It's a Renter's Market, Yet I Still See SkyHigh Prices

[Codex Alpha]

It's a Renter's Market, Yet I Still See SkyHigh Prices

Yep, you know it.

Huge parts of the mainland and full sims with empty store lots and buildings, sitting empty for copious amounts of time.

Yet if you inquire as to the rental costs of these ghost towns, the prices are firmly fixed at 100%.

I understand that keeping prices high keeps out the riff-raff, but what about 'supply and demand"? Shouldnt this dictate the price more than anything?

For example, just use $250L/week for 50 prim store, or w/e amount you want. But the store has been empty for months, the land itself seems to be a dead zone.

The owner of that land is losing money each month by leaving those stores/plots empty. Why not offer a discount price for a certain period? Do a 3 month lease or 6 month at a discounted price. Get store/landowners/builders in there.

Sure you might be not gaining the income you want for the land to pay for itself, but certainly SOME INCOME is better than NO INCOME, right?

Is the landowner hoping that if he/she holds out for another week/month that suddenly people will start popping in and paying the price they want?

Someone needs to explain to me why people pay for land that is pretty much the equivalent of a dead market Detroit City, and yet remain firm on their prices?

There are some of us newer entries into the market, from builders to creators to marketers who want to try out the in-world store thing, but want to maximize our money.

Now that we have the marketplace, and for some of us is quite successful, there is even LESS need for in-world stores than ever before. So shouldnt the price come down?

Or do you care? If I was doing 2nd Life sales as a true RL source of income, and writing off business expenses, then perhaps having land rentals that operate at a 'income loss' may be beneficial. And thats fine.

But it still doesnt mean anyone or me is going to rent from you when it appears you NEED us and we dont NEED you.

Give me your reasons why you want to leave your land and all its store plots empty for months on end, costing you $$ when if you offered discounts for people for maybe shorter lease times to get back some of your money?

[beethros Karas]

Hello.

There are more Malls in this world than avatars.

I know at this time we speaking, you can get a shop with 25 prims for L$7 per week..

And another with 50 prims for L$500 per week.

The Point is:

What is the purpose of a shop IN world?

My personal oppinion: Its for to add the "see item in world"

and live a RP life inside it, decorating it, changing the wallpapers, replacing vendors, etc etc..

Because, except if its gestures, or animations.. Marketplace offers way more earnings than a shop in world! Execpt also, if the Mall its in an established SIM many years , with real shoppers and attractions and not bot generated traffic, but even then, i hardly believe the location in world will "beat" Marketplace earnings.

As for long term rentals.. well since there are scammers out there, its not easy to trust a landlord to pay them more than a week these days! But Im sure Exceptions exist of course! Try to find them!

And yes, not all people know how to use a "paintbrush"

Thats why Dali's paintings cost more than mine

Wish you good luck!

[Qie Niangao]

There are plenty of places with cheap rents, so what's the fuss about? Yeah, some charge more, and most of those sit empty, and who cares? If a renter is so set on renting one of those more expensive ones, they can pay the price, otherwise they can rent something cheaper. Where's the problem?

FWIW, I agree that in-world stores really only pay for themselves if one is selling stuff that must be examined in-world before buying, and for which a demo version isn't completely satisfactory. (Personally, I despise Marketplace and do all I can to avoid buying anything there, but 99% of SL shoppers are perfectly happy with that abomination, and that's all that matters.) Stores full of vendor prims with product images are pretty much pointless now, except in the rare cases where traffic interested in a particular type of product all congregates in the same place (e.g., specialized role play sims).

[Perrie Juran]

 

You may be right some people could cut some losses by cutting some prices. 

But if a pricing war broke out in SL, which is what you are really suggesting, it would destroy the land market in SL.  Actually, it already has to a larger degree than you may understand. 

[beethros Karas]

I so enjoyed Ruth! TY For this video!

And yes! Market is broked already!

I Would personaly want to thank the big estate companies who are trying to keep it in a "normal" standard,

while so many newbie premium accounts (potential landlords), buy land, offering it for rediculus cheap prices, receiving weeks payments and then they poof.

(thats the reason tenants refuse to pay more than 1 week as I say above)

And to be honnest, i am getting advantage of that! My stability ensures the potential tenants to pay to me a bit more than those rediculus cheap prices newbie landlords are offering and so be sure they will enjoy what they pay for!

