Announcing an Easier Way to Purchase Abandoned Mainland Property

[Blondin Linden]

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Land/Announcing-an-Easier-Way-to-Purchase-Abandoned-Mainland-Property/ba-p/829263

 

To make Mainland parcels easier to purchase, we have implemented a new system that automatically takes recently abandoned Mainland parcels and makes them available for Mainland landowners and Premium account members to buy directly at discounted rates. By using the new system, you no longer have to go through Support, which was a longer and more involved process.

Purchasing Mainland Parcels Directly is Easier
Start by looking at the Mainland on the World Map, and enabling the check box “Land for Sale.” When you find a parcel that you might be interested in, check out the owner. If the parcel is owned by Governor Linden and marked, “Abandoned Land - For Sale,” then you can purchase it by clicking on the “Buy Land,” button. Today, we are pricing abandoned land at L$1 per square meter (pricing subject to change) and, of course, the regular monthly tiered land costs apply for ongoing maintenance. Over time, we may also make older abandoned land available for sale, using the same process. Our goal is to increase the Mainland occupancy for a more active and beautiful environment for all to enjoy.

For more more detailed information, take a look at this wiki page.

So, if you’ve ever been thinking about owning your very own piece of the Mainland, or expanding your current holdings, then now is a great time to take a look and snap up some great properties.

[Marigold Devin]

Best idea you've had in ages. It'll be great if the mainland abandoned plots get snapped up and beautified.

[Shockwave Yareach]

If I don't own it as the ads said for half a decade, I'll not spend the large bucks to buy it.  Or anything else for that matter.

[Medhue Simoni]

I would, and I have abandoned land all around my sim, but I would have to tier up. So, until the tiering up thing is rethought, I probably won't be buying those parcels. Wish I could tho.

[Buzz Yheng]

I am concerned that this system is already not working as intended

According to the wiki ... "  These parcels are not listed in Search."

Here am I at  >> http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dindrane%20Elfor/100/64/43

a once abandoned parcel owned by Governor Linden & being sold at $1L/metre

which IS listed in search as "Abandoned Land - For Sale"

 

If the parcel is within the province of a bot acquisition .... real people stand no chance !!

[Buzz Yheng]

ALSO in SEARCH

And this one here is worth looking at for a laugh, 2 creatively cut parcels >>  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lonsdale/32/190/46

 

This was in the General Zone ... Another 5 in Moderate atm

 

& I repeat, that if any such parcels are set at $1L/metre in Adult ... real people will be paying the bot's owner a lot more. because they will not stand a chance of purchasing

[Chaos Mohr]

---

Buzz Yheng wrote:

ALSO in SEARCH

And this one here is worth looking at for a laugh, 2 creatively cut parcels >>  

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Lonsdale/32/190/46

 

This was in the General Zone ... Another 5 in Moderate atm

 

& I repeat, that if any such parcels are set at $1L/metre in Adult ... real people will be paying the bot's owner a lot more. because they will not stand a chance of purchasing

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The bot owners are already cleaning up - they have their bots set to selectively price for adult, and they also have certain prime sims watched to buy at a higher rate (protected waterfront, beta sims, bay city etc). I have already seen the bots snatch some prime waterfront at the 'abandoned land' price and looking at the land sales, it looks as if they might have been getting some abandoned adult land as well (either that or there has just been a lot of adult land dumping going on). Either way, the bots are cleaning up once again at the expense of the real people, not to mention that the sudden glut of Abondoned land in land search has been driving market prices down and causing more people to just abandon land - smooth move on LL's part, instead of helping make things better it seems once again a poorly implemented policy is screwing the majority of the residents and helping out a select few.

[Darren Oates]

This is a great move auto setting it to anyone but I agree with chaos the bots will cleanup but that could be sorted by raising the price to atleast 2Ls per meter above current market at  rate at any given time giving REAL people a fair chance of buying a parcel but then again this price would always have to be higher than daily bottom end value while bots are running the show as they can also buy everthing up to that 2Ls per meter threshold in seconds suppose it needs to auto set above current prices per parcel basis when abandoned But i see you stated (price Subject to change) So i hope you raise it well above the BOTS search criteria and try to tweak it so indavidual parcels will have diffrent LS per meter.  Its a tricky one unless the outcome is to hope the bots raise the market as you raise the abandoned ? 

