Auctions

[LilDaria]

Hi all :)

A newbie question for you - I understand that if you 'buy' land from another person, you're essentially buying the right to use that land assuming you pay the tier each month, but should that person leave SL, then your land is is basically null and void, is that correct?

 

I'm wondering because if I were to buy land in an auction, would that be the same deal, or would I be buying it from sl itself?

 

Thank you :))

[iCade]

That is correct however you are confusing terms. You rent land from a third party (yes you right click and buy and pay an initial fee of 1L or a lot more but you haven't bought the land you are a renter). So if that third party quits SL and no longer pays tier, the sim goes down.

Now when you really buy land (either an entire private estate or any plot of mainland, you directly pay tier to Second Life and until Second Life shuts down or you're unable to pay for the land/premium the lot will be yours and no one can take it away.

To answer your last question; All land offered up in the land auctions is mainland and only SL itself can put land up for auction, no private person can have their land appear there. As such you will pay the tier directly to Linden Lab and own that land. Nobody can up and leave and pull that land out of under you unless SL servers shut down or you're unable to make payment.

 

[Richie Kanto]

Disadvantages and advantages to everything. When you buy mainland in an auction, you pay whatever price the winning bid is, PLUS you owe tier to LL. Even if you decide you don't want the land and give it up in a day, you STILL will owe the entire month of tier for the maximum amount of land you owned that month, even if you have left all the land you had.

If you happened to buy it a day before the day of the month of your "anniversary", you'll owe an entire month of tier in one day. You also run the risk of paying more in tier than you own with mainland. If you've bought 6,000m of mainland, you'll pay "tier" to LL for 8192m. If you've bought 10,000m in auction, you'll pay tier for 16,512m.

When you buy (rent) private land, you can rent a week at a time. If the person you're buying from leaves SL and closes the SIM, you'll lose at most a week of "rent". If you check out your landlord first, make sure they've been here a while and didn't just start selling land yesterday, and you're paying a price that allows them to make a little profit, it's very unlikely they'll leave SL anytime soon. If you rent from someone who just started here within the last month and they are selling land to you at a cost less than the tier they're paying LL, you're taking a chance.

As the saying goes... a deal too good to be true... might not be.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Essentially you are correct.  However I will point out that most SL residents that have land, have it on private estates.  Here's the reasons why:

• There are real estate companies that own private estates and have been in SL for year and years, and are financially stable.  The chances of them disappearing are slim.  So if you if do your homework and choose wisely which estate you'll have land with there is little risk.
• Many times a sim owner who wants to fold their business will sell their sim to another business who is happy to keep you on as a tenant
• You must purchase Mainland by putting down a down payment plus pay tiers.  For prime land the down payment is substantial and can run you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in terms of RL money.  Even with the free 512sqm you get with a premium membership, tiers can be higher than you pay on a private estate plus you must pay for a premium membership.  Only if you own a half sim or more is it cheaper.
• You can get private estate land without a down payment by just paying the tier, or a very small deposit. plus tiers, so even if it disappears you aren't out any money.  Tiers even on the mainland don't build equity in your property like a mortgage payment in RL even on the mainland.  They are simply your share of the cost of running the sim, more like property tax in RL. 
• Private estates that charge a down payment mostly offer a lot of amenities you don't get on mainland, such as the use of a lot more land held in common for recreation that is only open to tenants and their guests.  Some private regions even offer sandboxes and a lot of private water sims for sailing and flying.
• Just about all Mainland has no covenant which is a blessing and a curse.  You can do anything there as long as you don't break TOS, including building anything you want.  The curse is that so can your neighbors, who may do something with their land you don't like at all.  Even if it all looks good when you buy, it can change in an instant if someone sells their land to someone who has other ideas.  While some private estates don't have covenants, most do.  They are like zoning laws that are used to regulate if the sim is residential, commercial or a mix, what the overall climate is, building standards and prohibitions against things that would be out of place or cause you a disturbance.

There is no right or wrong choice between mainland and estate land.  If you wish to obtain land you owe it to yourself to check out all your options to see what works best for you after weighing the total cost and the pros and cons. 

[LilDaria]

Thank you all so much for your help, you've all been so helpful

[GracieRoy65]

Sometimes you have to find some inventive ways to hide other peoples gaudy stuff on land that has no covenant!  I like my piece of  land I got at the auction, however the person next to me has this spinning tacky ball in the air with their logo on it.  I can see it on some parts of my land and not on others.  So I just have to put things in spots that kind of cover it so I don't have to look at it.  And when I put my glass platform in the air I just make sure I go high enough so that you can't see the ball thru the floor.

 

I don't complain to the person next to me as they are entitled to put on their land what they want.  And so am I as that is why I didn't buy my land privately.  So you just have to think outside the box sometimes if you decide to buy auctioned land.

[BilliJo Aldrin]

"I like my piece of  land I got at the auction, however the person next to me has this spinning tacky ball in the air with their logo on it."

Easiest thing to do is de-render it, Right click the object , then click more (twice i think), then de-render. it's still there but you don't see it any more.