Property - Lease, or Buy?

There's just something very satisfying about owning your own little tiny corner of the world you live in. I used to play an MMORPG named Asheron's Call and loved owning a little cottage deep in the wilderness, where I could putter around rearranging my inventory, crafting arrows and alchemy supplies, decorating and entertaining visitors. Every MMORPG I played since then, I deeply missed this aspect of having a place to hang my hat and call my own. Later games I played either avoided player housing all together, or at best had "instanced" dormitory-style living. It was never the same.

So naturally, one of my first interests in joining Second Life, was to once again find myself a little plot of land to call my very own, and to use as a center for my personal creative workshop and social networking. I was a little appalled however to find this was a far more complex -- and potentially costly -- issue than I first hoped. The days of First Land were already over, and it soon became clear that rushing in without careful research could lead one into some very costly mistakes. So I decided to rent while I further explored issues of mainland vs island estates, recurring tier fees, local land use (& abuse), server classes and lag issues.

I had already decided to stay with a free Basic account for at least my first 30 days while I explored how "longterm" my commitment to SL would end up being. After a few days of camping and money tree stalking, I had scrounged up enough lindens to rent a small $L100/wk 10x20 skybox while I educated myself more on the issues of game economics. Later, I discovered the Ravenglass newbie community, where players under 120 days old could rent a subsidized parcel at discounted rates, and after investing my first $5USD into linden currency, I ended up with a delighful little riverfront 1024 lot for $L250/wk.

If I could, I might be happy with that little riverside 1024 plot for a long long time, but eventually my 120 days ingame will have passed and I'll need to let another new player have access to this resource, and "graduate" into "the real world" of SL property issues.

I still haven't decided whether to spend $9.95/mo on a Premium account, or to simply budget myself for an equivalent monthly investment in linden dollars. Because of the included 512 tier in the Premium account, this becomes very very tightly tied to what and how I decide to handle the land property issue.

Right now, leasing is starting to look like increasingly attractive. No large upfront costs, and in some cases the weekly lease amounts are not much different than the weekly land tier fees I would have to pay to own equivalent land. I would have more options if the neighborhood unexpectantly "went bad", and it would be much easier to slowly graduate to larger land holdings down the road should I find myself flourishing economically in SL. On the flipside, I'd have the perennial issue of being a bit at the mercy of a benevolent landlord, who might suddenly decide there were more profitable uses for the property and could kick me off on fairly short notice. Or suddenly jack the rent.


I truly don't understand ALL of the pros & cons yet, of leasing vs ownership. So while I ponder this over the next few weeks, I was hoping some of you would provide your views on longterm leasing vs buying.

*** What do YOU do, and why?

*** What mistakes did you make early on, that others should avoid?

*** What do you see happening in *LONGTERM* changes to Second Life, that could affect my decision? Things that might happen a year or two or even three years down the road, that should influence my decisions today?

Thank you for any advice, and I must say in over 12 years on the internet, this forum has got to be one of the warmest and friendliest communities I have yet experienced. So thank you for that, too ^_^

IMO,

go with the 3 month deal, its 22.50 for 3 months and you save 7.50 over the monthly 9.95 fee. You still get the same stipend every week. its only 1.50 more a month than the least expensive option and a much shorter commitment. Worse case scenario you can always cash out your L$ at the end and cancel your account and just about break even. You can hold 512 with this membership and for 3 bucks more a month you can own a 1024.

Estate land means you rent from a land owner and follow their guidelines.

Mainland means you can do what you want with your land. This requires you to be a premium member but again, you get your L$ as part of the package. This game can be played for free but its much more fun with some L$ in your pocket. Land is inexpensive right now, so you can get a 1024 for about 10L$ per square meter...or about 10,000L$.

GOOD LUCK!! and welcome to Your Second Life.

