New Group: Land Investors of Second Life

I thought it'd be nice to have a popular group for land investors, like Builders of Secondlife or Scripters of Second Life, where news of the $100,910 auction sale of a 512m Boardman land would generate excitement (none of my friends seemed to care, but i was motivated to explore the area and found a green physical cube made by Philip Linden (!) as well as a nice master planned community.)

I have helped many people make informed decisions on buying and selling land, as well as explained the intricacies of group land, tier, deeding land, private islands vs. mainland, the cap on FPS and using Total Frame Time as the new measure of sim lag, and i'm also constantly learning. I have owned and operated Angel Tower, a 20,000m+ 9 story multiplex with clubs, apartments, mall space, and a pool. I currently script for fun and profit and I run a tier lending service. Thanks for your interest !

Land Investors of Second Life CHARTER:

Share knowledge on land ownership and land opportunities.
Requires 1m of tier donation to be a member. Contact Dennis Albion.

(It's open enrollment right now.)

Dennis, this sounds interesting.

Can you fill us in on how the group has progressed, and provide more detail on what prospective members might expect to do or learn by joining?

Since my initial posting, I have taken the group private, and changed the Charter to: Maximizing return on investment. The group currently holds 8192m of land, with 10 investors contributing 512m of tier and a land baron making up the difference. We are constructing a 10 level (plus a ground level) science fiction themed tower called Sci-Fi Tower. We currently have the classroom and club area built out and, the building tp has been set up. I will continue to find investors until we have enough tier to cover all the land without borrowing from a tier lender. All investors will share in daily traffic bonus, free vendor space, rental income from mall, office, and penthouse rental, as well as class fees.

Please contact me if you're interested in joining our group. Thank you.

Dennis Albion

I thought you were a tier lender.

I found that most SL residents and land owners don't understand group land, tier, or donating tier through groups. Apparently, its a "sophisticated" financial instrument which requires investor education, and also a large degree of trust that the lender won't pull the tier. After educating my sales people on what "tier" was, and after explaining it to numerous potential clients, i decided it would be easier to take the opposite route and borrow and find investors of tier instead, which placed the burden of knowledge and risk on me, and the reward of lindens to the investors and lenders. The only ppl who can afford to be tier lenders are land barons who have extra tier and can afford to take on only one or two clients.

This was an interesting learning experiment.

Dennis Albion

That being said, there are a few members (myself included) that do have excess tier capacity right now if anyone does need tier lending service for a short term deal.

For example, before tiering up last time, I had a neighbor that wanted to swap around 3000m worth of land with me, but I only had 16m left without tiering up. Fortunately, the neighbor had the capacity for 1000m without tiering up, so we just did three 1000m transactions each, alternating back and forth between each purchase. Had she only had 16m available we would have been stuck doing it in 16m transactions or seeking out someone who could lend us the tier to temporarily buy one of the lots so that person could free up the capacity to buy the remaining person's lot wihtout tiering up.

Clear as mud?

Sounds like you are running a business based on other people's tier, or simply riding their *excess* so to speak. Isn't that easier to say?

Is it still a 1 m/2 donation requirement where the 10 have been nice and allocated 512 m/2 or did you raise the minimum to 512 m/2?

You must know land well. Find 10 residents (even oldbies, even land owners and business owners) and say that exact same thing to them, and watch most of them stare blankly at you and say, "huh?" At least, in my experience.




Yes, minimum is now 512 m2 and the group is now closed and by invitation only. I fronted cash to buy land, the group is supporting it, and we derive traffic bonus and other benefits. The group, land, and dwell systems set up by Linden Lab seems to encourage this type of collaboration. Is anyone else doing something like this? What's the biggest investor group of this type set up in SL ?

Thanks,
Dennis Albion

What are the "other benefits" and what will you do when the bonus disappears?

I will detail some of our benefits, to satisfy curiosity (and if someone has good idea for perks, please feel free to contribute them here):

* A Share of Daily Traffic Bonus
* A Share of Rental Revenues
* A Free Spot at Rental Areas
* A Ride in the "Company Jet" (group-owned Mythic Airship)
* Participation in Investor Meetings (one investor rented out his own land from a connection he made during a meeting)
* Periodic Status Reports (I post them on an Info Ticker I made at the tower)

Our business model does not depend on the Developer's Incentive bonus which will be going away, although the Daily Traffic Bonus is a small but nice daily reminder of return on investment. I hope that does not go away after March, but is not critical either. Its just the simplest revenue stream to implement because its an automated Linden system.

Dennis Albion
Investor, Land Investors of Second Life
Researcher, Albion Research

Since my last posting, Land Investors of Second Life increased to about 30 Land Investors putting in a minimum of 512m of tier, owning over 16,000m of land, used for themed communities like the Sci Fi Tower and Tiny Town.

We relied mainly on daily traffic bonus and some visitor donations and some land donations from kind folks. I never implemented rental revenue, not having the time to run a busy mall... which would have been the best revenue stream.

Now, LL has decided to remove daily traffic bonus.

So...

I'm opening up the group again and reverting back to our original goal:

Land Investors of Second Life CHARTER:

Share knowledge on land ownership and land opportunities.
Requires 512 m2 of tier donation and 100L to be a member. Contact Dennis Albion.

Thanks and I look forward to feedback from the land and investing community.

So, given the old/new charter ... what's in it for me?

What should I expect in exchange for my L$100 and 512m2?

What would you like ? Some things that come to mind are space and prims for business or personal purposes, group membership with like-minded folks with tier, advice on land buying/selling/ownership, a title of Land Investor, invitation to Investors-only events, meet builders and scripters for your projects, etc.

Thanks,
Dennis

Unless you are a major player, don't even think of getting into land right now.

Its dead money.

Just like the airlines.

There is more new land coming into SL than illegals crossing the border.
The Mgmt @ LL doesn't understand the Supply Side when it comes to
Supply & Demand economics..

Shaun Altman and Traxx Hathor (?) had an interesting use of excess tier which could be used as escrow for land swaps. That way you don't have to trust the party your swapping land with, and all are still protected. In addition, both swapping parties, by using an escrow agent with excess tier, would avoid tiering up during the swap.

I'll be offering mortgages to land buyers either on the mainland or on zoned sim land. The mortgage will be 4, 8 or 12 week with 1 month tier/land fee as downpayment. During the mortgage period, I would own the land and be responsible for tier/land use payments. This provides equity to the buyer during the process and in so doing provides more value to the buyer than a rent or rent to own situation. Feel free to email me (pelanor.eldrich@gmail.com) or IM me in world for a prospectus and a quote.

since we're advertising, i'm selling land in larsen. are you buying?

If you can find a buyer in need of financing, and they go with me, then I'm buying...

Whats the Annual Percentage Rip-off on loans...