Can I make money with one sim's worth of residential property?

[Supersatan3]

Hai Guyz.,

I am thinking of buying a new sim to rent to other avatars. However, I can only afford one. I haven't thought of whether or not to offer blank land, or to furnish it, or to simply rez skyboxes. I am also assuming that I'd need some sort of rental system as well. I also know about one semester's worth of marketing. I couldn't offer the elaborate system that bigger landlords such as Anshe Chung has in place, but hope maybe a small-time landlord who is able to offer personal assistance(instead of a support system) might be appealing. Is it possible for someone who owns a single sim to compete with larger landlords in the current market?

[Freya Mokusei]

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Supersatan3 wrote:

Is it possible for someone who owns a single sim to compete with larger landlords in the current market?

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No, not at all.

The Atlas program exists, giving larger landlords preferential (and secret) rates. Sadly no links are available, you will have to Google more about this yourself.

You might make some money (I don't know the market so closely), but I'd expect razor-thin margins if you're trying to be competitive, and you'll need an occupancy rate of as close to 100% as possible.

Not sure what kicked off this idea of yours, but be careful that it wasn't an old source. The market has changed a lot in recent years.

[Pamela Galli]

Larger estates can afford to have someone available for support 24/7. 

It is also for them a RL business, not a hobby.

 

[Qie Niangao]

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Supersatan3 wrote:

maybe a small-time landlord who is able to offer personal assistance(instead of a support system) might be appealing.

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Probably not. The thing is, whatever quaint charm that may have, it's offset by the longevity of other Estates, which addresses the overwhelming concern of renters: Will the sim still be around all the way till the end of the lease period or will the landlord abscond with the rent half-way through?

I think a potentially viable approach is to find and fill a specialized market niche for which renters are willing to pay a substantial premium compared to commodity rentals. That turns the business challenge into one of creativity, but still it's a difficult one.

[ChinRey]

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Supersatan3 wrote:

Hai Guyz.,

I am thinking of buying a new sim to rent to other avatars. However, I can only afford one. I haven't thought of whether or not to offer blank land, or to furnish it, or to simply rez skyboxes.

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Here's some math for you:

If you rent out all the prims in a full sim at the current "budget priced generic land" rate (0.5 L$/prim/week) you can make about 130 U.S. dollars a month. The tier is about 200 U.S dollars a month. So even if you somehow manage to fill up the sim right from day one and keep it filled up all the time (and how likely is that?), you still loose 70 dollars a month.

What you can do, is offer something unique that people are willing to pay extra for. That requries a lot of thinking and planning and a lot of hard work, it's going to take at least a year or two before you've recovered the initial cost and even under the best of conditions you'll never make more than a dollar day or so from a single sim. So not exactly a good business plan but at least there is a small chance you'll make a marginal profit from it one day.

[wherorangi]

you could if you think about it a bit differently

rather than 1 sim think about the same amount of land spread across different (mainland) sims

a lot of people who first get into the landlord business start out this way. Often going for the really cheap skybox model, 10-20-50L a weekly pop. Starting out with even less than a full sims worth of tier quite often also

what they learn pretty quickly is how much work is actual involved in being a successful landlord, even on this model

then when they find out that they are temperamentally suited to being a landlord and have the time to put in the work, then they expand their business. End up building a empire in some cases

when they find otherwise then they stop doing it. They get out for a lot less financial loss than they might have incurred otherwise

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Aside from the financial considerations, you will have to deal with tenants.  Many potential landlords don't realize how much time they will have to put into running a rental sim and keeping it full with good tenants.

You just can't put an ad in classifieds and expect to get all the lots rented without further effort. You will need to talk up your rentals when the opportunity arises, talk to some potential tenants and answer their questions when they come to look at your property, and follow up with people who looked at them.  This is important in my experience.  That added step communicating with them again will sway some people to decide to rent your property.

Then there is dealing with late payers, lease or covenant violators, evictions for those that don't pay and readying the lot for the next tenant etc.when someone leaves.  You'll get IM's from tenants requesting help for all kinds of things, like help setting up TV's and radios.  disputes between neighbors and also general 'how to' questions, especially if you have newb renters.

I'm not trying to discourage you just be sure to go into being a landlord with your eyes wide open.

[deadlycreature1]

I know a place that only had one renter and they rented the  cheapest house out of all of the others. They had to close the sim. Are you sure that you want to do this? I know other places that rent and they aren't always busy a lot. I think that more people used to be on second life, but not as many now compared to a few years ago.

[Nalytha]

I just went through this phase as well. I can make money playing video games? Heck yeah! Then I did the math. You'd have to own a ton of islands to start seeing real money. With one island, even if you kept it full, I think you can't expect more than $50 profit a month, if that even. And that's far less than minimal wage but you'd have to constantly be dealing with people, advertising, etc. It's just not worth it. The game will cease to be fun and become a job. A job that pays crap. Now if you really wanted to make money, im sure you could do it but from what I read you need hundreds of customers, not a handful to start seeing meaningful money. You need to have a website, invest in advertising, do referrals, get your name out there. A ton of work.

 

As a wise woman once said, "Ain't nobody got time for that!"

[Tamara Artis]

You can and I believe you should try. A thing that most people here forget is that every big renter started from the bottom, I believe it is kinda wrong to compare big names and someone who didn't even started the business, you simply can't. 

Don't be too romantic, don't expect earnings, focus on the image of the land. What you want to offer to the people? If its just blank land, something we see on every possible parcel for rent then don't even try! But if you have an idea, if you are into some specific lifestyle or you have the whole image in your mind then you should do it! 

Something that always sells (I used to rent just for fun) is beautifully landscaped parcel with an empty house so your renters can put their own furniture. Don't use the math. Don't count how you can put 5 houses/platforms and give 200 prims to each and rent it for xy amount of lindens. No. If you do it right, if you manage to create attractive land money will become less important.  

You need houses, trees, flowers, bushes, rocks, walls, some romantic stuff... everything top quality from the well known brands. Make your future renters feel special and priviledged, show that you spent 100 hours just to landscape the land in an unique way. Show them you offer things of such quality that they most likely will not buy in ages. Rent systems are not a big deal, you can buy one in a matter of minutes... You need a weather system, seasoned trees and other nature things, snow. Strict rules, notecard to put in a rent box. Then you need to make ads and a bigger amount of audience to place them these ads, here you can either work hard to create your own or use someone else's, up to you. Another important thing you need is to make yourself - your avatar to look like someone who knows how to do business, someone with good reputation and style.