[Abby10 Lenroy]

I don't think it's a poorly implemented policy on Linden Labs part. They are doing all they can to clear up the abandoned land, and there is tons of it.

But for REAL people to get the chance to purchase these nice lands, you will need to point your fingers on the bots, who are the ones creating this problem.

[PROPERTY]

This is the Wiki

This is what it says:

How do I find a abandoned Mainland parcel to purchase?

Recycled land is owned by Governor Linden and named, “Abandoned Land - For Sale.” These parcels can be found my visiting a region and looking at parcel descriptions. They will also highlight on the map as land for sale. These parcels are not listed in Search.

(emphasis is mine)

 

I have specified just a couple of parcels of an increasing number that are listed in search

& thus accessible to bot's data filtering.

Sadly, at this stage , the policy, which in my opinion is a good one,  is definitely being poorly implemented.

IF official wiki & actual practice do not concur, it can not be called good implementation

[Chaos Mohr]

The bots are not creating the problem but they are certainly part of it. There are now over 60 plots of abandoned land in land search, including microparcels (I see a few as small as 96m) which is no way to 'clean up' the mainland but rather it will probably bring in another crop of micro-extortionists. Meanwhile, the bots continue to scoop up the prime abandoned land and leave the garbage. There is also quite a few instances where LL could have combined some plots of abandoned land, but instead they are put up for sale as hacked up pieces. The other day before this policy started, there were approx 30 plots of mainland listed below L$1/meter, now there are 120+ and as LL continues to flood the market with the 'Abandoned Land' this number will increase. As long as the 'Abandoned land' is listed in search it will continue to drive the market down while the glut of 'Abandoned Land' increases. Of course this will give the people who live in regular or non-desirable areas a better chance of buying adjoining abandoned plots, but the bots will continue to scoop up the prized land and profit greatly from it and the land market itself will spiral further downwards.

The policy is certainly poorly implemented as it is not even following the guidelines for the program that has been set forth. It is unfortunate that the people making these policies have no real idea of the real issues of the Mainland land market, nor do they seem have to communicated properly with the different departments which were responsible for the implementation.

[Urcilnia Pyrithea]

I can only guess at some of the objectives behind this policy but it would seem that better land management is not one of them.  Some of the cuts being offered are truly atrocious.  I don't see how this benefits anyone

[Sky Quintessa]

The new 'Easier Way to Purchase Abandoned Mainland Property' does seem to have impacted on the land market. Prices have dropped dramatically in the last few days. Obviously I don't know it was this strategy that caused it but it makes me wonder and not sure that will benefit ordinary buyers.

[DT Zanzibar]

I am amazed that there is such a contradiction in publicly stated policy ... aka .. the OFFICIAL Wiki /KB

& the actual practice of implementing this new approach ...

it does make me think of kids playing cowboys & Indians in the sandbox.

 

Come on LL .... you test your credibility here .... even with a credulous customer base.

 

In response to Chaos Moir:

Yes !! ... some of the scraps of abandoned land that are being set for sale are showing a blatant disregard for land care ,,,,

even if some of the "parcels" on offer are interesting works of land art .

&

Why haven't adjoining parcels been joined to best advantage ??

Why haven't encroaching objects been removed ??

Please set an example LL ...

or do you want to deal with the increasing chaos that will result if people think that if LL can do it ... then so can we !!!

 

In response to Sky Quintessa

Yes ... in the past 24 hours, the bottom end of both the General & Moderate land sales markets have dropped 40%.

