Why Purchase Mainland?

I love the mainland and its openess to new people and ideas. Just look for an area that is well settled already and IM the major landowner if they would sell or rent to you.

Look for where you want to be, not for what is for sale. If an area appeals to you, that means they are like minded people and may be open to having you as a neighbor.

I never put my land for sale but people approach me regularly wanting to join the neighborhood.

I wouldn't buy in the new continent unless you buy a lot and then wait for likeminded people to sell to.

Her? Well I've been Ruth'd a few too many times I guess!

The Estate I rent from has a 4096 for sale that would suit you if you like an ordered beautiful environment. IM me in world. (Disclaimer: not my land, just my neighborhood and Brad sounds like a good neighbor to have)

I down graded and brought on an private island where I would have my permanent home, I thought I was was done with mainland! I just seemed so unlucky in the past, everywhere I settled right next door to me would have a new escort club, casino..e.t.c.. it was fun for a while as I like watching the diversity of SL pass me by, but after a while when I could not even walk on my land because of lag.. it got rather annoying!

Anyway...it seemed as soon as I downgraded I upgraded again! I am looking to set up a store of my own. I brought a parcel and was rather pleased, I looked for a sim that seemed to be mainly commercial so I did not build a store in someone's front yard... I popped to the parcel yesterday and OH JOY right next door is a "Army Force Gang" or similar! They have pretty tanks and rockets set up, they practice how high the rockets go, oh the laughs I have!

But I still have the serenity of my home on the private island! I can recommend Sarah Nerd to anyone, she has been a fantastic landlady and she is stuck with me! ha ha!

Another fantastic landlady I had was Ashlynn Dawn, I loved living in her rental when I first started in SL... I had no idea then just how valuable a 1000 prims were back then!

I think I was clear. My point still remains that I'd rather pay for something after I've used it than before.

Yes, but with all due respect, your comparison isn't good. I did a LOT of research before becoming an island owner myself, and the majority give the first month, or at least part of it free. So you're most likely paying after in either case, but unlike mainland you're NOT paying an average of 15 days worth when you're not using it period! Advantage - private island!

Just to be clear, are you a manager or some sort of landlord on a private sim?

Me too, I tried that argument in RL but the landlord still made me pay before I had moved in rather than 1 month after.

Yes, and I had already been clear about that, just as you had been clear about being in the business of buying, selling and renting mainland only. Part of my post that you just quoted was:



So yes, as I had already said, I own private islands. I actually agree with a lot of the postings on this thread about the pros and cons of private islands vs. mainland. I think private islands are potentially much nicer residential locations BECAUSE of the covenants while mainland may well be better for commercial ventures because of the LACK of covenants and more flyby traffic.

Fact remains, however, that when buying mainland, you're paying somewhere between 1 and 30 days of tier (therefore on average lets say 15 days) for time during which you didn't even own that land. That will *never* happen on my islands, nor on most that I'm aware of. And mine and most that I'm aware of don't charge you in advance on the day you buy either (as you had said) - although that's not 100% uniform, of course.

I guess if you run a business and want some land for your main shop, you're probably better off on Mainland in terms in of visibility and the likelihood of extra traffic.

My take on Mainland as regards residential plots......is that it's far too chaotic for me.!!
I think Mainland in that regard as being overhyped, over priced and over crowded. Without zoning rules you can end up having your little house in between a noisy club and a tacky shopping mall! I see junk yards, I see an armada of ugly "For Sale" signs, rotating billboards and those annoying Ad farms. I recently visited the new East Continents and it hasn't taken long for those to look a complete mess as well!
Of course there one or two Mainland SIM that have been kept visually pleasant, but they are few and far between and very hard (& expensive) to move into.

Regarding Private islands, it really comes down to the Estate Owner. There are many that provide a quality service and are very flexible regardless of the Covenants set. I own a number of SIM's myself which i've either sold or rented plots of land on and i like to think of myself as being easy going and helpful to all my residents.

From the outset, I spend time theming and landscaping the SIM before setting a Covenant (My latest one is based on the Mojave Desert so the type of buildings are important here). It doesn't hurt to take ones time getting the right sort of residents who appreciate that particular SIM theme and who want to live that chosen lifestyle as opposed to selling/renting to just anyone.....even if means absorbing some of the Tier to reach that goal. It seems to be working as the majorty of my residents have been with me for quite some time on each of my SIM's

I would like to emphasise one point though...Covenants are being made to look like something nasty or unsavoury! In fact it's quite the opposite as it prevents your SIM on which you live in from ending up a free for all that is Mainland! It protects the rights of the Estate owner of course.....but it also promises to protect the resident's chosen lifestyle too! Considering the amount of money involved that's no bad thing either!
The buying party is well aware of such Covenant before pressing the BUY button......i personally always ask them to read it beforehand and ask if everything is agreeable.

