How to Rent Second Life Land by Lizard Howl
There are all kinds of ways to get Second Life land. In this article I will discuss some of the risks involved in renting land in Second Life, and what you can do to minimize those risks.
Whether you decide to rent Mainland or rent Estate land, be forewarned. When you rent, you are at the mercy of the landowner. Expect to pay enough for the landowner to make a profit, because if your landlady doesn’t make a profit, how is she going to pay her tier to the Lindens? And if she doesn’t pay her tier, guess what happens to your land? That’s right – you will lose it. This is true, even if your own rent was paid on time. I am not telling you this to scare you, but because it is important for you to understand. You could make your own rent payments on time, and still end up losing your land. It isn’t fair, but that is the risk you take when you rent.
There are some things you can do to make sure you minimize your risk of losing your money on your Second Life land rental. The first thing to do is find out as much as you can about whom you are paying rent to. Does he own the land himself, or is he renting from someone else? If it is Estate land, are you dealing with the Estate Owner directly, or through a third party? How long has your landlord been in Second Life? How many tenants do they have? How much land do they own? How long have they been renting Second Life land? Do you know anyone who has done business with them? Do they have referrals you can talk to? How is tier paid, weekly, monthly, daily? Do they accept PayPal? Do they accept payment in game currency (Linden dollars)?
Yes, it can be a bit of a hassle to do that much research before renting land in Second Life, but it will be worth the effort in the long run. You have much less risk if you are renting from someone who owns the land, rather than through a third party. Think about it. If you pay the landowner directly, there is only one layer between you and Linden Labs. As long as your landlord pays his tier, chances are your land will still be there. If you rent from a third party, you are now three layers away from Linden Labs. You are now depending on your landlord to pay his rent or tier, AND the landowner to pay Linden Labs. If something happens to your landlord, you will be at the mercy of the landowner, who may not even have been aware that your landlord was subleasing! At the very least, get referrals. Also, if you are renting from a third party, make an effort to contact the landowner. If the landowner knows about the subleasing, he may be more likely to work with you if something happens to your landlord.
You may prefer to do business in Lindens, but look for someone who accepts PayPal. Why? Because in order to accept payment from PayPal, your landlord will have to reveal their email address. Someone who is out to scam you or steal your money isn’t likely to reveal his or her real life identity.
Finally, especially if you are new to renting, pay the least amount of tier up front that you can. If your landlord wants you to pay a month or two in advance, just remember that once you have paid, chances are you will never see that money again. I have seen it happen many times where someone pays rent for a month or more, then *poof* their landlord disappears with all of the rent money. Sad but true.
I hope this article helped you understand the risks involved in renting Second Life land, and how you can minimize those risks.
See you in world!
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs.
www.SegarraEstates.com
Monday, May 19, 2008
Monday, May 5, 2008
Second Life Land: Swimming in Openspace Sims by Lizard Howl
Second Life Land: Swimming in Openspace Sims by Lizard Howl
Hi everyone. Right about now we will be seeing the influx of Openspace Sims in the Second Life land market. I predict that within six weeks we will see that the market has been flooded, and we will be able to purchase these sims on auction. At auction they may go for as little as $50-$100 USD, instead of the $250 USD retail price. If you are considering purchasing an Openspace Sim and haven’t placed your order I have one word for you: Wait.
These full region, low prim allotment sims have been selling like cold lemonade on the 4th of July. My partner and I placed an order for four of these Openspace Sims soon after the new lower pricing came into effect. We have been told that there are something like 250 trouble tickets ahead of us, and I think it is reasonable to suspect that we ordered somewhere in the middle of the land rush. That will mean that there are another 250 orders placed after ours. Lets assume that in this first wave of orders for the Openspace sims there were 500 orders placed. I have a feeling that most Estate Owners did not order these one at a time. We ordered four, some probably ordered one or two, and a few probably ordered thirty at once or more. If each Estate Owner ordered just four of these Openspace Sims then a total of 2000 Openspace Sims have been ordered in the last two weeks or so. The Lindens are selling these at $250 USD each, which means they gained a cash infusion of $500,000 USD for selling this hot new kind of land.
