Real life estate agent makes a move in SL

Most people I know in SL disdain all the corporations which are moving in to our once wonderful online world. From my experiences, most people try avidly to avoid dealing with a corporation in world and instead opt to work with the little guys. I mean really, if SL simply becomes "American Corporations Online" who is going to stick around? I came here for the originality of the designers and those who run businesses and to get away from corporate America. Not to deal with a bunch of behemoth corporations who just muck up the place with their cheap crap and drive all the wonderful small, privately owned places out of business.

All the of the MySpace users will be happy to chug down whatever corporate crap is fed to them i'm sure. No offense to any that do use it. Really.

On a side note: I would love to see themed private sims promoting upcoming blockbuster movies. It would be a neat thing to see.

I, for one, welcome our new corporate overlords.

It was just pointed out to me that the in-world consultants CB has selected are known 16meter ad brokers responsible for many of the horrendously ugly signs devaluing the mainland landscape. What you do with this information is up to you.

well we were wondering how to convince LL to get rid of Land bots ..

With RL companies moving in

Either Real Estate will use them too ..

Or somehow they will mysterously be on the way out.

You gotta be kidding me. Those jerks are being rewarded for their crap. I mean, you gotta figure CB is paying them a lot for their consulting services.

I wish I was kidding. The other thing I like is how they felt the need to vilify land brokers and pose as the white knights coming in to save the end user:

"A small number of land barons mostly control real estate in Second Life," he says, "and we thought we could bring real estate to the masses."

--Charlie Young, senior vice president for marketing

F that

Hahaha....ok the laughter is based on the entire thought of CB coming in here. I used to work for CB *cough* and am thrilled with the incoming land barons. *chokes on her own sarcasm*

I think we are going to be losing a lot by having big companies coming in and creating content or controlling land etc. What I have always loved most about SL is it is filled with resident created content. With the addition of these companies are going to be their rules, their money driven notions of how things should be done in SL. Not with the community in mind in regards to enjoyment, but complete advertising mindset. I think I have enough of that in RL, does my SL need it too?

Are the people that work in this CB project going to really be people that enjoy this world, or are they just people here working to earn their living? This is where there is a big difference in how people are treated as far as I am concerned. If they are a resident, meaning they live in the world, shop with us, dance with us, travel and explore the grid with us...they are more likely to know what it is others want or need within the world. If they are just logging in to do a job *shrugs* it just feels far to impersonal to me.

Lets just hope that with the addition of a RL real estate company we dont see other new additions....like escrow, closing costs, inspectors, termites..there area already real estate agents out there...I'm never selling land again.


The quote that keeps coming up...

"A small number of land barons mostly control real estate in Second Life," he says, "and we thought we could bring real estate to the masses."

Right there shows how much they really truly know about SL. Just...oy.

They don't have to use the bots. LL makes back door deals with them. And they don't have to worry about the bots. They will never set land to "anyone". So this won't affect what LL does regarding bots either way.

“Rather than having to negotiate for top dollar with Second Life ‘land barons,’ users can visit our virtual office and interact with our virtual sales associate to buy homes from Coldwell Banker at reasonable rates,” Young continued.

Okay so they sell 256 plots of land and rent 256 plots as well (it was 512 plots right?), unless they plan on buying up all the auctioned sims, they are going to have very little effect on the land market if any. I know i have my own well posted opinions about land trading, but even I thought that comment in the article was a low blow. Do they not realize that the land barons themselves are members of the community and not some giant corporate alien that is invading our community?

That's right ColdWell insult the community you plan on advertising to. That makes alot of sense. =\

I am however happy that newbs will have atleast an option for the now missing first land program.

I hope they realize that most land transactions in SL aren't about houses.

I would MOST CERTAINLY like to know what backdoor deals were made with them!

Are they getting their land cheaper than us?

If so, are other corporations enjoying similar deals? I've been asking this for a long time now, but guess what - nobody answers.

We have been dissed to high HEAVEN, folks, by Coldwell Banker.

Here, from their press release:

“Rather than having to negotiate for top dollar with Second Life ‘land barons,’ users can visit our virtual office and interact with our virtual sales associate to buy homes from Coldwell Bankerat reasonable rates,” Young continued. “Ironically, Colbert Coldwell, and later Benjamin Banker, founded our company after seeing similar practices in 1906 San Francisco. Coldwell Banker was founded just 18 weeks after the earthquake largely because our founders saw the need for ethics and integrity in assisting victims of the devastation who were being preyed upon by unsavory businesspeople. We want to do the same thing in Second Life: give residents the opportunity to participate in fair and reasonable real estate transactions.”

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google
/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070323005339
&newsLang=en

All you people renting from anyone anywhere, or "owning" land like I do on Azure Islands, did you realize that these residents are actually indiginous scammers?