Should any of my residents owning large plots of land want to sell their land at later date...I'm quite happy for them to cut it up into smaller ones providing they inform me beforehand (e.g a 8192 sq/m into 2 x 4096's)

A successful relationship between Estate owner and resident is about "give & take" and a bit of leniancy on both sides. Communicaton is very important at all times.

Overall.......i'd take a Private island over Mainland anytime when it comes to having your "Home"

I only need 2 reasons to stick to mainland.

1. Freedom - I can do what I like.
2. Security - In the sense that I can be fairly certain LL will still have my land and contents there for me when I login next time.

Having to live with some lag and a few eye-sores is not reason enough to give up these two essential points with mainland.

What I meant was, as far as I know, landbots simply won't touch land on private estates, period. Even if it is cheap.

This is true and it's mostly because it's very difficult to work out programmatically what private land costs.

And I meant what have the buying of landbots to do with the purchasing of land?

If you once bought land (and there more then enough of that out there which won't be touched by landbots), landbots are a no issue anymore...

You can state if you agree with them or not (which I don't, but that is complete different discusion).

Thanks for giving me props! It's easy to be a good landlady when I have the finest people in sl like you making there homes on my estates!

I second that!

Bought 2 mainland parcels, nothing extravagant, and haven't really had many problems.

Well you are cutting out the middleman, the island owners still have to pay LL $295 per month for a sim so you will pay your proportion of that plus a profit margin.

A 4096m (1/16th of a sim) block will cost you $35 (premium $10+$25) per month through LL direct, so if you can get a 4096m (costs the island / sim owner $12 or $18 per month) for less than $35 per month, great.

Another reason I like is LL already do monthly debit to my credit card, so my "rent" is automatically taken care of direct.

Good thread. Another consideration in buying estate land is the estate owner, like with anything there are good and bad. Some are just land farmers. Some are well into SL and offer all sorts of help as well as supplying land. Some estates are themed and nicely landscaped, others just cut up into a grid.
Wherever youre buying take time to look and try to talk to other residents and the owner before you buy.
And most of all, have fun

honestly, i wish i could say do it
as a long time mainland land owner
and as someone who has stayed the course for years on teh mainland
unfortunatly LL's attitude towrds the mainland has gotten to the point i would not recomend anybody buy land
unless you spend the big bucks it appears that LL doesn't give a rat's rump about any land issues, they used to have a land managemnent forum where you could post requests for Linden assistance, but gee guess what, LL is now to busy to be bothered with actually responding to resident requests unless you own a island then of course you are important enough to have someone there to respond.

so as a lover of the diversity of the mainland i would have to say, unless you thrive on LL's apathy don't do it

Don't we all thrive on LL's apathy? What other choice do we have?

lol thank you, i needed that!
i'm just crabby that i have been trying for over a month to get some litter removed that play horn sounds loud enough that i cannot even listen to streaming music on some parts of my land.
AND then i have lost about 3-5000 Lindens worth of stuff to server glitches in teh last week AND then haveing the new incredibly ill thought out new communication window shoved at me, just has me in what is very honestly a rare strongly anti linden mood

and your post made me smile and realize
no one will die! so it really is not worth getting so upset
thank you

Why buy on the mainland? First freedom, you can build what you want a business, home or a skybox in any style you want (bad news is so can your neighbor). The other is security, you only have to pay your tier and obey the TOS. On estates you have an estate owner's rules too. If you like freedom the mainland is for you. If you like order and lots of rules (some people do) buy island.
P.S. I'm on the mainland.

Rather a lot, actually. Because of landbots, on the mainland there is no such thing as a bargain. There is a floor below which the price won't fall. So for the ordinary buyer, there is no point in hunting for a "good buy", because you won't find it.

On estates, however, there is much more variety in land pricing, and there is therefore the possibility that you may be able to pick up something at a good price.

Ah, this is incorrect. The big estate owners have negotiated bulk discounts with LL, and to attract business they pass some of that discount on to residents, so you actually pay LESS than you would on the mainland.

"Good buy" and "good price" are relative terms. I have bought from the Land Sales search list and considered my purchases good buys.
I also looked at many estates and didn't find anything that I would consider worth the price. It depends on the buyer to decide if a buy is good or not. But then why would someone buy if they did not think they were getting a "good buy"?