Just got offered $1500 USD for a building I'm making

So... I'm a new designer. I'm about 8 days old now, total newbie

I'm making a hotel. This hotel is really cool, and has been getting great comments and stuff from the Sandbox. Well, I moved it to a safe location with the blessings of someone who we are hoping to do some business with in terms of some land renting.

Anyway..

I have a friend who saw my hotel. She invited this guy who is an SL business consultant tocome, and he and saw the incomplete design, some various floor layouts, and heard my spiel on what we plan on doing with it. After over an hour of talking with him, we voiced our concern of not having the money to buy land.

He said either we could do one of two things (to which he is concerned):

A: formulate a business plan and present it to him and have him buy the land for us or...

B: He buys my hotel for $1500 USD and takes complete ownership of it.

omg what do I do

As a builder and designer - although so far limited in projects undertaken - I would go for option B.

Assuming its $1500 and not L$1500, of course....

Lewis

Congrats, Devoran. At first glance, I'm with Lewis on this one. I'd probably take the $1500 and run. As Lewis said though, double check that it was indeed US$, not L$. 1500 Linden dollars is equivalent to about $5-6 US, depending on the day.

If you've got a business of your own in mind though, and you think that this building of yours can generate more than $1500 US in the long run, then option A might be a smarter move. B's the safe bet; A's a riskier venture. As with all business endeavors, it could pay off big time, or it could flop. It's up to you whether you want to take the risk.

I seriously doubt he meant $1500 USD. If he did, take the money and thank him profusely!

It is far more likely that he meant L$1500, which is about $5.45 USD.

A word of warning about designing a "hotel". It's virtually impossible to build a realistic, multi-floor hotel and use it in SL to rent individual rooms. I know. I've tried. Take a look at the hotel on Nohona Isle, at the back of the lagoon. 10 rooms, built precisely like a small tropical island resort hotel.

For one thing, even if everything else was perfect, a sim can only hold 40 people. So a replica of a small "Motel 6" would eat the entire occupancy of a sim. A Raddison Hotel would remain almost entirely empty.

SL is only set up to divide land access in the x-y plane. You can make land parcels in increments of 4 meter by 4 meter squares, but no smaller, and the room on the 32nd floor of a tower is on the same parcel, and shares the same access controls, prim limitations and audio stream, as all rooms directly below it. This means that access control for a multi-story structure has to be by means of locked, scripted doors, which are easily circumvented. That had been the plan for the Nohona Hotel - to use scripted access doors. Before we determined it couldn't keep anyone out.

Sound (as in chat) can't be restricted to a parcel, or to a limited area, so unless you leave 30 M of dead space between each actual, occupiable room, the term "paper thin walls" takes a whole new meaning. You'll hear every word from the people next door, clear as a bell.

Prim counts are limited to 117 prims per 512 M2 of land. When you start making a complex, multi-story structure, you'll rapidly run out of prims, unless the land around it is huge, and empty, and the entire grounds for the hotel are one big parcel, or part of the same land group.

Chatlogs suck.

XXXXXXX Is the buyer, ***** is my business partner.



[6:55] XXXXXXXX: here's my pro opinion
[6:55] You: It's a true monument in SL
[6:55] XXXXXXXX: this project has a future
[6:55] XXXXXXXX: but you're looking at it from an ideologic perspective
[6:55] XXXXXXXX: not from a business perfpective
[6:56] You: Well, I see the business that comes from it.
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: it's a good project and people will love it
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: well
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: you need some business plan then
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: think ahead
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: a strategy
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: business lines (rooms / club / events //)
[6:56] You: So what.. I've only been playing for 8 days.
[6:56] You: Do we need to start an IPO?
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: no investor invests without these
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: something like it
[6:56] *****: i have lots of ideas
[6:56] You: what
[6:56] XXXXXXXX: ye
[6:56] You: dude who would buy into an IPO in a game
[6:57] You: with rl money
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: not now
[6:57] You: I mean
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: and it's not an ipo
[6:57] You: wouldn't I have to create a RL business
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: it's a business plan
[6:57] You: no no no
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: you need to plan your activities
[6:57] You: to get the money, we get a business plan, and present it with an IPO
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: yeah
[6:57] You: Pay out regular dividends
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: but you want my money
[6:57] You: etc
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: so i need a plan
[6:57] You: Well
[6:57] You: Yeah.
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: see what i get
[6:57] You: Are you interested?
[6:57] *****: ok i will set up a plan if u like
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: other solution
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: i get the land
[6:57] XXXXXXXX: i get the building + all
[6:58] You: go no
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: buy it
[6:58] You: on
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: and run it
[6:58] You: no
[6:58] You: well
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: that's doable without a plan
[6:58] You: we'll consider it
[6:58] You: But
[6:58] You: Then you get my hard work
[6:58] *****: i have started researching
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: no no
[6:58] You: How much would you buy something like this for
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: you keep doing the work
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: you get paid for that
[6:58] You: I know
[6:58] XXXXXXXX: but don't own it
[6:58] You: I'm saying that I put this work in to run it
[6:58] Blancamoon Edelweiss is Offline
[6:58] You: For you to take that would make me sad. But how much
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: well then don't go there
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: hard to tell how much
[6:59] You: Well
[6:59] You: Give me a round vigure
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: say $1500
[6:59] You: RL $?!?!?!?!
[6:59] You: RL?!
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: sure
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: not SL ^
[6:59] You:
[6:59] XXXXXXXX: $
[6:59] You: holy shit

All I can say is, have the money in hand before you hand over the content.