Linden Labs places four of these Second Life land regions per standard server. This means that when you have your own sim, you are sharing the server with three other sim owners, and you have no way of regulating the scripts, colliders, or lag issues that the other sims will cause. The lag will affect your sim, and the other sims on the same server. As residents of these sims get tired of battling with the lag issue they will move back to Mainland or ¼ sims. This combined with the oversupply of means we will soon be swimming in Openspace Sims.
I predict that it will take three to four weeks for these Openspace Sim orders to be filled. We will see them come online in batches every day for a couple of weeks. Estate Owners will realize that they have ordered too many. They will start to abandon or sell off their Openspace Sims, which will lead to mass vacancies and virtual ghost towns.
What happens next? The Estate Owners will drop their rates to ridiculous or unprofitable levels in a desperate attempt to cover the $150,000 worth of monthly tier payments generated by these sims. Roughly six weeks from now, the Estate Owners who bought too many will start abandoning them, and a good percentage of the sims will bounce back to Linden Labs.
I’m waiting for them to come on the auction block for $50-$100 USD, then I might add a few more to my collection. If you heed my advice, you’ll wait too!
See you in world.
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Hi everyone. Right about now we will be seeing the influx of Openspace Sims in the Second Life land market. I predict that within six weeks we will see that the market has been flooded, and we will be able to purchase these sims on auction. At auction they may go for as little as $50-$100 USD, instead of the $250 USD retail price. If you are considering purchasing an Openspace Sim and haven’t placed your order I have one word for you: Wait.
These full region, low prim allotment sims have been selling like cold lemonade on the 4th of July. My partner and I placed an order for four of these Openspace Sims soon after the new lower pricing came into effect. We have been told that there are something like 250 trouble tickets ahead of us, and I think it is reasonable to suspect that we ordered somewhere in the middle of the land rush. That will mean that there are another 250 orders placed after ours. Lets assume that in this first wave of orders for the Openspace sims there were 500 orders placed. I have a feeling that most Estate Owners did not order these one at a time. We ordered four, some probably ordered one or two, and a few probably ordered thirty at once or more. If each Estate Owner ordered just four of these Openspace Sims then a total of 2000 Openspace Sims have been ordered in the last two weeks or so. The Lindens are selling these at $250 USD each, which means they gained a cash infusion of $500,000 USD for selling this hot new kind of land.
Linden Labs places four of these Second Life land regions per standard server. This means that when you have your own sim, you are sharing the server with three other sim owners, and you have no way of regulating the scripts, colliders, or lag issues that the other sims will cause. The lag will affect your sim, and the other sims on the same server. As residents of these sims get tired of battling with the lag issue they will move back to Mainland or ¼ sims. This combined with the oversupply of means we will soon be swimming in Openspace Sims.
I predict that it will take three to four weeks for these Openspace Sim orders to be filled. We will see them come online in batches every day for a couple of weeks. Estate Owners will realize that they have ordered too many. They will start to abandon or sell off their Openspace Sims, which will lead to mass vacancies and virtual ghost towns.
What happens next? The Estate Owners will drop their rates to ridiculous or unprofitable levels in a desperate attempt to cover the $150,000 worth of monthly tier payments generated by these sims. Roughly six weeks from now, the Estate Owners who bought too many will start abandoning them, and a good percentage of the sims will bounce back to Linden Labs.
I’m waiting for them to come on the auction block for $50-$100 USD, then I might add a few more to my collection. If you heed my advice, you’ll wait too!
See you in world.
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The Future of Second Life by Lizard Howl
The Future of Second Life by Lizard Howl
Second Life has shown remarkable growth over the past few years. As a daily visitor to the online community known as Second Life I have my own opinions and speculations about the future of Second Life. When I first started Second Life, in October 2006, I used to see roughly 11,000 to 12,000 people logged on at one time. Over the following six months or so it crept up from 12,000 to 15,000. I stopped keeping close tabs on the growth after that, but these days I see anywhere from 49,000 to 51,000 people logged into Second Life at any time of day or night. No doubt about it that is a lot of growth!
