Rent or buy land?

I've been following all the commentary with fascination. There's some very good advice about not buying land now and waiting for the mainland pricing bubble to burst.

Of course, I didn't actually TAKE that advice, mind you. Instead, I bought 8056m of mainland just a few days ago, and sold off my original 1024m parcel to a neighbor without much haggling.

According to the predictions on this thread, I'll probably lose money on my transactions. I knew that going into them. But ya know, I'm not interested in making money, I'm interested in playing SL. I didn't want to wait an unspecified time for a hypothetical drop in mainland prices, which would delay all the projects I had in mind that required more than my 1024m plot could support.

If I'm lucky, and work hard, my projects may someday realize enough profit to make up from my out-of-pocket expenses. Maybe. But either way, I'm getting my money's worth in sheer pleasure. I didn't buy more than I could afford in terms of my RL resources, certainly far less than I've spent on other hobbies in the past.

So although I really do enjoy the commentary and the insights and the debates over what offers the greatest ROI, I've already made a killing on my own terms and have no regrets.

I don't think your perspective is twisted at all. I think it makes sense. If you're having fun, then do it. The difference in buying vs. private sim buying vs. renting of my 4096 over a year is probably less US $ than I could have made by working instead of reading these threads

For me, I think the big thing is zoning. I'll never own mainland again. I've gone through three beautiful parcels on the mainland, with nice neigbors, and so on and had them destroyed by the stereotypical "bad nightclub" experience--black and purple cube up to the edges of the property line with tons of neon stuff floating over it. Abandoned, naturally, after a week, but not taken down or put up for sale. And I have no particular worries about the stability of Ansche, if she defaulted, SL's economy would collapse anyway.

I kept that in mind when I was land shopping. One of the new Class 5 sims had just opened up with my choice of lots, but the sim was EMPTY, which means I had no idea who might buy next to me.

So I chose another, older sim where there was more of a patchwork of established residences, which reduced the amount of land available for a megalith business. Not sure-fire protection for the future, because land does change hands, but an optimistic hedge.


LOL! Quite true.

Go to the mainland sim of Achemon. The train runs by every ten minutes and you can actually ride it.

I love my Mainland plots and have bought and sold a few to cover my tier. The only thing that really sucks about Mainland is the 16m advertising plots. I wish they did not exist...they really have destroyed the views in some lovely areas.

I don't think the bubble will burst. Put a Mainland property up for sale at 15.5 a meter and watch the comical land rush that ensues. It's not heading south anytime soon.

Mainland prices have just adjusted and now flattened at a new level to reflect supply and demand. A lot of the people in the huge recent influx are buying land. This influx has slowed a bit, but not much. More people equals more demand.

LL is offsetting things finally by bringing new sims online. The only way the bubble will burst is if they bring too many online too soon which has certainly not been the case in the last few months.

Comical rush by whom? Land Barons. Who's buying the thousands of plots for sale out there? I have seen one land baron buy from another.... do they really think that they won't be the last one caught with the bag?

Hmm... the railway project... so THAT explains it!

Yes, we have trolleys and rail... and here, I thought it was simply because there is no law against employing child-avatars in the prim mines...

That's right, many land barons are assuming the risk in real estate speculation; on the other hand, many who are not land barons have also set their land for sale or raised their prices to current "market" levels. While many people are happy for land barons to take this risk (that is, they happily sell their land to them), they often seem to begrudge those barons the profit that motivates them.

The thing is, it's a level playing field; anybody in SL, not just land barons, can buy land at the prices the barons are paying. It's just that the prospect of profit motivates the barons to look more often, to analyze more carefully, to pay more tier, etc. So when land goes for sale, chances are it's a baron who will first see it, place a value on it, and decide whether or not to buy it. End-users tend to want to take their time more; resellers want to always have max tier in land (e.g. buy new land as soon as a parcel sells).

Thread update:

The bubble has started bursting as predicted. My prediction now is that it will continue to burst as more land hits the grid. Prices will go lower. It's going to get crazy now too. Landbarons will lower thier prices gradually, probably every few days..... trying to have the least amount of loss possible. There is a sim that is on auction right now and the bid is up to $4,000 with an hour left......I would HATE to be the person about to win that bid.

It will be interesting to see where land prices will finally settle too....at least for awhile.

Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows.

The new level isnt even close to what Mainland prices normally are. ANYTHING over 10Ls is NOT a good price at any time unless u are a speculator and are riding a RARE spike in values. Now that the HUGE influx of Private islands have been getting met, Lindens are finally getting back to relaseing land. They are VERY far behind considering that the population has tripled. A couple new continents and the release of 10 or more sims a day instead of two will help the new people get land at prices that let them play SL without having to spend ALL their money on Land and that is how it should be.

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