1. I don't rent because there potentially to many problems with this and little protection
for the person renting.
2. My finicial situation was bit tight but in spite of that I went bit nuts and took things from other budgets i.e groceries and invested in land. Land is addictive if you want to build or create in certain way 512 in busy ad and lag filled neighborhood just doesn't do it.
I now own 13836 but not all of land is right next to each other, I have literally reach the limit of what I can spend. The only place I can build really is in the sky because of the lag.
If I had to do it over again, I wouldn't have invested any money in the game and saved it for upgrading or getting better computer, focused on finding places I could build without renting or buying or using public sandboxes and developing skills, friendships, exploring what different sims before ever spending a dime. The land I own cost 1000 usd when I got it with all the purchases, if I sell I will be lucky if I get half of it back. While it wasn't about the profit it was about the building space even with the 12800m2 space I find that my neighbors building, scripts often bombard what ever I am doing if I am in ground level areas. If I had the money I would need island but I wouldn't be happy with just one sim.
Either way its insidious addiction best thing to do is procede with extreme caution.
Prim and land addiction for some becomes incredibly hard to shake and only owning the entire SL will do! LOL
3. As long as people are addicted there will be land,etc but I must confess for myself I am starting to experience burn out.
Biggest issue with SL is maintaining interest because if you're creative yet not computer or highly skilled the learning curve is extremely hard and its easy to burn out.
My prediction is the only people who remain in SL are those who can entertain themselves well or can deal with the learning burn out. Soon as the market is saturated and people check out SL become frusterated with it the only players will be core group of hard core players, there won't be very many new players and it will continue to be user & new player unfriendly.

If you have been enjoying subsidised living from Ravenglass, I'd strongly, strongly recommend staying with Ravenglass at normal rates for obvious reasons (I think).

With regard to forums - if you find it welcoming here, that's refreshing - and a wonderful thing. But like the final level of Donkey Kong, to get here there are a lot of unseen smooshed avatars that made it possible... grin

My partner and I bought First Land and lived on it for a couple of months. Then we bought on a private island and kept the First Land, which is now a park in the Haemosu region.

We did that because the covenant where we are fits our lifestyle and tastes, and all of our neighbors are equally bound by it. That means we don't have to worry about an ad farm or noisy nightclub opening up next door. It is true, as Xplorer says, that on the mainland you can develop your land any way you want (subject only to PG restrictions if it's a PG area) but so can everyone around you.

Hi Brash.

I have no great wisdom or predictions to share, but I would be happy to share my experience thus far.

First of all it sounds like you are off to an excellent start so far and making very good decisions. Also, very smart to take your time and really think about waht you want.

I started out leasing a 512 on a private sim not long after I began exploring in SL. I met the estate owner on one of my first days in world and she was very kind and helpful. When I was looking around at land and found she was adding a new all residential sim I deicded to jump into ownership. I payed an upfront fee for the land (less than mainland prices but not nothing) and set up a monthly tier payment plan through PayPal. The plot was great and becasue of the covenants and lovely layout of the development 512 was a snug but pleasant little home, though I only has 117 prims. It wasn't long before my Rl husband began to play SL too. He also bought a parcel on the same sim and we each had our own place, which was good bc/ each was so small we would be tripping all over one another. This worked great, and we might still be there if I hadn't decided to open a shop too. Initially I got more land from the same estate owner in a different sim, but we started looking at the tier we were paying on 3 totally seperate parcels and the benifits of group owned mainland began to look pretty good. In addition, living under someone elses rules is what it is. Even under the best circumstances that may be uncomfortable for some people after awhile.

We both upgraded to Premuim on the annual plan so the stipend offsets much of the cost. We formed a group and began buying mainland in a new sim at a time when prices were pretty low. The sim was pretty empty, but we have been lucky so far in the way it is filling in. I would have to agree that land buying can be an addiction. One made worse I think in the mainland where you feel the pressure ..."If I don't buy it who will and what will happen..."

Either route offers uncertianties, but both also offer a great deal of fun, and possibilities to meet new people and learn new things too. Whether you lease or buy if things go bad you can move on pretty quickly if you want to relocate. Don't invest more money than you are willing to lose if something just is not fun anymore. Sell at a loss and move on.

Only you can know what your tastes are and ultimately I think that is a huge part of the decision. If you are thinking mainly of a smaller plot, odds are pretty good you will be happier leasing somewhere with covenants, but many a happy person reside on 512 or 1024 of mainland and just build a skybox, or build to their borders and ignore what is around, or luck out (and spend L$) and buy in a beautiful sim.

