Question on estate management

I have 8092 square meters of land that I plan to fix up as a midieval community with a small central castle and castle wall surrounding the area. I would then like to subdivide some of the interior of my land into 512 square meter plots and sell those. I would like to sell it with a covenant which states that all housing within this area must be keeping with the theme of the community. I would also like to charge a small monthly amount (~L$200) to residents to pay for my time of monitoring the community and also so hopefully someday I would recoup the investment that I'm putting into the public spaces like the central castle, since I won't be selling that.

I think I can do all of the above if I make myself the estate manager, but I'm unclear on the logistics of the whole thing. Specifically:
1. How do I make myself an estate manager?
2. Do residents ever get charged monthly "home owner fees" within a community if they own their land? I could do this if I rented the land, but I'd rather people be able to actually own the land so they could resell it if they want, but I want to keep the community managed.
3. Am I right in thinking that I can do all of the above?
4. What is the process that I would go through of evicting someone who doesn't keep with the covenant or who doesn't pay the homeowner fee? Also is eviction my only option, or can I delete or somehow return an item to the residents inventory if it isn't in keeping with the spirit of the community?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Clayton, from what i understand you cannot be an estate manager unless you own the entire sim, or island. Also you may sell island land in parcels, with the restriction that they may not be resold, while this is not an option on the mainland. Its not really a sale on an island but sort of a hmm "borrowed" or rented land, in a sense they get to "own" it but the island owner maintains all control and can take it back when wanted, and charge fees for its usage as well.
Hope this helps some, i think possibly the concierge service here may have more information on how all that island stuff works, good luck on your new venture!

Really? Is that true even if the land you own is on the main land?

The closest you can do is rent out the land. Divide it up into those 512 m parcels, advertise wherever that you are renting out those parcels for X lindens, with a condition on their use.

I don't think this kind of rent deal can appear in the regular for sale listings though.

Clayton in short, if you are on mainland, no you can't.

On the mainland there is no estate manager function and when you sell land you have no control over what people do on the land.

It seems unlikely you are a PI Island owner from your thread, and if you are not, then again you have no access to Estate Manager, unless the Island owner grants you that permission, (which is not likely as it is a position with some very strong powers).

Your option is to do as has been suggested and rent out the land, you then have control on the land as you are still the land owner and as such can determine what happens on your land.

Good luck with your venture

I actually bought into a Medieval neighborhood on the mainland (land + house). The person I bought it from interviewed people before selling to make sure that they too wanted to live in a Medieval neighborhood. Unfortunately, the person I bought from has since sold everything and doesn't live in the sim, and while some people kept the Medieval homes, there are a lot of modern homes going up.

So, I would say, if you want to keep it a Medieval neighborhood, rent out the land otherwise the new owners will put up whatever they want. Or, buy a private island, then you CAN control what type of buildings are put up.

You have to have someone make you an estate manager. if someone you know owns the sim, ask them, if its LL.. well you cant

We'll thanks for all the advice everyone gave me above. I'll chalk this up as another Second Life learning experience. I've decided to subdivide the land I bought and sell it off. Even if I get my asking price the result will be a loss of US$39.

I've written up a complete summary of the experience on my blog at www.secondlifehowto.com under the heading "How Not To Be A Land Baron".

There is nothing to stop you RENTING houses - then you still get to make the rules. There are plenty of people who prefer to rent a home and garden rather than have to 'pseudo-buy' from an island owner and risk loosing it if their landowner left SL.

I've thought about that, and I might try it at some point.

What's the best way to let people know about my rental property? Just advertise in the classifieds? It seems that half or more of the items listed in the land "sales" list are really just rentals on a private island. My fear is that with all the other things in the classifieds and with all the rentals in the land sales area, that it would be hard for people to find my listing.

If anybody has any experience with renting out their land, I'd love to hear about it.

...and me too - I have a bit of land now and want to start renting it out - I woud really like to get a steady flow of real money into my Paypal account...any help (or a link to knowledge article) really appreciated.