement in Elf Clan by renting land on ElvenGlen, Elf Haven, ElvenMoor and ElvenWood sims, we had the same questions. The summarized points are:

* Private sims are "owned" by one individual who pays a monthly sim fee of $195.

* Private sim land cannot be sold except as an entire sim, in which case complete transfer of ownership takes place.

* Private sims can be "deeded to group" which gives group members land powers, but the group doesn't actually "own" the land (as they do on Mainland), nor can group members sell the land.

* There is no actual "tier" involved in private sim ownership. (Well, technically there might be for the sim owner, but for those who rent land, tier doesn't enter into the issue). You do not have to donate tier to rent private sim land, as the rental arrangement does not at all affect Linden Lab. It is a private agreement between sim owner and leasee.

* Up until now, group members and land renters had no access to Estate Tools. With the advent of 1.9, most Estate Tools will be able to be assigned to specific individuals. However, this will likely occur in cases of sim management and will ordinarily not be granted to renters of small parcels, as Estate Tools affect the entire sim.