Well...that's my 2cents. Best of Luck!! have a great time and keep us posted. (or me anyway, 'cause I am nosy.)

I have no idea what posesses people to buy mainland. I've thought about it long and hard but whatever way I look at it makes no sense to me. I've always wondered, is it something to do with "the American Dream"? As you might gather, I rent on an island. Cheaper, no lag, no commitment, no lag, full land rights, no lag, no ad farms, no lag, no ugly builds, no lag, no casinos, no lag..., did I mention no lag?

2 or 3 weeks after joining i went out and bought 5 1024 plots
less then 2 weeks later i bought another 4, maybe 2-3 weeks after with some building i decide to get the last remaining 4 plots and got a 1536 plot aswell
then 2 or 3 weeks after i saw some more land for sale in the region and got another 1536
2/2.5 months later me and my neighbour who had 5 1024`s decided to move out and i orderd an island where he moved in, i took half of it and i`m renting out the rest

short version
u get addicted to prims very fast lol

*ding ding ding* "Owning." That's the key word there. You want outright ownership of your parcel(s) with no third-party in the transaction chain. You want to keep it between you and Linden Lab. Either you wind up with a portion of a Mainland sim, an entire Mainland sim, or your own island. It could be a 4x4-sq.m parcel (3-prims) but you own it. It's your parcel and you get to cultivate it (or not cultivate it) in whatever way you wish.

As I don't know what you plan to do with a particular parcel (in what direction you wish to cultivate it) I have no way of offering specific advice beyond owning rather than leasing. It's a form follows function problem. If you're opening a store to sell things you've created you might want a parcel to function as the flagship and then rent parcels elsewhere or even drill down to single vends. There might not even need to be a flagship. A 3-prim 4x4-sq.m parcel can sustain a vend and the parcel itself can be listed, advertised, etc. (It'd be too small for posting events).

From my perspective, people overaccumalate (too many prims) and undercultivate (fail to put their prims to good use [doesn't mean they have to be making money with them]). If the parcel is meant for an enterprise the prims, at a minimum, have to collectively pay for themselves. But with a home it becomes a question of personal taste as the prims are meant for purposes other than deriving an income.

I'm renting an office on Silicon Island and I'm very pleased. I don't plan on buying land unless for some reason the Universe takes me aware from my RL work, and inundates me with SL clients...

Early on in my SL experience, I ran some numbers to see if they made sense to me:

Annual membership (I decided one year was a good number to work with - if I gave up after one year, I would absolutely know I was done...if I stayed, I'd remain for good reason as well): $72 US (or $6 US / month)

Premium Account also gave stipends (currently $300L / week): = 15600L for the year (works out to around $59 US)

With the Premium Account, I received 512 tier at no cost, or 1024 tier at $5.00 US / month (which would be $60 US for the year).

So, with a Premium Account, the stipend essentially pays for the tier, and if you take the Annual membership fee, it only works out to $6 US / month...


For me, I was willing to pay that amount to find out if SL was "really" worth it to me or not...
(it has been, by the way)

When I started here, I was basically a squatter- the friend who had brought me here was letting me stay on his rented island area for free. That was nice, for a while- I had a quiet corner of the cove to myself, and lots of fun and interesting folks came through the area, so I did not have to venture very far away most times. This let me learn about SL at my own pace, and for that period, I was just a Basic account. Bought a few Lindens once in a while for shopping, and that was it.

After a few months, my friend got fed up with the rules and behavior of the landlord, and decided to buy an island for himself, figuring he would get more land, more control, and pay the same price he had been paying in rent if he could get a few other folks to live there too. That sounded great to me, as I had started to get interested in playing around more with the land and building in SL, so along with a couple other mutual friends, we all got together to rent the island. Again, this was great for a while, we had all sorts of fun getting the place set up and playing around on it. And again many folks would visit, and it was always the main place we hung out. But then, there was 6/6/6... and we found we really had to close the island to random visitors, due to the increasingly rude and abusive things which were happening. A sad day.