Linden Labs, the company that runs Second Life, is going through growing pains of its own. Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, recently stepped down as CEO and brought in a replacement from an outside company. As a Second Life user and virtual land dealer I sincerely hope that this new CEO can fix the leaks on the ship that is Second Life.
The new population seems to have the resources of Linden Labs stretched to their limits. Crashes, glitches, region down times, and other mishaps, are now nearly daily occurrences. The new trend in Second Life seems to be big crashes during the weekend, starting from Friday night and sometimes covering most of Saturday as well. There are many of us who are Second Life residences all week long, while thousands more are weekend tourists. I come from a beach community in real life and am used to dealing with the traffic and stupidity that tourists inflict upon the locals. But I sure don’t want to have to deal with that in the virtual world too.
Many Second Life residents are currently disgruntled, not only from the service issues, but also from Linden Lab’s attempts to cool the virtual real estate market by reducing retail pricing. Hundreds if not thousands of Second Life land dealers saw their portfolios lose 25-50% of their value overnight. Combine that, with the service issues, and the apparently overwhelmed Linden Labs staff, and it seems clear that Second Life has reached its peak.
There are already groups active who are developing and promoting virtual worlds that are very similar to Second Life. The two most prominent alternatives right now are based on open source platforms. While the open source philosophy is admirable, the open source worlds do not as yet offer the copy protection and robust virtual economy that Second Life has.
Earlier this year I thought that Second Life would last another 3 to 5 years in its current incarnation. Recent events such as the land devaluation, poor server performance, and personnel changes at Linden Labs, have caused me to revise my estimate. I have a strong feeling that Second Life as we know it will be gone within a maximum of 2 years. In 18 months or less there will either be a strong commercial alternative to Second Life, OR a major company will buy Linden Labs and make the kind of changes that will drive out the loyal residents.
This is entirely speculative on my part, based simply on what I observe as someone who spends far too much time in Second Life on a daily basis. As a Second Life land dealer I would love to see Second Life thrive for another 10 years or more. As a Second Life resident though I can see the writing on the wall.
See you in world!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Second Life has shown remarkable growth over the past few years. As a daily visitor to the online community known as Second Life I have my own opinions and speculations about the future of Second Life. When I first started Second Life, in October 2006, I used to see roughly 11,000 to 12,000 people logged on at one time. Over the following six months or so it crept up from 12,000 to 15,000. I stopped keeping close tabs on the growth after that, but these days I see anywhere from 49,000 to 51,000 people logged into Second Life at any time of day or night. No doubt about it that is a lot of growth!
Linden Labs, the company that runs Second Life, is going through growing pains of its own. Philip Rosedale, the founder of Second Life, recently stepped down as CEO and brought in a replacement from an outside company. As a Second Life user and virtual land dealer I sincerely hope that this new CEO can fix the leaks on the ship that is Second Life.
The new population seems to have the resources of Linden Labs stretched to their limits. Crashes, glitches, region down times, and other mishaps, are now nearly daily occurrences. The new trend in Second Life seems to be big crashes during the weekend, starting from Friday night and sometimes covering most of Saturday as well. There are many of us who are Second Life residences all week long, while thousands more are weekend tourists. I come from a beach community in real life and am used to dealing with the traffic and stupidity that tourists inflict upon the locals. But I sure don’t want to have to deal with that in the virtual world too.
Many Second Life residents are currently disgruntled, not only from the service issues, but also from Linden Lab’s attempts to cool the virtual real estate market by reducing retail pricing. Hundreds if not thousands of Second Life land dealers saw their portfolios lose 25-50% of their value overnight. Combine that, with the service issues, and the apparently overwhelmed Linden Labs staff, and it seems clear that Second Life has reached its peak.
There are already groups active who are developing and promoting virtual worlds that are very similar to Second Life. The two most prominent alternatives right now are based on open source platforms. While the open source philosophy is admirable, the open source worlds do not as yet offer the copy protection and robust virtual economy that Second Life has.
