Buying Abandoned Land

[Female Winslet]

There seems to be a lot of interest in buying land over in the SSP discussion, and it's an issue that comes up periodically, so I thought I would start this thread in the spirit of keeping the discussion from leading the SSP thread completely off topic. 🙂

the Linden Lab policy on requesting sales of abandoned land is here: 

if you take a look at that, you will see that there are some pretty widespread misconceptions. For example, there is no rule requiring that people surround the abandoned parcel on three sides to create a sufficient claim to justify the sale of abandoned land to them. But there is a guideline saying that people who already own land in the region get priority over others.

I own only about ¼ region and it is a little bit scattered into various locations in the grid. But the overwhelming majority of the land I have has been purchased as abandoned land. It's probably the least expensive way to buy land and there is so much out there that it really isn't hard to find something desirable-- albeit a few categories, like Blake Sea land, are pretty hard to come by.

I've always understood LL's policy on this to be a way of putting land back into use. It doesn't earn them any money and it doesn't look great when it is just sitting there empty. So it seems like buying abandoned land is a win-win for both LL and the user.

That said, the guidelines really are just guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. There is a lot of discretion on whether or not they will approve or deny a request or put a parcel up for auction rather than sell it to you. So I always approach it as a favor that they don't have to grant. I say please. I don't state the request as if it's a demand that I'm entitled to. I follow the guideline by mentioning if I own a parcel in the region. And at the end of the transaction, I always say thank you to whichever Linden I've interacted with. That's mostly a matter of just doing my best to be good people. But, when you work in customer service, things like that can be a big deal.

I also tell LL a bit about what I plan to do with the parcel I'm asking to buy. I don't really know, but I would imagine that they are less interested in selling to a land baron who is going to flip it and immediately sell it to someone else a much higher price. I've always had the impression that they want people to buy abandoned land so that those people will actually use it. So I don't say much, but I do put in a sentence or two saying that I'd like to buy this parcel to expand my dock, or to build a river, or whatever else.

I have heard that LL considers disciplinary records when deciding whether to grant or deny a request to buy abandoned land. That wouldn't surprise me. So if you've ever been banned from the forums or the grid, that could be a factor against you.

Again, I don't know, but I would not be surprised at all if LL looked at what people do with the land they already have. I have heard stories of Lindens popping into large parcels in particular to have a look see. If that's the case, I would guess that they probably would favor aspiring buyers who use things in a community friendly way. 

In the land that I buy, I try to build pleasant--even beautiful--environments that make the surroundings nicer. In one spot, I am one of several buyers who tend to buy land as it becomes available largely just for preservation purposes to keep it beautiful and open for others to use. My parcels are always, without exception, open to visitors, so there are never ban lines or security orbs to keep everybody else out. If someone is causing me problems, I will ban them individually. I don't think I have anyone banned on any of my parcels at the moment.

You're welcome to have a look at an example of the type of thing I'm talking about my current construction project here: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Koss/124/240/129

I own almost 15,000 m² on that region. It probably does not hurt that when I bought much of it (as abandoned land), I was using a large chunk of it as a community holiday land. I set it up as a place where anyone could come, join a group just long enough to rez some holiday decor that brought them a bit of joy for the holiday season, and then leave if they wished. I plan on doing the same during the upcoming holiday season unless something happens to prevent me from still owning the land at that time. Another project at the back of my mind is to build a community center somewhere to use it as a venue for a mixture of different types of events— parties, exhibits, etc. But I haven't found the right place yet or really figured out exactly what it is that I will plan to do there.

if you do stop by, please do say hi in an IM or just walk over and say hi if I am on the property. And definitely don't forget to feed the ducks. 🙂

So these are my thoughts on the subject of buying abandoned land. Sorry for the length. 

Edited March 18, 2019 by Female Winslet

[Qie Niangao]

47 minutes ago, Female Winslet said:

[T]he guidelines really are just guidelines rather than hard and fast rules. There is a lot of discretion on whether or not they will approve or deny a request or put a parcel up for auction rather than sell it to you. So I always approach it as a favor that they don't have to grant. I say please. I don't state the request as if it's a demand that I'm entitled to. I follow the guideline by mentioning if I own a parcel in the region. And at the end of the transaction, I always say thank you to whichever Linden I've interacted with. 

Even in Second Life there's no extra charge for civility.

I agree 100% with the whole post, especially this "just guidelines" point. The "Land" Lindens are busy folks, trying to exercise their best judgment on hundreds of different decisions each day, under ever-changing conditions (and no doubt, some patience-trying customers). I've always found them very deserving of thanks.

[animats]

There's a lot of abandoned land out there. Much of which even flippers don't want. Corsica has a lot of abandoned land near the center of the island. Away from a road or a waterway, there's likely to be abandoned land.

[Crim Mip]

I've gotten several parcels of very nicely placed abandoned land. In general, it's reasonable size, LL will just sell it to you direct. One of the piecies of land my GF and I have had a bunch of weird shaped small abandoned parcels around it and we put in a ticket to get those to consolodate them into the larger parcel. LL loves that as it gets rid of parcels that nobody would ever buy. If you're going to buy from a private seller, it's worth checking to see if there's abandoned land abutting the parcel you want in case you'd ever want to gain more space.