Why buy land residential?

I have been in SL for a week now and I am currently renting a great cottage at a great location with a fantastic view.

I am paying 400L$ per week for 400 prims. Total cost per month is $6.40 US for rental based on $1US=250L$ on a 1024 plot of land

Now, I can get a premium account, get 512 m2 in the middle of nowhere, sandwiched between a few feet of clearance with my neighbor for $9.95 a month plus $4 for an extra 512 m2, plus land purchase costs. Total cost per month = $14.95 or $11.50/quarterly, etc for 1024 m2 plus the cost to get both plots together.

Even with the 500L$ per week for premium accounts, it seems to be much cheaper for me to rent and get much greater rewards. If I buy land, not only am I commited longterm to my monthly fees but to upgrade to a better area I could be paying a ton of cash. My interest is not to make money but just to have a place to live and design in. Am I missing something with the premium account I am not taking into consideration?

Buying 5000L$ for $20 US seems to give me much better flexibility and more cost effective. I am not bitching, just trying to decide which approach to take. It appears land ownership rewards don't take place unless you have a lot of land to offset the costs.

Anyone care to comment or clarify any misconceptions in this logic for a budget minded SL'er looking for a place to call home?

It really depends on what you want. Are you renting on a player owned island or renting on one of the mainland sims? Basically, do you have rights to mod the land, change the audio/video streams, build what you want, etc.

I have a premium account but chose to sell my land and rent on one of Hiro Queso's islands. Clubs and malls and events are not allowed and I am extremely happy with that. The land I previously owned was subsequently surrounded with bingo and malls and that wasn't what I wanted.

I currently rent 5120sqm (with 1171 prims) of land and pay US$30 a month, only a little over the tier I would have to pay if I bought land of a similar size. It is fully terraformable and I can build whatever I like, with the exception of the above mentioned restrictions.

It works for me, I can up and leave whenever I want without having to wait for someone to buy my land. Hiro is an excellent landlord, dealing promtly with any problems that arise.

I can't see me going back to owning land any time soon.

Alexa

Well technically you dont have to wait for someone to buy your land. You could either set it for sale well below the market rate and someone WILL buy it quickly. Or just release it.

I am curious as to the kind of problems you run into on those zoned sims.

Well, I don't know about you, but i don't have thousands of L$. If you do - great. I would prefer not to sell land for less than I paid for it, although I did with my last plot, but not a massive reduction. Plus I would like the money back in my account; I may have plans for it. If you think I was going to release land that cost me 15kL, you are crazy lol.

I have had no problems whatsoever on my island land. What sort of problems did you have in mind? It's quiet, peaceful beach land. I have no house, just a spa and a bar and relaxed seating. I windsurf around the mini islands, or swim or just float in the spa. It's heavenly

If you want, give me an IM any time I'm on and I'll tp you so you can see for yourself.

Alexa

I recalling saying "technically", not "practically". Also when you moved in was there an up front cost? Not sure, I dont know Hiro's terms.

You dont have problems? The reason I asked is because you said:

I was just curious. Im confused by what you meant by that statement then.

I agree that renting is better, but then, I run a renting business

Owning has its rewards, too, and I like to see a mixture of owners and renters on a sim. It helps stabilize the sim when some people have real pride of ownership.

People like to feel they own their piece of the rock. They like to have something they can literally sink a shovel into, i.e. terraform when they wish, not waiting for either the rental agent to give them temp edit (as I do) or never give them any edit (as some don't) or wait for a private island owner to flip the switch.

There's also nothing like the feeilng that you can build your own thing on your own land -- I wish people indulging in this feeling would just follow a few rules to make sure they don't deprive neighbours of the enjoyment of THEIR land -- like not building right at the property line, like not blocking views, like not putting up stupid black boxes and spinning cubes then logging off for weeks LOL.

There's no question that renting is the better deal -- in fact, we're all really just renters here

Of course renting is the better deal. That 5120m parcel costs the sim owner just over $15/month and then rents it out for $30/month.

Chris I'm sorry but I don't agree with your numbers:

15kUS$ a month for 2,048sqm

25US$ a month for 4,096

And, of course, my land would go over the tier

Please tell me if I am wrong.

Alexa

A sim costs $195/month for 65526m for the owner of the sim.

Thats about $0.003/m. Therefore 5120m of that land is costing the sim owner ~$15.36



Disclaimer: Yes there is a 1 time fee for buying a sim of $1000. And yes I know that you cant rent every sq.m of a sim. You must make it attractive to the people renting.

Ah thank you for explaining that. You are right. In addition to the tier every month, as you say, Hiro has to recoup some of the original purchase cost, ie US$1k .

Regardless, I love the land I rent and hopefully will continue to do so

Alexa

Cool.

And also to add that the rent works exactly the same as the LL land tier, the more land you have, the less it will cost teh tenant per m2. Assuming 100% occupancy for the whole of that period (which is of course pretty much impossible), it would take almost a year to recoup the initial cost. Not to mention the hrs and hrs that go into the setup and running. That being said, it's obviously enough for myself and a few others to want to do it. I think everyone wins

Do you charge an initial fee? Or just monthly tier?

No, I charge no "purchase price". I do ask for the first months rent on the first day that the tenant wishes to have their land deeded, and its equivalent to LL land fees with exra tiers available in between.

Sweet. Thats a good deal.

*applaudes* Hiro rawks! I rent my store in Bear from him and he's wonderful