Earlier this year I thought that Second Life would last another 3 to 5 years in its current incarnation. Recent events such as the land devaluation, poor server performance, and personnel changes at Linden Labs, have caused me to revise my estimate. I have a strong feeling that Second Life as we know it will be gone within a maximum of 2 years. In 18 months or less there will either be a strong commercial alternative to Second Life, OR a major company will buy Linden Labs and make the kind of changes that will drive out the loyal residents.
This is entirely speculative on my part, based simply on what I observe as someone who spends far too much time in Second Life on a daily basis. As a Second Life land dealer I would love to see Second Life thrive for another 10 years or more. As a Second Life resident though I can see the writing on the wall.
See you in world!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Second Life Land: Why Buy Mainland?
Second Life Land: Why Buy Mainland? by Lizard Howl
As I have discussed in other articles, the two main categories of land in Second Life are Mainland and Estate Land. If you are an Estate Owner then you have purchased at least one full island region from Linden Labs. At the time of this article, a full island region costs $1000 USD retail plus a monthly maintenance fee (tier payment) of $295 USD per month. This gives you 65536 square meters of virtual land to enjoy, plus 15,000 building units called prims. There are thousands of Estate Owners in Second Life, but the investment required is significant.
If you want to own your own Second Life land without having to invest thousands of dollars up front plus thousands more each year, Mainland is your answer. When you purchase Mainland you own the land directly just as you would when you purchase an Estate. The difference is that instead of being forced to buy land 65536m at a time, you can buy just as much land as you want or need. Instead of having to pay a minimum of $295 USD to Linden Labs each month, your maintenance fee will vary according to how much land you own. The tier fee for Mainland will cost you anything from zero dollars for 512m up to $195 per month for a full region. That’s right, you can actually own Second Life land without paying monthly tier fees!
If you want to “own” your land and pay tier directly to Linden Labs, or not pay tier at all, then you need to buy Mainland. A good piece of quality Mainland can be found for 10L/m any day of the month. There is no Covenant in Mainland so you can do what you want with your land! With your Second Life Premium Account you are not charged tier for your first 512m of land. Your tier level for 4096m of Mainland is $25 USD per month, and includes another 512m. So you can own 4608m of Second Life land for a low tier payment of $25 USD per month, instead of $295 USD per month for an entire Estate. The 4608m will include 1054 prims which is way more that you will need unless you get a super big house or rent out some of your extra space. Assuming that you find a piece that you like for 10L/m, your 4608m parcel will cost you 46,080L. Using an exchange rate of 270 Lindens per 1 USD that’s roughly $170 USD. So for $170 USD plus $25 per month you can own your own chunk of Second Life Mainland and live like a king.
I hope you enjoyed this article on the advantages of buying the Second Life land known as Mainland. See you in world!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
As I have discussed in other articles, the two main categories of land in Second Life are Mainland and Estate Land. If you are an Estate Owner then you have purchased at least one full island region from Linden Labs. At the time of this article, a full island region costs $1000 USD retail plus a monthly maintenance fee (tier payment) of $295 USD per month. This gives you 65536 square meters of virtual land to enjoy, plus 15,000 building units called prims. There are thousands of Estate Owners in Second Life, but the investment required is significant.
If you want to own your own Second Life land without having to invest thousands of dollars up front plus thousands more each year, Mainland is your answer. When you purchase Mainland you own the land directly just as you would when you purchase an Estate. The difference is that instead of being forced to buy land 65536m at a time, you can buy just as much land as you want or need. Instead of having to pay a minimum of $295 USD to Linden Labs each month, your maintenance fee will vary according to how much land you own. The tier fee for Mainland will cost you anything from zero dollars for 512m up to $195 per month for a full region. That’s right, you can actually own Second Life land without paying monthly tier fees!
If you want to “own” your land and pay tier directly to Linden Labs, or not pay tier at all, then you need to buy Mainland. A good piece of quality Mainland can be found for 10L/m any day of the month. There is no Covenant in Mainland so you can do what you want with your land! With your Second Life Premium Account you are not charged tier for your first 512m of land. Your tier level for 4096m of Mainland is $25 USD per month, and includes another 512m. So you can own 4608m of Second Life land for a low tier payment of $25 USD per month, instead of $295 USD per month for an entire Estate. The 4608m will include 1054 prims which is way more that you will need unless you get a super big house or rent out some of your extra space. Assuming that you find a piece that you like for 10L/m, your 4608m parcel will cost you 46,080L. Using an exchange rate of 270 Lindens per 1 USD that’s roughly $170 USD. So for $170 USD plus $25 per month you can own your own chunk of Second Life Mainland and live like a king.
