Estate land sales deposits

I see a lot of estate land for sale for L$1 and then you read that's a deposit, you have to pay more to own the land. However this means the land appears at the top of the land listings, is this ethical? I think not but I'd like to hear the opinion of others to see if my suspicions are unfounded.

I suppose it is unethical, but the main "loser" is the listings, which are being gamed. Aside from the nuisance factor, that is: Do you have to actually go through with the L$1 transfer to find out what the real price is? Otherwise, strikes me asw a mighty cheap lesson in "Caveat Emptor."

No, I wouldn't buy from such a seller either - unless I REALLY wanted that particular piece of land.

I sell land with a 250L deposit which means the land is held for 24 hours to give the buyer chance to arrange payment. I do it this way because Im not online 24/7 and the the amounts involved are too large for me not to want payment 'face to face' inworld so to speak (mainly because of potential SL cockups). Some people want to pay via paypal which I prefer so setting land for sale at the full linden price doesnt help in paypal transactions. I expect others will have thier own reasons for doing it this way, but these are mine.

That's fair enough. I'd never heard a good explanation either. Glad to hear there's a method to the madness, at least for some.

So far, perhaps I've been lucky, but I've never had any sort of glitched that seriously hiccupped the land buying process. I set my land for what it sells for and every lot (unless I missed one and I get back to it as soon as I notice) has a nice big box on it with both the covenant and the tier pricing information to be given out when clicked.

My new exception to that is SkyBeam FirstLand, where the 512 purchase price is a deposit... a refundable security deposit. The land there is pure rental and the 512 is refunded on request when a resident leaves, as long as they are not being evicted with cause (see covenant for details <G> or I don't have to do any joining/subdividing or terraforming. As they are small lots, I expect to refund every single deposit

I fully recommend talking to the Estate Owner where possible before purchasing or renting on estate land in any circumstance, but I would certainly want to hear why the why for a methodology that concerns me directly from the horse's mouth.

Caroline's response would set me at ease on her reasoning for her deposit system. Her deposit amount also doesn't put her up in the $L 1 category of trying to be on top, too. Kudos.

Char