After that, things were a little quieter, but still very active, as there were still a lot of folks who could visit us, so I was content with my part of the island for a while. But, after a while, I started to wonder about the whole First Land thing. And started thinking it might be interesting and fun to have a little slice of the mainland of my own. I had already gone Premium by that point, for other reasons (which I honestly cannot recall now , so all I had to do was go find some First Land. That was not too hard right then, and I ended up with a little place of my own on the mainland. Many of my island friends were very puzzled, seeing as how I had a much nicer area on the island to play with. But I wanted mainland, with all the plusses and minuses.

And I soon found out a lot of them. The land around me started fairly empty, and just south of me was open ocean, so it seemed nice... at first. But then! Oh, the things people built around me! And that ocean, well, soon enough it turned into a sim too, and after a few months I found myself on the interior of a very crowded and chaotic continent. But it was fine, I liked the unpredictable neighbors, and had fun making my little place into what I wanted it to be. But again... after a while, I found I wanted more. And then, for better or worse, the 512 parcel right next to me went on sale, at a fairly decent price for the time. And I bought it.

Now, perhaps it would have stopped there. But somehow, having that little bit of land, it really was not enough any more. I started buying more parcels on that sim as they came up. And also found one in another sim in which a new friend had a lot of group land already. I ramped up slowly, every time it was just one more tier level, I'd only be paying a little more each month, really... That went on until I was at 1/2 sim of tier, and owned a decent part of that first sim, and was making a dent on the second. And then... oh, then...

Flying around the grid one day, looking for interesting parcels, I happened upon a region which was most curious. All the other land for sale was yellow, but this was purple. Almost the whole sim, all purple. What could this be, I wondered? An auction, I soon found out- an entire sim up for auction, right in the midst of the old main continent.

Well, that got my attention! It was on the northern edge of the snow area, and was a lovely place, very nicely terraformed, with a deep river valley, a road, and a snowy hillside in it. It was being sold in parts, about 4096 m^2 or so each, and at first I figured I would just get one or two of the nicer ones and be happy with it. But then, as I was prospecting around the places I wanted, which were not near auction yet, I saw one of the areas previously auctioned off go up for sale... and I bought it. About one minute after it went up for sale. And that was it. Now I had to have that whole river valley! And after a very exciting couple of weeks of bidding and watching like a hawk, I had it! Or had most of it... there was still one area at the far edge someone else had bought very early, before I got into it. But again, I got lucky, and was there right when they broke it up into pieces for sale, and bought all but one of those. Do we see a theme here?

Now, after a few more months, I own almost that entire sim, and have sold most of the land I had in the first region I had bought land in (there was a very annoying casino there for a long time, and I got tired of it). But I still have my first 1024 m^2 parcel there, for old times sake. And a lot of other land in other places, the protected areas in my river area giving me extra tier even though I effectively control almost the entire sim. I'm still figuring out what I want to do with it all, but a lot of the fun for me was just in figuring out how to get the land I wanted, and putting it all together. And it cost a lot, probably more than I should have spent, but I don't regret it. This is a unique place and time, and I wanted to be part of it in my own way.

Oh, and through all this, I kept my island area, and we have expanded our little region a couple times, so we are three islands now. But I am still where I have always been there, and I plan to stay. So, what I would have to say is, there are good things to be had on both islands and on the mainland. They are very different experiences, but I think in the end both are worthwhile. Oh, and don't think of land as an investment unless you want to be a land baron. Spend what you can afford, and have fun with it, sell it for what you can get when it is not fun any more. I still have a sim and a quarter of tier, and maybe a sim and a half of effective control of the mainland, and it is still fun even if I don't seem to do a lot with it. It just feels good to have the land, and the possibilities it allows me.

Now, for you? Well, you have to make your own story! This is a place that changes all the time, predicticing even the next week is pretty hard, so I would not worry too much about the long term. If you want land, find a nice place and buy it. Oh, and patience helps- that's how I got most of my land, just by waiting and being there at the right time. Stay alert, and be ready to act when you see what you want. But most of all, have fun with it!

Indeed. There is nothing that will advance one's building skills faster than a tight prim budget. "Necessity is the mother of invention," etc.

Having watched too many friends get burnt with island leases where one after another apparently reputable estate owner just flaked out, I always counsel buying mainland--but for right now, I'd advise against buying or leasing anything, or even renting more than a week or two in advance. There's been a lot of discussion about land prices lately, and I don't mean to dredge all that up again, but the Map shows *vastly* more "yellow" than I've ever seen, even in the older continents. There's a non-zero chance that you might get much more land for your L$s if waiting is an option.