I hope you enjoyed this article on the advantages of buying the Second Life land known as Mainland. See you in world!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Second Life Land: Understanding Low Prim Sims
Second Life Land: Understanding Low Prim Sims by Lizard Howl
Hi everyone. Well there has been a lot of fuss made these last couple of weeks about the Second Life Land known as a Low Prim Sim, Void Sim or Openspace sim. The reason there is so much fuss about it is because Linden Labs recently changed the number of prims available in the Low Prim Sim. What is a Low Prim Sim, what is all the fuss about, why do you want one, and how can you get one?
The proper Linden Labs name for the Second Life Land is Openspace sim. The Openspace sim has all the benefits of owning a full sim, but doesn’t cost nearly as much. It is comparable to owning a ¼ sim, plus having all the privacy that you would get if you owned an entire sim.
The low prim sim has 3750 prims, which is what you would get with a ¼ sim. The low prim sim is a small land mass island, has the 3750 prims, but it takes up an entire region on the map. They are called low prim sims because a full sim normally has 15,000 prims.
If you want to own a low prim sim you will need to order it directly from Linden Labs. Linden Labs will allow you to order an Openspace sim if you already have a Premium Account and own a full prim sim! If you are not already an Estate Owner with a full prim sim, at this time there is no way to order a low prim sim directly from Linden Labs. If you have an Estate already you can order the low prim sim by issuing a trouble ticket to the Lindens. The purchase price is $415 including first month’s tier. Recurring tier fee is $75 per month for each low prim sim that you own. This is in addition to all your other land use fees!
If you are not an Estate Owner but would like to enjoy living in a sim without having to worry about neighbors, you can rent your Openspace sim from an existing Estate Owner. It is also possible to “purchase” one from an Estate Owner by paying them a purchase price plus monthly tier. In this case you would most likely be purchasing Estate Manager rights to the sim. This would typically allow you to name your own Covenant, have control over the media and terraforming for the sim, and have full control over the access to your land. You would also be able to resell the sim to someone else, depending on your agreement with the Estate Owner.
Remember that when you pay tier to a private Second Life land dealer you are always facing the risk that they will not keep up with their own tier payments to Linden Labs, and you could lose all of your land, even if your own payments were made on time. Be sure you rent or purchase from someone who is established and that you trust, and ask for references.
Low prim sims can be an affordable way to have private land for your home or business without incurring the costs associated with owning a full sim.
Enjoy!
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs.
www.SegarraEstates.com
Hi everyone. Well there has been a lot of fuss made these last couple of weeks about the Second Life Land known as a Low Prim Sim, Void Sim or Openspace sim. The reason there is so much fuss about it is because Linden Labs recently changed the number of prims available in the Low Prim Sim. What is a Low Prim Sim, what is all the fuss about, why do you want one, and how can you get one?
The proper Linden Labs name for the Second Life Land is Openspace sim. The Openspace sim has all the benefits of owning a full sim, but doesn’t cost nearly as much. It is comparable to owning a ¼ sim, plus having all the privacy that you would get if you owned an entire sim.
The low prim sim has 3750 prims, which is what you would get with a ¼ sim. The low prim sim is a small land mass island, has the 3750 prims, but it takes up an entire region on the map. They are called low prim sims because a full sim normally has 15,000 prims.
If you want to own a low prim sim you will need to order it directly from Linden Labs. Linden Labs will allow you to order an Openspace sim if you already have a Premium Account and own a full prim sim! If you are not already an Estate Owner with a full prim sim, at this time there is no way to order a low prim sim directly from Linden Labs. If you have an Estate already you can order the low prim sim by issuing a trouble ticket to the Lindens. The purchase price is $415 including first month’s tier. Recurring tier fee is $75 per month for each low prim sim that you own. This is in addition to all your other land use fees!