Like in every life, someone will get exactly what they will pay for. Nothing more.. nothing less!

Lol..I just remembered an elder post of mine:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Parcels-for-Rent-Mainland/Nothing-is-Free-give-me-cash-and-I-ll-give-you-the-best/m-p/2068087#M1223

 

[Perrie Juran]

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beethros Karas wrote:

I so enjoyed Ruth! TY For this video!

And yes! Market is broked already!

I Would personaly want to thank the big estate companies who are trying to keep it in a "normal" standard,

while so many newbie premium accounts (potential landlords), buy land, offering it for rediculus cheap prices, receiving weeks payments and then they poof.

(thats the reason tenants refuse to pay more than 1 week as I say above)

And to be honnest, i am getting advantage of that! My stability ensures the potential tenants to pay to me a bit more than those rediculus cheap prices newbie landlords are offering and so be sure they will enjoy what they pay for!

Like in every life, someone will get exactly what they will pay for. Nothing more.. nothing less!

Lol..I just remembered an elder post of mine:

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Parcels-for-Rent-Mainland/Nothing-is-Free-give-me-cash-and-I-ll-give-you-the-best/m-p/2068087#M1223

 

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Anyone looking to get started in the Land Market in SL really needs to be in it for the long run if they really expect to get a ROI.

Just look at Mainland.  I loved it when Ebbe said he was not aware of any goals for Mainland.  It's been sitting there like a steaming hot big fresh cow dropping for too long.

 

[thenightboat]

I agree what a waste of space & they cld e making lindens if lower. Also how could a new seller ever get started for that price? Some are even more for fewer prims and its both a rip off and unfair. I recently rented some good space in a mall 50l$ for 50prims. Unfortunately its closing in June. I've also found stores 50l$ for 30prims. Just type in search 'rent' + amount and u can find them. Landlords should offer deals which could work to their benefit! There are some things you have to see in SL in my opinion. My store is a teleportation service which you need to be in SL for and loadsa people say its a great idea

[beethros Karas]

The Prices you are mention are way less than what Second Life charge to those landlords.

Thats why they close i guess.

Please for your better judgement have a look to what LL is asking for the lands..

http://secondlife.com/land/pricing.php

But as i said above.. there are established Malls out there, for years in SL and all they asking is L$7 for 20 or 30 prims.. they just choose to loose money from rentals to gain it from other purposes i guess...

-A Friend said: Its better to have a shop in a Mall with no entries, since my product will never sell anywhere. So its better I loose L$50 and having 50 prims to RP with until they close.. and then search again for the next "one month landlords" ...Instead of pay L$200 or more in a "good" Mall, which im sure i will have 50 entries but no sales.. because simply I am not a creator, I am a reseller and so i dont care of only entries.. i do care only for sales!

(Entries are imortant for a creator since its 2 more eyes show them work)

[thenightboat]

Hi Beethros. Thanks for sharing this. Why is it Linden Labs charge so much for land? This is a Community forum so surely for the sake of encouraging 'community' they would make an effort. I'm surprised there are any shops or services inworld in SL. Do u think there are less now? I agree a BIG welldone to those who do out of generosity lower rental charges, but again I still maintain it can attract people to their sim!! Peteey

[Codex Alpha]

Yep, and even at that low price, the next concern is if anyone even comes anyway.

I found $60l/50 prims so will try that for a week or two.

The owner can benefit from my presence especially if I get some traffic, and vice versa, its a win-win. Perhaps not a money making venture for the owner at that low price, but it all depends what the goal is; to pay for a presence in 2nd Life or to try to make a profit.

At least the owner is willing to lower prices in the beginning at least to kickstart her sim rather than leave it empty, and the in-world visitor doesn't really care where my store is; they just want to check something out.

My next concern is traffic. I had rented $6000L/mnth type sims in the past, built creative buildings and such, and had 0 traffic, not even curious travelers the entire time...

I will be watching the traffic and or in-world purchases in the next week to a month and see if it's even worth it. The items I have for sale right now are selling fine without an in-world; we'll see if it helps at all. Hard to tell when I only have a few products and such a low prim limit, but I want to start small.

0 traffic on a mall sim vs 0 traffic on my own sim, still equals 0 traffic.