1351 words. And I read every last one of them! Nice story...thanks for sharing.

I tend to model highly detailed objects. I understand when you're on a tight [prim] budget, my work won't suite your needs...but many people don't mind displaying something that is of high quality. Other times they hold it in their inventory for when needed, or to share.

I vote renting on an island estate. NOT buying a parcel there but just renting.

I got my first land within a week of joining SL. Within a month, I'd moved two times due to clubs hogging resources which of course meant noone would buy it for the price I paid. I think in total, I've had at least 10 different mainland parcels until I started renting in 2005. Renting on an estate (with a good landlord) was a FAR better experience.

Mainland -
1. It's ugly. And it's gotton even uglier over the years.
2. High probability that a club, casino, or camping spot will open in your region taking all of the resources to where you can't even go to your parcel.
3. A typical landbaron tactic is to break up the land around you into 16m2 bits, put in ugly rotating signs, and jack the price up to force you into buying them. I've had that happen in 3 different places by the same baron.
4. The price to "buy" is absurdly overpriced.
5. If you have any problem, LL ignores you.
6. Ad farms.

Estate -
1. If you have a problem, you have someone to go to.
2. Usually broken up into residental or commercial. If you want a house, you don't have to look out your window to see a rotating sign of porn.
3. Most have rules against camping, clubs, and casinos.
4. Not as ugly.
5. No comitments.

No matter what you do, you are renting server space from someone. Personally I'd rather have that be someone who actually responds to questions or problems. The trick is to find a good landlord and actually talk to their current residents about them.

Future of SL? Doesn't look very good. If LL doesn't shape up, the moment a competitor comes out that offers the same things many, if not most, will leave. Any land you purchase will then be worthless.

I'm a renter and I've been fairly happy with that option. I don't have any experience in owning land so I really don't feel like I'm missing out. I like having little worries or responsibily other than paying my rent when its due. And I can attest to the prim addiction even as a renter.

My first home, a friend and I shared rent on a 512 lot. We could barely put any furniture in it, other than the basics. Next came a piece of primland added to the deed. That was cool for a while. Then the lot behind us came up for rent but before we could arrange it, a neighbor took it. So we moved across town to a larger lot... 2048 sqm and gave up the piece of primland. Eventually my friend stopped playing, but I wasn't going to give up my home. I paid the rent on my own. At one point I ended up with a small informal club on the lot behind me, but it wasn't too much of an inconvenience. Then she moved. I watched that rental cube for several days... thinking... thinking... who would rent it next, what would they put there, would my privacy be disturbed. Finally i couldn't stand it any longer... I added half the lot, the part that was directly behind my home, to my deed. A few days later after the other half of the lot remained unrented, the land manager came to me and offered me a deal to add it to my deed. I took it. I was up to 4096 sqm now.

I lived on that sim happily for about 5 months. Then the actual land owner decided it wasn't making enough profit and told the manager to change it into a money maker. As he and his team were trying to come up with ideas, we got a message in group chat that we were being evicted. Then I was told that me and a couple others could stay that lived on my section of the sim. *sigh of relief* Then, a couple hours later, I got the message again and this time I got a partial refund of that month's rent and all my belongings auto-returned. I cried for hours. I had so much time and work into making my property look nice.

Luckily, I wasn't left homeless, I was able to stay at my partner's home. But I liked having something to call mine and decorate the way I liked and I wanted another castle. So when some land came available for rent on his sim two months ago, I took it. I started with 3120 sqm. My castle was so big, I was left with only a small yard in the back. Not quite what I had become accustom to. And I used up all my prims inside. None left for trees and flowers. So... when primland became available, I took a 576 sqm chunk.

Then one day, I was out watching the sunrise while I had my morning coffee and what did I see... a rental cube on the lot next to mine... outside my front door. I looked and was thinking... thinking... the last neighbor only had a small beach hut on the land. What if the next tenant put a full sized house there? They'd be right in my face when I stepped out my front door. When I came home for lunch and saw the sign still there. I rented it, another 1664 sqm. Now I have a beautiful front lawn too and prims for my trees and flowers.

