Why Purchase Mainland?

Take your time. There ARE still nice corners to the mainland. You just have to look around A LOT, and you'll find something you'll be happy with.

Where do you live? Generally you can't just build what you want where you want, well not in the UK anyway.

So many mainland discontents! I myself love mainland; I would never think of renting from a private estate unless it was something _truly_ wonderful and unique.

What makes mainland so alluring: you're part of a continent, not some detached plot on some detached island in the middle of nowhere. You can rez a vehicle on your plot and explore the area. You have locationality, and will get to know your part of the world well, enhancing the experience of ownership.

Mainland is cheaper than estates, but you can get even cheaper tier by finding a land baron and renting tier from them. For a monthly cost, a land baron donates tier to a group, and you buy land for the group. You don't even need to be premium. The land baron has no control over buying or selling your land, and you can move quickly if desired. For example, for 4608 meters of land, you will pay $25 a month to LL plus premium (which is $6-$10 a month more.) If you rent tier from a land baron, you will pay only $16 a month- quite a savings.

The main issue is that most people use the land sales search. _Don't do this!_ There are some very nice mainland sims, but finding them is either through word of mouth or exploration. Buying cheap land is almost always going to land you bad neighbors; spend 1-2 L$ per meter and get yourself a nice plot.

Instead of automated searches, fly around the mainland. Look at different sims. You want something that is already established, has decent builds, and not a lot of 512's for sales. 512 meter plots are a prime target for adlot cutters and newbies.

I own half a sim on the mainland, and am part of a group that shares a private island.

I prefer mainland because I only have to worry about LL remaining in business, I don't have to be concerned with some anonymous 3rd party defaulting on their tier fees and suddenly discovering my home and advertised business location have been wiped clean or vanished.

There are some very reputable estate managers out there... and some not-so-reputable, and some out-right scammers. Even the most noble and honorable types can make mistakes. By sticking to the mainland I have no one but myself or LL to blame if something goes sour on my land.

Anyway... finding a neighborhood you want to be in is the hardest part anyway. Good luck, whether it's mainland or estate for you! =)

I agree with Calvine, take your time, research the area, go back at various times to check for changes. There are still plots available in already established areas which are mainly residential with the odd bit of commercial activity.

But beware of certain waterfronts, I have spoken to people in the past who have purchased what seem to be lovely waterfront plots only to find that when the waterfronts plots are sold the land owner sells the water in front and spoiling possibly the whole purpose of your purchase.
If its advertised as Protected Waterfront then check the water region in front is own by Governor Linden, if it has an ID number or Auction number then don't rush in.

But to compare mainland with Islands, some rents or leases whatever you call them are a bit extreme, I recently see an advert where there was a purchase price for the plot and a pretty hefty tier charge that was the equivalent of qtr region on mainland and the plot in question wasn't even an eighth of a region. or is that the price you pay for so called piece and quite..........

that is extreme and blatant ripoff

from own exploring i find estate 4096 plots from 40k to 50k pritty regularly(sp) while the base cost is L$29,100 for a 4096

here`s a simple way to figure out if it`s worth it of not for islands with a simple math:

$1675 / 65536 = 0,025558 (for easy math 0.0255)
land purchase: 0.0255 * 4096 = $105, L$: $150 * 265 + 3.5% = L$28,798

land tier:
$295 / 65536 = 0.0045
so costs tier for an 496 is: $18.43 a month

now as there are exchange costs everywhere the price goes abit up to $23 to $39(yea i`ve seen this figure) but this math will make it easier to see if u get rippedoff or not on purchase price and if tier is reasonable, just change the land sqm in the sum and see the basic cost for the owner

The only thing I will say in defense of Island owners is that when you factor in how many hours they have to spend dealing with tenants, it changes the whole picture dramatically. Their time and effort is worth something, in my opinion.