Were you aware that we need Coldwell Banker coming in to save the day, to save us from our OWN FRIENDS?

I guess Nexus and Adam should leave SL with their heads hanging in shame, along with all the other WONDERFUL people we have here already providing those services with years of diligent hard work, integrity, creativity, and customer service behind them.

Meanwhile, I should hie myself off to Coldwell Banker land, poor schnook that I am, so I can be ASSISTED as a VICTIM.

Talk about adding insult to the injury of coming in here in the first place with deep corporate products, to displace us, just so they can advertise their own real-world business!

coco

I think these guys were saying it was just the house that cost 20 bucks. For 20 bucks you can buy a prefab castle with big spires and a drawbridge. If these phone weasels are trying to sell two bedroom ranch units for this price, I bid 100 quatloo's that they fail miserably in the real estate market. Doesnt sound like they've lived here for awhile.

Why not start some kind of group or movement with the charter of: "Any real world corporation which sets up shop inside Second Life, will NEVER AGAIN be used by the members of this group inside or OUTSIDE Second Life."

Make it clear that we do not want them here (for those of us who don't) and make it clear that those RL corporations who set up shop here will go on our black list never to be used by us in RL again.

If the group grows large enough, I feel that could help counter the corporate takeover of SL by all these greedy corporations who all want to be "first" to go virtual at the expense of the ones they are trying to impress.

It is time for someone to go live with a cloan of SL which restricts RL corporations from entering the market. I'd be there in a second. The mega billions of real world corporations will only kill the virtual economy of SL anyway. One day I invision a SL full of corporations with no avatars to be found.

Yes, I saw the ad broker there with the group tag on. Jimbo saw him and wasn't impressed

I'm still chuckling at the idea the 5 mainland sims constitutes "an extensive tract of land" now, apparently.

5 sims they happened to buy near the lowest point in 4 months. 5 sims that will probably cost much more to replace when all their current land has been resold into the open market. After all, the newbies won't stop coming just because all their land has been resold.

I swaer to God if one more of you phone weasels uses "greedy" to refer to anyone trying to earn money again I won't be responsible for what happens.

BTW they own about 10 sims. Still not extensive but surely more extensive than any other mainland project.

Don't you know? We live in a communist utopia. The maximum you're ever allowed to earn is exactly equal to your tier and upload charges.

Coco, I don't have any substantiation for my backdoor comment. Anything is possible. They might have been contacted and sold land by one of the upstanding in-world "consultants" who had snatched up that land post Black Thursday. <-more speculation

Any previous owners of the Coldwell land want to come forward with transaction details as to who the buyers were?



If you start one, feel free to use the name I thought of earlier: "Coldwell Day in Hell".

Easy now.. I don't think Nexus and Adam and even Ansche are exactly the folks they're referring to here. In a sense, CB is getting into the same business they are.. The reference to land barons would be Elanthius (no offense) and others who have contributed to the relatively high cost of land, purely because there is currently a profit to be made within the current system. They're simply saying that they are attempting to level the playing field a bit. Given the scant few sims they have now, and the volume they would need to actually accomplish that, it's all still iffy.

My position is that I will wait and see what transpires on Monday, and then give it a month or two, and see where they're at, before I start drumming up conspiracy theories of back room deals, and corporate shakedown of our world.

SHHHH don't tell them that, I like all the new casino's popping up on the new continent, especially with the "special Slingo optimised" land about.

You would think it's a communist utopia with the amount of people that seem to be up in arms about a someone (caldwell banker) trying to make a little SL money.

They aren't in it to make a little SL money. This is just a cheap advertising expense for them. They are only in SL to Brand potential RL consumers. I don't necessarily see this as wrong. I'm actually quite intrigued how it will turn out and how they will be able to keep their little suburbias from becoming like every other chaotic mainland sim.

Not exactly. There are a tiny handful of Linden-zoned mainland sims, eg Brown. See the information pedestals in that sim, at Brown (84, 48, 24) for instance.

LL doesn't have the staff to implement zoning on a wide scale. Maybe Coldwell Banker does? It would be very interesting if they were to get greater, island-like parcel powers or access to main/alt database information that average mainland landlords don't have. But I doubt it.

Half they are going to sell, which they will have no control over - and half they are going to rent. I'm really curious to see how different Coldwell's properties will be, versus mine or any other developer's, especially folks like Bill Stirling.

But honestly, their prefabs selling for $20 are probably going to be uber-primmy shizzle that you have to own a quarter sim just to support. Why else would you pay $20 for it? How many people here buy a quarter sim just to own a house? I think that what little we have read already demonstrates a clear misunderstanding of the SL market. As a competitor, I can't say that I wish them well, but it will certainly be a learning experience for all of us.