My partner faced the same addiction. He started with his original lot. Added two pieces of prim land, and just last week the property that separated us came up for rent. He wanted so bad to connect our two lots, but he couldn't afford the whole thing (it was huge) and the land lady couldn't divide it the direction we wanted it, so now we still have one smaller lot between us which she divided and rented half of it. The other half sits there with a rental sign. We look at it, think about it.... but one has to stop somewhere, right?

Overall, even with the one bad experience, I've been quite happy with renting on controlled sims where I won't find a big club, mall or casino when I wake up in the morning. I don't have to worry about figuring out tiers or having to dump my land if I get bad neighbors. Where we are now, its residential only and its pretty quiet there. Our land lady is accomodating, she controls several sims and is stable as far as we can see. Just going to hope for the best

i never leased. went straight into buying. the only reason i became premium.

today, my tier bumped up to $15/mo. needless to say, i'm fast becoming on of those land hog addicts. i'm already weighing how i can afford the $25/mo tier. addicted. yup.

think. i must think!

*votes for renting as well* Don't ever pay for private estate land, it's wasted money with nothing in return.

That said, I wouldn't recommend the mainland to anyone unless you plan on owning 4096m²+. For anything smaller than that (assuming you want to live on land and not in the sky) you're really dependant on your neighbours for the view. 4096m²+ doesn't mean your view can't be ruined, but you'll at least have the space to make your spot look the way you want.

Private islands don't necessarily guarantee a pretty view either (your neighbour could rez the most hideous house in SL) but you'll be spared from the ad-plot horror.

If you end up going with a rental, make sure to settle for one where you either get the land in your name, or deeded to a group you own (or at the worst get to be an officer in).

Gee Kitty, interesting statement, but completely and provably false. I have some friends in-world who purchased in a private estate, and recently sold their land for almost double what they originally paid. So they sure don't think they "wasted their money" and got "nothing in return." That happened in AzureIslands, one of the largest private estates around.

I'm just a small island owner myself, and growing slowly and cautiously. But I'm just putting in my first 4-pack of water sims this month, and I guarantee you that the land that my people have "bought" on my islands will be going up in value with the addition of those water sims - and they have complete rights to sell and realize the appreciation, just as the people I know did with their AzureIslands property. So be careful making such absolute statements Kitty, as that one's pretty easily proven to be wrong.

And the forums and my logs are filled with dozens of people who got kicked out of their land for no other reason than an estate owner going "I can, tough luck".

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/03/residents_of_8_.html - Want to think what would have happened without all the negative attention? Half those sims were resold already and everyone was disowned before they decided to set things right.

go 40 and don't look back

A document written for distribution on my estates for the education of my residents and the SL population at large:


ESTATE VS MAINLAND

This document is intended for all residents of Second Life. It is written from one Estate Owner’s perspective, but I hope it provides some insights for anyone looking to purchase land anywhere in Second Life.

Before you buy or rent land anywhere in Second Life, I urge you to consider every possible option, to visit as many properties, mainland and estate as you can stomach, to carefully read any covenant associated with each estate property, and to talk to other residents residing in the same sim (or sims in case of estate) as those properties you are most interested in. In much shorter terms: do your homeowork.

What follows is a summation, probably an entirely too wordy summation, of the good, the bad and the ugly of both mainland and estate properties. I hope it provides enough information to help you choose which of the two avenues fits your lifestyle or business and your sense of security the best.

Every property for sale today is coming to you resale unless you are purchasing an entire sim. Linden Lab only releases mainland via auction for entire sims or for properties abandoned by various residents (at one time this was not true, they also released First Land, but that is another notecard entirely) and Estate Land is sold as full sims ordered via the Land Store. Therefore, when you purchase (or rent) a parcel you will, in most cases, be making a transaction with some form of third party land owner. The key difference is to whom you will pay your ongoing tier or land usage fees.

MAINLAND

You must be a premium member to purchase land on the mainland. Remember this as you study the land usage fee schedule on the website. Premium membership costs $9.95 USD per month and includes 512 m2 worth of land usage. The fees on the schedule are in addition to this amount.