How that impacts on people/customers who have invested capital in land is seriously going to impact on the whole SL economy

 

In response to Blondin as representing LL

Personally, I think it is great if end users have the opportunity to buy abandoned land, but what LL have implemented is

• a contradiction (Official Wiki vs practice)

• an invitation to the operators of buying bots to increase their profits at the expense of real people

 • a serous suppressor of the land markets

( an economy with falling land prices will always get worse as it erodes confidence & the SL economy is hurting badly already)

• the land team does need to overview this automated process & join & clean up parcels so that the rubbish cutting that is often associated with abandoning is not perpetuated ... all that effort to minimise micro parcels could just be undone

(in fact ... some of the parcels on offer fit very well within the criteria for an AR on micro parcels & obstructive cuts)

 

mm ... can't remember other posts warranting a response atm ... remembers there is always edit .... grins

& wishes all SL well

[Chaos Mohr]

WIth over 140 Abandoned land properties now listed in search, and the bottom of the land market just above .5 $L/meter (a drop of between 30-40% since the implementation of this policy) it is becoming apparent to many that it is just easier to abandon land than feed it to the bots - the bot owners have long manipulated the market to their own ends - dumping a lot of land at the bottom of the market to drive the price way down so people dumping land will have to go lower, then when they have filled up their tier, bumping the prices (and the market) back up 10 - 20%. LL is fully aware of this and has even condoned it, basically telling the rest of the population that any land you buy is basically worthless anyhow.

Now some may say that the land market as a whole hasn't dropped that much, and that may be somewhat true, however when it comes to selling land or abandoning it, the only way to sell quickly is to either place it near the bottom of the market in hopes that it sells before tier is due, or drop it to the bots. With the bot owners controlling the lower end of the market, people will only get what the bot owners let them get. You can of course be lucky and have a neighbor buy it, or spend time advertising it if it is real nice land, but most will either dump to the bots or abandon it when push comes to shove. With this new policy (which isn't even doing as it was stated), the bottom of the land market has plummeted, and the abandoned land is piling up.

LL took the easy way out and automated everything - cheap for them, bad for Second Life mainland and people. There are bad cuts of land, land that is now up for sale that has other bad cuts of abandoned land next to it that isn't for sale (that if combined would have a much better chance of selling), land of odd sizes in between tier levels which very few will even look at. Basically a badly implemented and completely unmanaged policy. If LL were to put a 'real' person in charge of the mainland land sales, someone who was willing to do things like watch the land market to see the trends, someone who would actually look at the land before it went up for sale and try to combine or divide as neccessary, someone who would drop notecards on adjoining neighbors telling the land was or would be soon up for sale, someone who actually cared about the mainland and wanted to truly see it improve. Now I know that is asking for a lot, I mean a whole person and a whole persons salary, but honestly LL has lost more than that in what I paid in Tier before I dropped a lot of my mainland.

I would really like to see some kind of reply from Blondin or another Linden on this new policy and what they plan on doing to clean up this new mess that they have made. There are plenty of residents with workable ideas to make the mainland better, and plenty of residents who actually care.

[Darren Oates]

Yes it needs someone to manage the new system and check current prices its no good at all to list every parcel at the same price its just like the bot runners do auto listing all at 1 price but dont forget you get a better picture using 1.23 in V2 you have no chance of tracking the market compared to 1.23 emagin trying to visit every abandoned land on search with V2 that dosent remember your search criteria its a dam pain.

The bots will still be operating even if it goes to 0.1 right down till the last drop.  I see some are now more focused on adult where prices are steady and they can gain much from a 1LS per meter abandon drop.  Its a bit of a mess to say the least on one hand LL want the abandoned land back in teir but on the other hand LL will still be holding onto unteired land waiting to be bought and more so as it collects. 

Fast Thought Conclusion = Automated Programs should not buy or set prices Bots of any kind cannot run a virtual land mass Humans can make better judgments on how to price the land, eg  Hows the return on the bottom market looking if no good next is,  Any neighbours (who may buy and check if their running out of prims via about land) how long has it been listed before you buy to resell,  is it cut right to adjoin to other parcels around if bought,  and many more things need to be checked before setting a price no wonder everything now looks like a massive jigsaw with the peices missing.  If LL want to heal the mainland they need to consult with users that spend all day selling the stuff and present at their keyboards.