"A fool and his money are soon parted" could apply equally well to either side here. I don't think your 'sugar daddy' has actually checked into the realities here, or that he is a con artist. But that is just my opinion. What he is offering for your one structure is more than most people will pay for designing and building an entire sim.

What extra conditions might he put on the purchase? What if you have to agree to not build another hotel anywhere in SL for one year, or something like that?

For the business plan, how much is he willing to invest, on what terms?

For the business plan, how much time do you intend to spend, and how much money? If *you* intend to spend 10 hours per day for the next year, and $5,000 of real money, in hopes of getting a thriving profitable business going, maybe this investor is willing to finance that.

Lastly, I advise against posting evidence that you record chats.

lee

I don't record chats, I haven't left the game and it's in my chat history.

Further, I was thinking about the extra conditions, and he'll be on to chat later. He may say "you erase them from your inventory" or whatever.. but see, this is why I don't know what to do.

First of all, I don't have a business plan. I don't even know where to start. My hotel is more than just a place to sleep - it's a venue for everything from business conferences to a 4-level club with different music on each level to varied genre rooms with different balls to a pool on the roof.. the list goes on.

I don't know what to do :\

Good start, but it's only possible to have one music stream per land parcel. So unless the 4 club levels are NOT stacked atop each other, that aspect is impossible in SL. Each club area that is on a different music stream will have to also be on a different parcel of land.

Most of the rest of this can be done, to an extent.

Pool on the roof? Easy. Get some of Siggy Romulus' primswim water and sell his "Swimmer HUD" for your guests to use.

Venue for business conferences? Possibly, if they are less than 40 people, and you own the whole sim.

I'll seriously suggest you re-read the last post that I made, and that you check into how land management, sound management and parcel access controls work, before getting too deep into this. SL is NOT friendly to vertical development planning. It's designed more to sprawl like an Arizona resort complex, with everything on one level, and LOTS of land to play with.

Is it possible to make a venue such as you describe? A place with themed rooms, different club venues, and all that? Yes, but NOT in a compact tower on a small parcel of land. That simply is NOT how SL divides resources.

There's nothing wrong with recording chat logs for your own use, so don't worry about that. In fact, it's wise to keep records so you can refer back to them later. It's only against the rules to publish them without the permission of all involved. That's considered an invasion of privacy.

By removing the names, you're in kind of gray area. On the one hand, there's nothing inherent in the log to identify anyone who might wish to remain anonymous, but on the other hand, should this deal go through, many people will learn who was who in the discussion. You're obviously comfortable with people reading it since you're the one who posted it, but you don't know for a fact that the other two are okay with it, so that's something you want to be careful about. It's not technically against the rules with the names removed, but it's not exactly within the spirit of the rules either.

Anyway, my feeling on the little snipit of the conversation is that it smells like someone trying to take advantage of a newb. I could certainly be wrong though, and I hope I am, but be careful. Something about this just doesn't seem to sit right with me.

Good luck with it. I really hope it works out for you. Just keep your guard up. As others have said, if you're going with Option B, don't do anything until you have cash in hand. If it's Option A, then draft a RL contract and have it signed and notarized.

You were correct, by the way, in stating that if you plan to run a business you should have a real business plan. It doesn't need to be an IPO though unless you plan on offering stock to investors. Lots of SL businesses are not corporations, but they're still real businesses.

As for the question of "who would buy into an IPO in a game", first I must point out that SL is not a game. It has many games within it, but it's much bigger than that. It's an entire world. There are thousands of businesses inworld that make real money. RL companies are moving in every day. There are articles in financial journals about business within SL all the time. The answer is lots of people would and do buy into an SL based corporations.

Anyway, all of this is probably more than you bargained for thinking about at only eight days in. If I were in your shoes, as I said earlier, I'd probably take the cash and call it a day. I'd ask for portfolio rights to the build, of course, so I can use it as a demonstration of my talent as a builder, but the buyer would own it. $1500 US for a few days work is a pretty good deal.

I'll just repeat my word of caution though. I can't quite define it, but something about the way the guy is wording things makes me think he's trying to take advantage of you. It's just a feeling. Again, I hope I'm wrong, and that all of this is for real. Just be careful. You seem quite intelligent, so you're probably aware of this already, but it was still worth saying, I think.

Good luck.

If its worth anything, I suggest taking the money, but keep a copy of the building. Use the money to buy land, and then set up building and rent out. Figure at L$500/wk (estimate) and 10 rooms, you can pull L$5000/wk .