When you purchase mainland property, you pay your tier or land usage fees directly to Linden Lab in accordance with the schedule on the website. There is no middle person and you answer to no one save Linden Lab regarding your ownership. For the most part as long as you are a well-behaved (not a griefer, scammer, etc) resident and pay your bill monthly, you will have your land.

Outside of those rules laid out by the Terms of Service (TOS) with Linden Lab, including those sections differentiating PG land from Mature land, there are no rules about what you can and cannot do with your mainland property. You may terraform it however you like within the +-4m height difference; you may build on it in any manner you choose; and have a home or any type of business you care to imagine.

All that sounds great, but… there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there?

The downside is that everyone else can do absolutely anything they want with their land too. They can build ugly things, they can run businesses that bring the sim to a crawl or even fill the sim so full of people you can’t even get to your own property, and since they are acting within the TOS, there’s really nothing their neighbors can do about it.

You can wake up one morning to find that lovely peaceful sim has become part ad-farm and part camping nightmare casino overnight and that your investment there may well be hard to recover in full as a result.

I’m obviously a bit jaded and biased here. I do know there are good sims out there. I own one mainland sim that I run a mall on and I had good residential land in a beautiful sim once. What do both have in common? Very few owners who have collected the bulk of the sim and are all of a like mind when it comes to keeping the sim looking nice and lag free and so forth. Do I have faith that the next person to buy in when someone sells will have the same respect? No. When faced with the decision to have half the sim my mall was in sell to the highest bidder versus my buying it out before they had the chance, I bought it out and expanded.

I also believe that businesses can do very well mainland, including the rental business where they own most or all of a mainland sim and keep nice rentals going. Obviously, I do. I have Pando Square Mall.

However, would I ever live mainland again? Only if there was no longer such a thing as an estate to live on, whether it was my own or someone else’s.

ESTATE

When you purchase into an estate sim (or straight rent, usually with higher tier/land usage fees), there is now a middle person between you and Linden Lab. You pay your tier either in world in Lindens or via paypal or however specified. The Estate Owner, in turn, pays Linden Lab a tier fee associated with the estate sim. Currently, that tier fee is for all new sims, $295 USD per month. Whatever chunk of it you purchase, your tier fees to them provide them with the means to pay the Lindens and some amount of profit (assuming the Estate Owner has any business acumen whatsoever).

The big bad ugly estate thing: The Estate Owner is essentially all-powerful on their estate. They can take your money and without warning, at any time, they have the power to kick you, ban you and you’re screwed, or, in a less provocative scenario, an Estate Owner can find they’ve bitten off more than they can chew, close up shop and sell off the sim, still leaving you homeless (or without business location).

Most Estate Owners recognize that exercising their power to kick and ban residents without cause or compensation is going to hurt them badly in the long run. In the end, our reputations, honesty and integrity will carry us much farther than the little we’d gain by kicking someone and reselling their lot without a lot of just cause behind it.

It remains vital that everyone buying land on an estate understand that this power by the estate owner does exist and that they can lose their investment. This knowledge allows you to better assess the covenants that you read and to better judge the Estate Owner, should you take the time to meet them personally before making a purchase or renting from them (I strongly encourage this. The Estate Owner’s attitude towards taking time to meet you can be very indicative of the type of person you are dealing with).

Ok, so if its so scary to own on an Estate, what are the benefits?

First and foremost should be Customer Service. On mainland, you have the support portal to Linden Lab and little else. AR’s are handled, but not with expediency, and you most likely will never know what the resolution was. On estate, you have the Estate Owner to appeal to for help. I have helped my residents with everything from placing their homes to setting up their security system to handling the few griefers that stray off our central sandbox sim. I’ve answered many questions regarding the land tools, setting permissions on objects they have created, and other general SL information. My residents pay good money to receive something more than just a box to pay.

Then, of course, there is the covenant itself, a document that can be a simple or complex as the owner who writes it. It provides the structure under which the sim will operate, guidelines that should help to keep the sim unified in overall look and feel and to keep the sim as lag-free as possible. It should specify if the area is residential or commercial or open to both. My own personal take, is that it should also explain what your rights are under the terms of the covenant, not just the rules and rights as pertain to the Estate Owner. As we’ve already established, the Estate Owner has ALL the rights to dictate as he or she sees fit. I believe that in any contract, and that is what the covenant is, however un-binding it might be, should protect both sides and should never be written completely in one party’s favor.