If you are not an Estate Owner but would like to enjoy living in a sim without having to worry about neighbors, you can rent your Openspace sim from an existing Estate Owner. It is also possible to “purchase” one from an Estate Owner by paying them a purchase price plus monthly tier. In this case you would most likely be purchasing Estate Manager rights to the sim. This would typically allow you to name your own Covenant, have control over the media and terraforming for the sim, and have full control over the access to your land. You would also be able to resell the sim to someone else, depending on your agreement with the Estate Owner.
Remember that when you pay tier to a private Second Life land dealer you are always facing the risk that they will not keep up with their own tier payments to Linden Labs, and you could lose all of your land, even if your own payments were made on time. Be sure you rent or purchase from someone who is established and that you trust, and ask for references.
Low prim sims can be an affordable way to have private land for your home or business without incurring the costs associated with owning a full sim.
Enjoy!
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs.
www.SegarraEstates.com
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
A Guide to Second Life land: Understanding Tier by Lizard Howl
A Guide to Second Life land: Understanding Tier by Lizard Howl
Hi everyone. There are so many different aspects to Second Life land that it can be very confusing. What is tier, how does it apply, who do you pay, and why is it different for different types of Second Life land?
When you buy land in Second Life, you are actually purchasing rights to space on the hard drives or servers that Linden Labs uses to run the simulation that makes up the world of Second Life. Tier is a monthly payment that is required to maintain your Second Life land. Some people like to compare it to a mortgage or rent payment that you would make in real life for your own home or apartment. I think it is more similar to a property tax. If you don’t keep up with your tier payments, sooner or later you will lose your land!
There are two main kinds of tier: tier paid to Linden Labs and tier paid to private parties or land dealers.
In order to pay tier directly to Linden Labs you will need to have a Premium Account. Linden Labs will bill you different amounts depending on how much and what kind of land you own. If you own Mainland parcels your cost will vary from zero up to $195 US per month or more depending on how much land you own. Estate tier is billed separately from Mainland tier and again varies by how much land you own. At the time I am writing this article, tier on a full island sim is $295 per month. Tier on an Openspace or “low prim” island is $75 per month.
The other kind of tier payment would be a tier payment that you make to a private individual, usually an Estate Owner or sim owner. This kind of tier payment works the same way, except in this case you do not need to have a Premium Account. This is because you are depending on the Estate Owner to keep up with their tier payments to Linden Labs. Be careful. If something happens to the Estate Owner or they miss their own tier payment you could end up losing all your land, even if you made all of your tier payments on time.
I am not telling you that to scare you, but to let you know what your risk is when you pay tier to anyone other than Linden Labs. There are many reputable land dealers in Second Life. Just make sure you are working with someone who has some experience in Second Life. Ask for referrals. A reputable land dealer will have many satisfied renters and land owners who will be glad to give you their opinion. If for whatever reason you get a bad feeling about a certain land dealer or don’t trust them, do not do business with them! There are so many good people in the land game in Second Life there is no reason to do business with someone you don’t like and trust.
Well I hope this article helped give you a better understanding of what tier is and how it can apply to you. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Enjoy!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Hi everyone. There are so many different aspects to Second Life land that it can be very confusing. What is tier, how does it apply, who do you pay, and why is it different for different types of Second Life land?
When you buy land in Second Life, you are actually purchasing rights to space on the hard drives or servers that Linden Labs uses to run the simulation that makes up the world of Second Life. Tier is a monthly payment that is required to maintain your Second Life land. Some people like to compare it to a mortgage or rent payment that you would make in real life for your own home or apartment. I think it is more similar to a property tax. If you don’t keep up with your tier payments, sooner or later you will lose your land!
There are two main kinds of tier: tier paid to Linden Labs and tier paid to private parties or land dealers.
In order to pay tier directly to Linden Labs you will need to have a Premium Account. Linden Labs will bill you different amounts depending on how much and what kind of land you own. If you own Mainland parcels your cost will vary from zero up to $195 US per month or more depending on how much land you own. Estate tier is billed separately from Mainland tier and again varies by how much land you own. At the time I am writing this article, tier on a full island sim is $295 per month. Tier on an Openspace or “low prim” island is $75 per month.