The problem with your equation Alicia is that it appears to be (and correct me if I'm wrong) based upon every square metre of land on an estate being available for rent. This often isn't the case.

oh yea i agree with that, spent countless hours with some allready but tbh, i do it for fun and managed to pass on some of the things i`ve learned with all sort of sl stuff

but selling the land abouve purchase price is nothing more then making a quick buck
i sell my land basicly at cost after LL`s exchange rate applied and add it to the tier pot

i`m still amazed tho that ppl actually buy plots that the owner makes 10 to 20k profit on, guess it`s all down to smooth talking and putting that money into advertising...

I think it's commendable that you doing at your cost, but I don't have a problem at all with someone making a buck or two. If I'm buying land my presumption is they are making a profit. I'm more than happy to pay extra if someone has spent the time to really develop the land rather than quickly cut it up with ugly inlets so they can market that you'll have your own island.

very true and thx

1 of the main reasons i kept about 1/4th of the sim as water straight trough the middle and on my costs as it`s home
devided the water into 2048sqm`s for ppl to use as "prim farms" with the restriction to keep it as it is

nothing more annoying then living on an island and all u have is a f`ing nice picture but no water!

That's kind of the way of real life commerce, retailers buy in bulk from wholesalers and then mark it up!!! Also known as Capitalism. The way I see it, the island owner is shouldering a big risk by putting $1675 cash up front, I think they deserve a little compensation. Besides the fact that they have to take care of the island afterwards, too.

Thank you Chris, I couldn't have said it better myself. Who woulda thunk the Kentucky redneck and the California hippie chick would be so in sync?!

Bradley, it's really just a matter of what YOU like. Think of it like art. If you prefer Thomas Kinkade...



... you're definitely better off renting on a tightly-controlled private island. But if you can appreciate the beauty in Picasso's Guernica...



... or a Jackson Pollock...



... then maybe you are the kind of person who can see the beauty in the mainland's chaos.

I own land on the mainland and I won't trade it for anything for rented land.

This for some reasons...

First of all, I like to be in controle of what happens on my land. If I want to color my logcabin yellow, then I want to be able to do so (something I would never do, but as example). I own now a logcabin, but if I would like to have tomorrow a castle or want to live in some kind of pre-historic cave, I want be able to that... and no covenant stopping me because it tells me houses must be follow certain rules.

I want to be in full controle over the security on my land (apart from Lindens). I don't want noboddy to be able to be messing around with that, apart from some persons I consider trustful (in my case, my RL partner and a RL friend).

But most of all... I don't to have the risk that a landlord/lady one day finds himself/herself bored with SL and dumps the whole lot (it happened). Or worse, the landlord/landlady doesn't like you... or you end up in a conflict with them (for whatever reason), they can block without any problem your access to the land you rented and your properties on it. There will not be much you can do then.
Now I don't say all landlords/landladies are as mentioned above, but we had some stories about those who are.

Sure, there are some messy places near to my house.... but also some wonderful things. The builds of my neighbors Jouret and August are awesome and the are more lovely places close. To be precise, with some looking around you find the cutest spots on the mainland. So anyone who claims that the mainland is one junkyard, I tell wrong. To be even precise, I saw more creativity by mainlanders as by renters (and yes, I also saw very nice things on rented land... but there is always the covenant!)

Here some reasons why I prefer mainland anytime above rented land.

Morwen.

I'm a Calvin and Hobbes guy myself.

Before we start, I want to say that I am biased since I buy, sell and have about 8 sims of mainland rented out right now.

Regardless, I really don't get all this hating on the mainland. A few sims are a little trashy but most sims, I repeat MOST sims are nice and many sims are stunning. Now I guess someone will prove me wrong but some of the awesome features of the mainland that you simply don't find on private islands (at least not all in the same continent) include volcanos, mountain ranges, multiple contiguous protected ocean sims, train tracks that go on for dozens of sims and have awesome train stations, the Great Wall!, roads that cross rivers and valleys and mountains with awesome bridges of all kinds, rivers that literally flow for dozens of sims and go through waterfalls and lakes and end in oceans. I have somewhere around 100 renters and I don't think any of them build in the sky because the view on the ground is too good to waste.

