Is the Rent Amount Fair for House?

Hello Everyone,

I rented a dwelling in SL for the first time a few weeks ago. I love the building's design (inside and out) as well as its location. And I'm having more fun than I thought furnishing the place.

I pay $850 per week for a small cottage, which is roughly $18 per month real money, totaling $220 per year.

No doubt the sim owner did a lot of fine work creating his or her "world." I was wondering if the rent I pay is in-line with the expense incurred and the work performed by the sim owner in order to create and maintain the sim. In other words, am I possibly paying a rediculously high price for my rental? Or is the price fair and equitable?

It would be great if both tenants and sim owners responded to this, as I have no idea what constitutes a fair dollar amount for rent in the virtual world.

Thanks,
Avanti

How much land? How many prims? Are you out of chat distance from your neighbors? Do you know if they are custom textures?

I rent a cottage kind of thing.

2 floors, with a viewing tower thingy.
200 prims
away from neighbours chat
not too laggy sim, nice place, communial area with lots there too.
some have (sim edge) sea view
400l a week


nice place, i'm happy enough untill i make the descision to buy land

I think its the right amount if you are happy to pay it. It seems you are enjoying living there, it sounds really nice, so yes the rent is fair as you agreed it was fair by renting there

Something is only worth what someone is willing to pay

Hi Tiana,

Thanks for responding. Generally, what you say is true. But my original post also focussed on the effort/expense of the sim owner in relation to the amount I am being charged for rent.

For example, if the sim owner is making 1000% profit against my rent, that's not fair to me--in my book at least. If the owner is only making 10% profit, then that's not fair to the owner.

I am new to this, but I searched far and wide for a place to rent. Some dwellings that cost considerably more than mine were not nearly as nice as what I have now, or they had a much lower prim. I pay $850 with 254 prim. Another place was of the same size (land and building) and cost $1,250 with only 100 prim. Obviously, the difference is huge. The "niceness" of the homes and land were comparable.

Therefore, I wonder how many people are being charged exhorbitant rental rates that do not reflect what they're getting for the money.

Avanti

Avanti,

In my opinion, if the landlord provides you with a service that you feel is worth what you are paying, then it is, how can I put this politely, none of your business what his/her profit margin is. That is part of the skill in being a landlord -- finding good deals and good land that will make rent profitable.

Different things are important to different people. Some people might not care so much about furniture, maybe care more about location and social life, so prims aren't as important to them. Other people might want a beautiful secluded space to call their own, with lots of prims.

So as others have said, it's what you are willing to pay and that is the end of it. Find what suits you best.

A landlord or seller of objects in SL has every right to make as much profit as possible. But as a consumer, I have perfect right to wonder about the amount of dollars I am being charged. As a comparison, I rent an apartment in RL. I know the apartment market in my area, and I know when I am paying too much or am getting an especially great deal. In the virtual world, however, I don't know all of that. Hence, the reason for my original and second post in this thread.

Avanti

To get an approximate idea of how much you should be charged +/- 100% you can look at the tier prices for owning mainland here: http://secure-web11.secondlife.com/whatis/landpricing.php

Those prices are in US $ per month
Since 268 L$ = 1 US$ you should be able to calculate your yearly costs and compare them to the tier costs for mainland.

Its perhaps better to compare your number of prims than actual ground area since the sim owner may have set aside nice areas for residents to visit
Your rental conditions proberbly tell you how many prims you have.
You can use a formilar to work out how much land is required for that number of prims and then calculate the mainland tier cost for that amount of land.

Added complications:
1. Island prices are different from the mainland in that it costs US $295 per month for a class 5 entire island rather than US$195 per month for a mainland sim
2. On the mainland you can use groups to support an extra 10% of land for your tier

Yes that's totally understandable, Avanti. I was hoping not to sound rude with that answer. As an up-and-coming landlord on Nautilus, I'm also very curious as to what people are paying for what they are getting. Just to give you a comparison, my units are likely going to be between 500 to 1000 L per week, based on size and desirability, with 200 prims each. I'm sure that some people will think it's a ripoff, so more power to them for not renting them. I'm looking for the tenant who wants to hang out in all my customized gardens, public spaces, and beaches, likes the views and the community, and looks up at the hotel and says, "wow, I could live there?"

I guess the part I zero'd in on was when you were trying to figure out how much effort or expense the landlord put into the place. That's where I'm saying, there is no such thing as "fairness" here. If a landlord spent 2 seconds on the land, not even moving Anshe Chung's trees, put out 30 freebie huts, called it good, and makes 1000% profit, then I say good for him for figuring out the business. But if you say, "hey that's not good enough for Avanti," then good for you for being a smart consumer. I just bristle when someone implies that a good business person is being unethical just because they are making a lot of money.

All true stuff, Cortex. It's probably a very good starting point.

But let's remember there are many other factors you've not taken into account, so I would reiterate that there's no clear "you should be charged..."

How much did the owner pay for the property? (if mainland). How desirable is it to live there? What's the view? How good of a landlord is he or she? How laggy is it? How many of those prims not allocated to you were "invested" into making the space more desirable? Are those Goreans next door going to try to enslave me? You just can't make a formula that tells you how much you should be paying.

You can definitely use your formula to decide whether it's more desirable for you to buy land yourself, though.

One of my rentals is L$900 a week for 400 prims, totally private with the sea all around except for one side which is a huge snow covered mountain. I love it & can't bear to give it up which I will be soon, but to me it's more than worth it

Another is in an edwardian/victorian themed sim which the owners work so hard on to make it what it is, lag free, no griefers, great neighbours & the owners are pretty much always about & will do anything for u, also theres always new things added tyo explore & the sim is totally stunning (Fatima's Love & now Fatima's Desire too!) shameless plug for anyone wanting a really really nice place to rent or buy =)

If you want somewhere cheaper, check out Vygg sim, lots of houses for approx 250L a week there.

You need to do more shopping around yourself in order to make that decision. Spend the time perusing the ads, but if you are being charged within the general market rate, I think you should not focus too much on how much profit your landlord makes.

my last rental property (i own now) ...

i was paying 1600 per week for about 3K of island land (2 sides open water) and 600 prims. i bought the same amount of extra prims for a few hundred lindens more. i KNOW it was expensive... but you get what you pay for.

and to be honest, i still think it was the best rental property i've seen. and everyone who saw it thought so too.

so eventually ... it's what YOU think of the property. it makes no difference what the owner is making in profit.