The other kind of tier payment would be a tier payment that you make to a private individual, usually an Estate Owner or sim owner. This kind of tier payment works the same way, except in this case you do not need to have a Premium Account. This is because you are depending on the Estate Owner to keep up with their tier payments to Linden Labs. Be careful. If something happens to the Estate Owner or they miss their own tier payment you could end up losing all your land, even if you made all of your tier payments on time.
I am not telling you that to scare you, but to let you know what your risk is when you pay tier to anyone other than Linden Labs. There are many reputable land dealers in Second Life. Just make sure you are working with someone who has some experience in Second Life. Ask for referrals. A reputable land dealer will have many satisfied renters and land owners who will be glad to give you their opinion. If for whatever reason you get a bad feeling about a certain land dealer or don’t trust them, do not do business with them! There are so many good people in the land game in Second Life there is no reason to do business with someone you don’t like and trust.
Well I hope this article helped give you a better understanding of what tier is and how it can apply to you. Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other questions or concerns.
Enjoy!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Buying land in Second Life: A guide by Lizard Howl
Buying land in Second Life: A guide by Lizard Howl
Hi everyone. I hope this will take some of the confusion out of the process of buying land in Second Life. There are all kinds of land in Second Life, but for now you will just learn how to buy Mature Mainland. Land that is Mature has a higher resale value than land that is PG.
To do a Search within Second Life for land:
Press Control-F then select the Land Sales tab. From the options on the top left of the search bar select For Sale – Mainland, and on the option just underneath that select Mature Only. To the right of these options you will see two other check boxes. In the bottom box check the box that says Area and enter the size of the land you want to buy. In the top box enter the top price you want to pay for your land. If you want a nice piece of land for residential use you will probably want to spend more than you would for commercial land.
I will use a specific example and do a search for a cheap 512m of land for commercial use. I don’t want to spend any more than 9L/m, so my top price for the land would be 4608L. In the top box I enter 4608, and in the bottom box I enter 512, then I press Search. This will show me all the listings for Mature Mainland parcels for sale that are at least 512m or bigger and priced at 9.0L/m or lower. After I get the Search results, I click the arrow at the top of the second column, where it says L$ Price, and sort my results. At the time of my writing this article, the cheapest piece of land I find is selling for 4375L for 512m, which is a price of 8.5L/m.
Once you see a listing at the right price, double click on the name and a landmark will pop up. From there you will probably need to teleport to a few places before you find a piece of land that suits your needs.
This will get you started in your process of buying land in Second Life.
Have fun!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Hi everyone. I hope this will take some of the confusion out of the process of buying land in Second Life. There are all kinds of land in Second Life, but for now you will just learn how to buy Mature Mainland. Land that is Mature has a higher resale value than land that is PG.
To do a Search within Second Life for land:
Press Control-F then select the Land Sales tab. From the options on the top left of the search bar select For Sale – Mainland, and on the option just underneath that select Mature Only. To the right of these options you will see two other check boxes. In the bottom box check the box that says Area and enter the size of the land you want to buy. In the top box enter the top price you want to pay for your land. If you want a nice piece of land for residential use you will probably want to spend more than you would for commercial land.
I will use a specific example and do a search for a cheap 512m of land for commercial use. I don’t want to spend any more than 9L/m, so my top price for the land would be 4608L. In the top box I enter 4608, and in the bottom box I enter 512, then I press Search. This will show me all the listings for Mature Mainland parcels for sale that are at least 512m or bigger and priced at 9.0L/m or lower. After I get the Search results, I click the arrow at the top of the second column, where it says L$ Price, and sort my results. At the time of my writing this article, the cheapest piece of land I find is selling for 4375L for 512m, which is a price of 8.5L/m.
Once you see a listing at the right price, double click on the name and a landmark will pop up. From there you will probably need to teleport to a few places before you find a piece of land that suits your needs.
This will get you started in your process of buying land in Second Life.