Good luck on your quest for the perfect place to call home. If I can answer further questions, do not hesitate to IM me or drop me a notecard. I will be only too happy to attempt to provide an answer for you.

Sincerely,

Char

Yes I started with first land last September and found I could resell it a few weeks later for 4 times what I paid for it. Then bought a 6 banger as my rl partner calls them 6x512 sq mt and stayed there for another 4 weeks by a river and a bridge. Rode my lady Hog around the roads and then doubled my money again.
I had been sort of retired at this time and thought hmm, wonder if I can make any money with this land selling thing, moved my home to the edge of the snow line mountains and started a daily search for cheap land and then put it up with a 20 to 50 % markup. This was before the days of the bots. As the fall moved into winter with the ever climbing of land prices due to the land shortages my stocks grew rapidly along with my tier fee til I owned a half sim.

I felt though it wasn't going to last past the end of January and so sold all stocks without buying any more. 512's I had been buying up only 3 months before where now going at nearly 10,000L$ 5x what I had payed for them. last week in January I took stock of my tidy profit and realised I could afford a whole island sim if I added just another 400 US$. Plus the land bots had arrived.

Moved quickly, bought my first island, saw how another island was selling its land by offering land with a reserve deposit that put it near the top of the land search list and noticed the land search change from a long list you could quickly scroll down to a paged system that meant if you didn't get on the first page you didn't get visitors as no one wanted to wait through the lag for each page to turn to the next 100 results. So took my competitors 1000L$ reserve and dropped it to 1 L$ for 1 Minute reserve. Guaranteeing me top of the land search 1st page. 3 weeks later and 3 more islands all full thanks to this system, everyone started to catch up and use the same system but I had a good head start. So now I am up to 9 islands a huge monthly tier fee to LL and lots of residents who I wish I could get around more to see, but the hours are not enough in the day.

So you could say yes the land bug can get a strong hold on you and it now gives me an income. I also rent out a few parcels on one island.

The knockers of private Islands/Estates will tell you you are only renting from an estate owner, not true as you can resell your land which you cannot do if you are only renting.
They also tell you that you have to live under someone else's rules in the form of a covenant. That is true but most covenants I see, including my own, are to ensure a lag free environment as free as possible of griefers and those who cause their neighbours problems.
You always get the same old arguments tossed out too, you can be kicked off at the estate owners whim. It isn't done on a whim it is done because people grief others with behaviour that takes no account of others right to a reasonable life here. Kicking people off on a whim would be economic suicide as you make your living as an island owner from regular paid tier fees from people who will happily agree to your covenant and then stick by it.

And hey, you tick the box that says you agree to the covenant if it doesn't suit you now cause you just bought that wonderful new gizmo that breaks the covenant then is that the island owners fault or the land owner?

My residents enjoy 24 hour security and a rapid response to problems that they may encounter. They have a shoulder to cry on when they need it and my brains to pick when they want to learn how to make things. A lag free environment, no clubs, malls or casinos on my residential sims and often 1L$ reclaimed parcels of land that just need the tier fee to be paid on sims where the land had been abandoned.
Unlike the mainland too you do not move up a whole band of tier fees that encourages you to go still bigger to fill that quota, you only pay tier on what land size you presently own. good building codes and waterways that can be sailed on in and around the islands. All my islands have four land free sides and always will even if I put in low prim void sims to join them. No ad farms and no sky boxes just a few meters above the ground. 300mtrs if you want one. Finally the detestable redline barriers are just not allowed to be used. Security access can always be with a home security system that gives 30 secs grace to leave a parcel instead of bouncing from one restricted property barrier to another until you crash or get trapped in a corner.

So why would anyone want to live on the mainland? Beats me.

so let me get this straight, most would preffer to rent the land at a higher price then the mainland and pay weekly instead of buying the land and lower tier?

u know that the weekly price would endup after some time higher then buying+tier and ur stuck with a stupid rental box and just land access trough group?

if this is true and ppl would preffer it THAT way then i`ll reconsider and add this as an option but would be the cheapest way to rend land heh