Ceera, the same guy told me I could use objects to play music on a floor.

Whether that is actually doable with streaming music or not I don't know.

Anyway, yeah this is all sort of crazy. I got into this game because I saw an ad in the PopSci saying that people are taking themselves onto SL to do business. I'm a trance DJ irl. So I'm spinning at clubs in SL. I did a 6 hour live show spinning records on Saturday for $150L (whether that is a good price or not I have yet to find out). I hear a lot of people use SAM or something, but I'm not a radio DJ, I'm a talented DJ that plays records.

Anyway, all that to say, lol, this building was a diversion while I wasn't playing music. And, I got really into it. So much, I actually turned away DJ business a couple times. One was for the SAM thing, the other because it's really not my style of music, or people. At any rate... I will still look for venues to play at, but this building is fun!

I started my 2nd day with a set of rezzed headphones that I wanted to DJ with



http://www.siigarikitawa.com/headphones1.jpg

And the next day with a couple different types of turntables:

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/decks.jpg

Anyway, the rest of the images won't be linked for size.

Okay so

Day 2 of construction - note the fun pad of stuff to play with It's called "Builder's Pallete" and the hardhat is called "Dev's HardHat - Warning, falling bricks!"

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/construction1.jpg

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/construction2.jpg

Day 3 started with me wanting to look professional - as any skyscraper would need a crane assisting (notice all the slackers)

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/construction0.jpg

And also some signage:

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/construction.jpg

Day 4 I'll upload in a bit, I'm busy tying to find a skin, but they're all really expensive.

Okay, here's day 4. (Still haven't found skins, my computer's swap was up to 1.70 GB when I entered "Made" shop.)

First, note the building has grown This is the Mesosphere hotel at 10 stories, and the top one has tinted windows (club).

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/day4_1.jpg

Next, notice the crazy height of the building. It's HUGE.

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/day4_5.jpg

Now, we have a look at the kitchen! Because we all know that our avatars have GOTTA eat:

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/day4_2.jpg

Here's a view of the carpeted, popcorn ceiling. No texture for the atrium walls yet though.

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/day4_3.jpg

And finally, a look down the atrium. Vertigo, anyone?

http://www.siigarikitawa.com/day4_4.jpg



So far this project has been moving along pretty well, and it's been lots of fun. I hope to have the structure (height, walls, room layouts) completed by Saturday, and the whole thing fitted out and furnished by Tuesday of next week. We will see! Something I'm a bit concerned about however is the amount of money that needs to be spent to get this going in terms of $L - furniture, scripts, etc. I don't have any way I can get money because I don't have a way to put rl money on the internet, so yeah, I'm screwed there. Guess more dj gigs is the way to go

Ummm none of those links work for me.

Most of the links don't work for me either. I'm also starting to wonder if this whole thing was just an advertisement in disguise.

Devoran, if you want to show off your build, great, but this isn't the place for it. I'd suggest you head over to the Gallery forum. If your aim is to advertise your business, that's what the classifieds are for.

Actually, I can see most of them...just 2 didn't work. If that is really the work of an 8 day old avie...that is impressive, but it's HUGE. I don't even want to imagine how big of a parcel that needs. $1500USD, not sure on that...but it is impressive.

This is an impressive build. I especially appreciate the curved walls as that is a rather advanced building technique. Nice touch adding the crane to lift girders and the construction signs showing the project. Do you have a prim count?

What sandlot are you building this on? I'd like to come see it.

I'm guessing the links were posted before the uploads were complete. I can see them now.

I didn't realize you could build that big in a sandlot.

A wee bit off topic, but I'd suggest that being paid less than $US1 for a six hour set might be a teensy bit on the low side.

No, it's not an ad, i'm just excited to share

Yeah, I was building in the corner of Sandbox Island for the first few days, now I'm at a private place.

But yeah, I'm taking a little break today, I get headaches when I work on it for too long.

I don't need advertising, I just wanted to show my creation to the other builders. My co-workers told me to post here because I should.

oh, prim count is 386 prims per level (that's 2 "tiers" with windows and a floor.

Devoran is there a way to see the build or is it in a locked down location? Would like to see the work.

Yeah IM me for TP.

(sidenote: ever since playing SL, I keep thingking of Diablo. Everyone would ask for TP (Town Portal. I very vividly remember the first time someone asked, and I didn't know what it was... I said "Do you need to wipe?"

How many prims is that thing using? Seems like even if you had your own island you may run out of the 15k prims you're allowed. Be wary of the primfest and plan with textures/cuts/etc to avoid so many prims.

EDIT: It -is- quite an impressive build, though!

MM

Ok, I seem to have read over how many prims you said it was. 386 per level, unfurnished. So say you want to do 20 floors, that's almost 8000 prims just for the structure. Add in beds, tables, chairs for each room, and all the public spaces furniture. You're going to need a whole sim just to house this thing. Would be cool if someone could get you a sim for it, though. Could be the One True Hotel to rule them all...

MM

Some newbies really learn it the hard way.