On top of all of that mainland is flat out undeniably cheaper than private islands! I pay $195 per month for each 65536sqm sim I own, that works out to about L$96 per 512. It's basically impossible for private islands to compete with me on price. Even more than that with private islands you always pay at the start of the month before you've even used your land. With mainland you pay at the END of the month, for your usage in the past. This is a big benefit if you ask me and it's often overlooked.

It's already been mentioned that with mainland you can cut and join and reshape and add chunks and sell off chunks and indeed freely sell or buy land at a moment's notice without getting permission from some arbitrary overlord. From my perspective as a business owner the liquidity of land is a huge plus. If I need a parcel now I can get it in seconds, if I find I bought too much and only need half I can offload half with no problems.

Further, the huge amount of research needed to buy private islands is a real hindrance to me. I've often thought about trading in other people's private land. i.e. buying up Anshe parcels and then subletting them. But the truth is that I can never be absolutely certain where this is allowed and where it isn't. Also, the fact that every landlord is different means I can never be certain how to compare prices. Hmm, one private 2048 costs L$1 and another costs L$20000. Which is cheaper? To find out I've got to read dozens of pages of covenants and probably interview the actual landlords as well. As a novice to islands I really don't have confidence that I'll cover all my bases and make the right decision. With mainland it's easy because the prices are all comparable to each other. It's a simple, level playing field for all mainland parcels.

Lastly, and this is critical, if LL goes bankrupt or does something crazy then everyone loses their land private and mainland together. But all those private land buyers face the added risk that their landlord goes bankrupt or gets bored and they lose all their money and their business.

Regardless of all of this I completely agree that there is a place for private islands and for certain applications they may even be better

This is also true of e.g. the Azure Islands continent.



This is definitely not true in general.

Also note that you CAN resell land bought from the major private estates, AND rent it out if you so wish. Also, the land market for resales is much more variable than on the mainland, as landbots won't touch it.

Very nice summation ^_^

This is a very good point. If you look at the first page of search you are looking at the cheapest mainland in the whole grid. i.e. the worst mainland in the whole grid. Don't be surprised if it looks like crap. One thing you can be sure about on mainland is that good land is generally expensive and crap land is generally cheap. This is a result of the active market that naturally pushes parcels out to the "right" price.

Also, it seems like a lot of people are judging mainland by the new continents which to my mind represent the worst possible place to buy land. All the best stuff is in the old continents, the older the better. It seems sims go through a little period of instability for a few months after they are auctioned before they start to settle down.

Landbots only touch it when you sell it off cheap... And if you want to sell it cheap to someone, you have the means to prevent that landbots touch it.

Or do as a friend of mine did... Put signs up sale, but do the selling in person. Maybe not as fast as selling-system of SL, but very personal.

Morwen.

Please explain to those of us who haven't been around long which ones are which?

Start from the top left (north west) and go anti clockwise and you will pretty much be passing through them in chronological order.

Although technically the middle left one is older than the top left one they are both so absurdly old that it doesn't make any difference.

I don't quite follow you there. With a private island your first month tier is free. Do you mean if you buy a mainland sim they don't bill until one month after you've won the auction?

I'm talking here only about the tier cost, not the purchase cost. Purchase costs are billed immediately.

I guess this "first month free" thing is a smart move on their part since it's necessary to match what mainland offers. As for your question, the answer is more or less yes (although more precisely you get billed on the date of your billing cycle).

It would appear that the answer to her question is actually more or less NO. Your original answer implies (incorrectly) that your first month of tier on the mainland is in effect free. In reality, as you just pointed out - you're billed on the date of your billing cycle, which may fall anywhere from one day from your purchase of the new land to 30 days from your purchase - so your original answer is only true in the minority of cases where it just happens to be at the 30 day end, with regards to new mainland you purchase.

(To be actually technically precise, if you purchase your new mainland parcel the daybefore your billing cycle date, then you have the pleasure of paying Linden Lab the tier rate for that new parcel for 29 days during which you didn't even own it.)