Think I will sit this one out this summer I aint risking Ls on this 1.0   0.8  0.5  0.4 per meter would 0.5 even cover teir ??

your ground rent (teir) is more than the full price of a plot of land with a house.

[Ericc Carter]

 

Releasing abandoned land this way is bad. It probably looked great on paper but this is an awful move. Land is a very important aspect in Second Life and decisions which impact it should be thought out carefully. There is already a huge overabundance of land. There are not enough real end users to occupy and use this abundance of land. 'Supply and Demand'... the value of land now is practically nothing. This is because of Way too much land being brought onto the market, primary by auctioning it but also now via this new method of selling abandoned land. It's disheartening really because the residents care about Second Life and want it to do well. So in the effort to get more land "occupied", which is really an effort to collect more tier, this has further added to the fragility of the market. That's a non-sustainable business model. Think of the future. 

[Darren Oates]

Blondin Would adding a date stamp to the abbandoned land title be possible on your new system I have been looking at around 200 parcels but its getting really hard to see whats new on the list unless we spend hours with pen and paper  writing sim names n sizes we endup revisiting the same parcels.  Dont know if this idea would work good but something like (Abbandoned Land 07/05/2011 just something to help filter what we have already seen date is the only thing I can think of as a visual effect that the eye can filter results at the moment..

[Pussycat Catnap]

 

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Ericc Carter wrote:

 

Releasing abandoned land this way is bad. It probably looked great on paper but this is an awful move. Land is a very important aspect in Second Life and decisions which impact it should be thought out carefully. There is already a huge overabundance of land. There are not enough real end users to occupy and use this abundance of land. 'Supply and Demand'... the value of land now is practically nothing.

---

 

SL is meant to be used and enjoyed - for people to gather and create communities for various interests, explore other's creations, and build ones own.

Its not some real-estate simulation and not a market simulation. All goods in SL exist solely for the purpose of supporting people's creativity and social activity.

So I see nothing wrong at all with collapsing the value of the land market to nothing.

 

[PROPERTY]

 

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

So I see nothing wrong at all with collapsing the value of the land market to nothing.

 

---

 

Thinks to put Pussycat in charge of LL

Believing that she would also not charge any Land Use Fees / Tier

[Chaos Mohr]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

 

 

SL is meant to be used and enjoyed - for people to gather and create communities for various interests, explore other's creations, and build ones own.

Its not some real-estate simulation and not a market simulation. All goods in SL exist solely for the purpose of supporting people's creativity and social activity.

So I see nothing wrong at all with collapsing the value of the land market to nothing.

 

---

I agree, and while we are at it, lets make all content free, regardless of the time or effort people have put into it because after all, SL was created to share everything. Everything should be free, no tier, no anything, and Pussycat should pay for all the servers, the bandwidth, the electricity, etc etc because if Pussycat doesn't pay for these things, then they will disappear and that wouldn't be fair to our creativity and social activity. Oh and while Pussycat is paying for that, please pay for a new computer for me, because without that, I can't create anything to support other people's creativity and social activity.

Everything costs at some level, and many people have taken the time and made an investment in virtual land to make it better, or to make it available to others. If it becomes worth nothing, then the there is no loss in abandoning land, which will make the mainland even more of a wasteland than it is now. When mainland was worth more, there was very little abandoned land and sims and CREATIVE COMMUNITIES Flourished!

Please people, realize that there is much more to any world, virtual or not than what appears only to those who see the surface.

[MarkByron Falta]

Very disappointed to see this policy implemented with no restriction on the minimum size of the parcel.  Linden is now selling abandoned micro-parcels (e.g. 16 sqm) and as Linden should know, these type of micro-parcels were used for years to create unsightly ad farms with no zoning restrictions, and the parcels were often for land extortion purposes.  It took years for Linden to take notice until the land values plummeted, and they finally took some action to deter the land cutting.  Now it seems that lesson has been forgotten and Linden is on the path to recreating the situation that helped lead to the mainland becoming a wasteland that drove away residents.  You can't figure out a way to automatically re-join all the adjacent abandoned land in a region and sell it as a whole?  In any event, a JIRA has been created to address this new problem.   https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-6963