[Qie Niangao]

You have to invest a lot of time and effort to make an in-world store pay for itself, in contrast to no-cost Marketplace. Also, as I've explained too many times lately, a good "traffic" number is practically meaningless now, except for the most vanilla, least-common-denominator commodities. For anything that's not just an impulse buy for any random newbie, in-world stores either exhibit stuff that can't be practically delivered in a demo version (and then, preferably, on a dedicated parcel with its own Search terms) or are located at highly specialized locations (usually with relatively low traffic counts).

It's just very different from how it worked when SL users spent more time shopping in-world.

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

 

FWIW, I agree that in-world stores really only pay for themselves if one is selling stuff that must be examined in-world before buying, and for which a demo version isn't completely satisfactory. (Personally, I

despise

Marketplace and do all I can to avoid buying anything there, but 99% of SL shoppers are perfectly happy with that abomination, and that's all that matters.) Stores full of vendor prims with product images are pretty much pointless now, except in the rare cases where traffic interested in a particular type of product all congregates in the same place (e.g., specialized role play sims).

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Inworld stores pay for themselves on any place that does enough sales to actually call itself a business.

This is because the fee the lindens take on every marketplace sale adds up to a LOT of money really fast:

http://catnapkitty.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/when-does-it-become-more-costly-to-sell-on-marketplace-than-inworld/

 

[Qie Niangao]

For businesses starting out, though, they simply won't clear enough revenue from their in-world parcel to cover tier (or rent, or however the monthly land fees are getting passed down the food chain). Same for businesses that are fading, or those too long-tail to expect buyers on any regular basis.

That's in contrast to mass-market stuff (those that do enough sales that you would call them a business, apparently). For those, yeah, they'd do well to urge folks who read their Marketplace ads to venture in-world to see the demo or whatever, in hopes of steering purchases there rather than incur the Marketplace commission.

For a business to decide to open an in-world presence solely on the basis of saved Marketplace commissions -- thus assuming that every in-world sale would have been a (commission-paying) Marketplace sale -- that takes a lot of in-world sales, because then one can't start claiming benefit when sales exceed land costs, but rather when sales are more than twenty times costs. 

Anyway, much of the stress on Land is a direct result of the Marketplace commission being way, way too low. If they're not going to charge an up-front nor recurring listing fee (independent of sales), then they really should have followed Apple's 30% app store model. I suppose that wasn't an option back before Marketplace when there were competing private outlets: they'd have undercut each other. And if LL tried to do it later, merchants would have squealed like stuck pigs.

[Pussycat Catnap]

The commission is too low. But do note that if your inworld shop is a mall spot you rent somewhere, the break point can happen a LOT sooner than the figures I ran. I ran it for the most expensive land one could possibly get in SL without being foolish: mainland on a premium bill paid by the month.

One can get their land a LOT cheaper than that very easily.

I used to rent a 50-prim shop in a high traffic club for I think $150 or so linden/week... You can overcome the marketplace tax super easy on that.

 

I call my numbers a 'business' on an objective standard: making real world viable money.

Note that even the $2000 US dollars a month I note for a business that could pay real life bills, is only $24,000/year. Below poverty, and not enough to even pay rent in the San Francisco Bay Area...

Despite this I called making $200/month US a viable business - which is a joke. Way too small. That's still a hobby. My blog was being kind to people who IMO delude themselves over what they should just call a hobby.

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

The commission is too low. But do note that if your inworld shop is a mall spot you rent somewhere, the break point can happen a LOT sooner than the figures I ran. I ran it for the most expensive land one could possibly get in SL without being foolish: mainland on a premium bill paid by the month.

One can get their land a LOT cheaper than that very easily.

I used to rent a 50-prim shop in a high traffic club for I think $150 or so linden/week... You can overcome the marketplace tax super easy on that.

 

I call my numbers a 'business' on an objective standard: making real world viable money.

Note that even the $2000 US dollars a month I note for a business that could pay real life bills, is only $24,000/year. Below poverty, and not enough to even pay rent in the San Francisco Bay Area...

Despite this I called making $200/month US a viable business - which is a joke. Way too small. That's still a hobby. My blog was being kind to people who IMO delude themselves over what they should just call a hobby.

 

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For some people it is more like a side business.  Certainly it is a small amount they are making, but it is still a business.  It is some extra income which depending on a persons individual circumstances they may or may not be able to do without.