Secondlife Real Estate

[JosettaValentina]

What should anyone consider before going into real estate in secondlife.

[Lindal Kidd]

That depends on what you mean by "going into real estate".

There are no real estate brokers or agents in SL in the traditional sense.  The tools to look for and find virtual land are available to everyone, so there's no need for them.

There ARE sales agents for a lot of the larger private estates.  Show up on a vacant parcel, and in a minute or two, one of them will IM you asking if she can help.  

Or, if you mean "I want to buy land and then re-sell it at a profit"...this has recently become at least possible again.  For a long time, since about 2010, SL land has been a buyer's market and a seller's nightmare, because there has been more land available than there were people who wanted to buy it.  On the Mainland, that situation has finally corrected itself, and it's getting hard to find nice parcels at a good price.  Bear in mind that you will have monthly "carrying costs"...you have to pay tier on Mainland, whenever you own more than 1024 sq m.  So, moving land quickly will be crucial to whether you're profitable or not.

Or maybe you mean, "I want to buy some land and rent it out".  This has always been one of the major business models in SL.  If you have some nice land, it's possible to make money.  It does take a fairly large initial investment, and there is work involved in attracting tenants and keeping them happy.  Will you get rich?  Probably not, unless you are Ansche Chung.  Some who own 20 or more private estate regions make enough for it to be a viable "second business" RL income, or even a full time RL living.  Many more, like me, make enough to pay our tier and pay for our SL shopping excursions.

Or did you just mean, "I want to have a little home of my own in SL?"  That can be a lot of fun, and it doesn't have to cost a lot.  I teach a class on SL land at Caledon Oxbridge University on Saturdays, at 12 noon SL time.  It's free to attend!  We cover several ways to do this.

[lucagrabacr]

You should know pretty much every aspect of Second Life to seriously get into real estate in Second Life. From the technical, community and financial side.

Since buying and reselling land for profit as Lindal explained is becoming less feasible to do especially with the stiff competition of existing land barons who have been doing that for years, the more feasible option would be to develop land and upscale its value for renters by making it appealing for them to rent from you at a price that's higher than the competitions.

Going "we're the cheapest" is not gonna work because there are already many out there who are doing that, making it almost impossible to use that strategy to make a meaningful profit unless you're willing to invest tons of money into ungodly amount of land with profit margin so narrow even with many lands it would take so long to see a return.

Know who you are targeting, preferably people who are in community(ies) that you're in, and develop lands which appeal to their specific needs or demands.

[Prokofy Neva]

o Buying land is not an investment; it is a sunk cost

o If your rentals are not more than 85% full you are losing money

o Do the math, do the math, do the math - tier you pay versus what you make back in sales or rentals

o Change things constantly until you get it right, i.e. it sells

 

[Shudo]

2 hours ago, Prokofy Neva said:

o Buying land is not an investment; it is a sunk cost

o If your rentals are not more than 85% full you are losing money

o Do the math, do the math, do the math - tier you pay versus what you make back in sales or rentals

o Change things constantly until you get it right, i.e. it sells

 

All of this and...

The Lab can (and have) change the rules without warning. These rule changes have the possibility to hurt or wipe out your "investment".