Have fun!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Tips on buying land in Second Life by Lizard Howl
Tips on buying land in Second Life by Lizard Howl
Hi everyone. There are so many different aspects to the land game in Second Life that it can be very confusing. I will give you some tips to consider when buying land parcels which are owned directly by Linden Labs, or what is known as Mainland.
In order to purchase Mainland parcels you will need to have a Premium Account. This is because you will pay tier directly to Linden Labs. Your Premium Account allows you to hold 512m of Mainland for no additional monthly tier. How much more you pay in tier will depend on how much more land you own.
When you own Mainland, there is no Covenant. This simply means you can do anything you want with the land. You can use it for residential use, business use, or rent it out to other people.
The cost of the land will vary depending on the size, shape, style, location of the land, and what else is nearby. There are some very nice pieces of Mainland to be found, and there are a lot of junky places too. Everyone seems to think that Mainland is always slow and laggy. This is not always true. All Mainland sims are now running on Class 5 servers, which is the same type of servers Linden Labs use for Estate land. The difference is that since there is no Covenant, a lot of Mainland sims have ugly signs, noisy clubs, bad builds, and poor scripts that cause lag.
When you are looking for high quality land in Second Life keep in mind these general rules:
Square or rectangle sized pieces sell for more than pieces that are irregular shapes.
Flat land sells for more than hilly land.
Grassy land sells for more than rocky or snowy land.
Land suitable for Residential use sells for more than Commercial land.
Land that is Ocean front or on protected waters sells for more than land that is far away from the water.
One word of caution! There is a lot of land listed that claims to be “Water front” or next to “Protected Water.” I have seen regular pieces of land that someone terraformed so that it looked like a water piece and then changed the name of the land to “Protected Waterfront.” That kind of misrepresentation makes me sick – do not be fooled.
If you want to make sure the land is truly protected water front, you will need to fly into the water parcel. Then from the top menu select Worldà About land. In the About Land screen look at the General tab. Land that is protected will show that the land Owner is Governor Linden.
I hope you found these tips on buying land in Second Life helpful.
Enjoy!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
Hi everyone. There are so many different aspects to the land game in Second Life that it can be very confusing. I will give you some tips to consider when buying land parcels which are owned directly by Linden Labs, or what is known as Mainland.
In order to purchase Mainland parcels you will need to have a Premium Account. This is because you will pay tier directly to Linden Labs. Your Premium Account allows you to hold 512m of Mainland for no additional monthly tier. How much more you pay in tier will depend on how much more land you own.
When you own Mainland, there is no Covenant. This simply means you can do anything you want with the land. You can use it for residential use, business use, or rent it out to other people.
The cost of the land will vary depending on the size, shape, style, location of the land, and what else is nearby. There are some very nice pieces of Mainland to be found, and there are a lot of junky places too. Everyone seems to think that Mainland is always slow and laggy. This is not always true. All Mainland sims are now running on Class 5 servers, which is the same type of servers Linden Labs use for Estate land. The difference is that since there is no Covenant, a lot of Mainland sims have ugly signs, noisy clubs, bad builds, and poor scripts that cause lag.
When you are looking for high quality land in Second Life keep in mind these general rules:
Square or rectangle sized pieces sell for more than pieces that are irregular shapes.
Flat land sells for more than hilly land.
Grassy land sells for more than rocky or snowy land.
Land suitable for Residential use sells for more than Commercial land.
Land that is Ocean front or on protected waters sells for more than land that is far away from the water.
One word of caution! There is a lot of land listed that claims to be “Water front” or next to “Protected Water.” I have seen regular pieces of land that someone terraformed so that it looked like a water piece and then changed the name of the land to “Protected Waterfront.” That kind of misrepresentation makes me sick – do not be fooled.
If you want to make sure the land is truly protected water front, you will need to fly into the water parcel. Then from the top menu select Worldà About land. In the About Land screen look at the General tab. Land that is protected will show that the land Owner is Governor Linden.
I hope you found these tips on buying land in Second Life helpful.
Enjoy!
Lizard Howl
IM Lizard Howl for all your Second Life land needs!
www.SegarraEstates.com
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