Why oh Why aren't Landlords professional?

[holly Mistwood]

After all they are taking real US$ from us all!

I am fed up with excuses about having to close sims because they are unprofitable and not getting sufficient notice to move. It is all well and good to offer additional free weeks "as you have a business" but when the following happens:

27th May - discuss with estate manager that I am worried neighbours are moving and being told that the sim is well established and won't be closed. (sims having been closed on me in the past)

3rd June - Neighbour comes up to me and asks why I haven't started packing my store up as the sim is being closed on the 5th June,

Apparently on the 29th the same estate manager sent a notecard to all the continuing tenants offering a weeks free rent as sim was closing on the 5th. Plus promising a follow up notecard with details of "good" sims to relocate to.

Eventually the estate manager apologises but blames linden labs for both cards not being delivered - one I can understand two; no that is careless and unprofessional.

I am now being pressured to make my mind up where to go, perhaps I have more time, but me the continuing tenant is being offered sims and after one visit expected to make my mind up, the tone of the agents is such that I am lucky to be offered anything at all rather than the sim just being closed.

So my continuing revenue can't be wanted very much can it.

Should I continue my store or just give up in disgust, SL is meant to be fun but being treated like this by people earning real US$ from me is proving too much like hard work - no wonder the sims are becoming unprofitable, continuous business is not valued,

Holly Mistwood.

 

[Melita Magic]

Were you in the land group? Did you check notices often? Did you have 'receive notices' unchecked? When I need to tell group members something, I send out group note cards in an announcement, and sometimes IM too, but they often still ignore it.  

If not then you missed part of your own responsibility. It's possible note cards could've been capped if sent to your profile, or even through announcements, so always check past notices.

Sometimes people really do have to give up their land because of some crisis that came up, or lack of profit. However most 'landlords' in Second Life are hobbyists, and not really professional. They end up making less than minimum wage and some put in long hours. So can we expect them to put in even more? 

Letting someone know not to keep paying rent is only honest, though, as well as trying to refund any paid weeks if the landlord can't honor the deal any more. However, you take your chances when you rent, bottom line. So many stories in these forums about peole finding their house gone one day, sometimes after just having sent a lot of money in for rent.

Linden Lab does not get in the middle of it, by policy; so buyer/renter beware.

It does sound like the landlord in this story notified the tenants but you missed the announcement(s) for some reason. 

Only you can answer whether to continue your store. Maybe buy mainland or just take it all to Marketplace.

 

[holly Mistwood]

yes, I am in land group, yes I receive notices from it, yes I have ims sent to email and no nothing was sent as during the time ims were not capped.

However the estate manager didn't use group to tell anyone no historical group notices to look back at - just note cards that weren't delivered to me but to my fellow tenants.

The landlords in this case and the previous ones are large land owners in it for a profit and tell everyone so, hence my decision to rent from them in the past.

I didn't expect Linden's to become involved, this was just one way of venting to get the thing off my chest, Perhaps I should rent from a hobyist as they might be more professional with the way they treat fellow members.

The landlord in question added the sim to the five others they are closing soon but hasn't announced that in the land group.

[Melita Magic]

This new information puts another perspective on it. Thanks.

They certainly should have sent a notice, if not several, to the group as soon as they knew they would be giving up land.

The fact they still have not told some of their tenants makes their case seem shaky.

If they are large scale landlords, with a history, they should very well know better than this.

[Pussycat Catnap]

A landlord in SL is anyone who's acquired land from LL's and allows someone else to use it.

Its a buyer beware market for tenants.

If they lack funds to keep going, they lack funds, and well; can't keep going.

 

My suggestion to you would be to get some land on mainland and either stay there or wait there while you research a new landlord. I'm not sure what would be sufficient proof that a landloard is stable though... Everyone's going to have a different standard for that.

An alternative tactic is to rent stalls in a few malls. I always thought people who rented in malls were fools, until a friend of mine started doing it and then I started getting an idea of how much money she was pulling in from it. Even with half the malls closing and new ones opening up every month - she was able to keep 3 or 4 going at all times and her business grew to the point where she finally took her original mainland 512 and grew it to somewhere around 16000 to 20000m of land.

Lots of malls out there, get some small ones and scatter your products by theme, moving around as needed, until you're satisfied with research on a place for a mainstore.

 

[Wildcat Furse]

check-out a reliable estate group that owns hundreds of sims ... look in 'search->classifieds->estate' ...*meows*

[holly Mistwood]

---

Wildcat Furse wrote:

check-out a reliable estate group that owns hundreds of sims ... look in 'search->classifieds->estate' ...*meows*

---

And you don't  think I rent from one of those, and have always done so and so far this "move for unprofitability" has happened three times with two different "reliable estate groups  that own hundreds of sims"

 

Holly Mistwood

 

[Melita Magic]

Don't kill the messenger

[Lizard Howl]

hey holly -

I have to say I do understand your frustrations and I think the responses you got in this thread are very helpful advice for you.

As an Estate Owner moving people is my least favorite part of the job, but it is also an essential part of the job.  I recently had to move people from 2 sims to keep our vacant lands under control. I think the last time I had to do that was over a year ago but it is never any easier.

The hobbyist you find may not ask you to move, but from what I have seen of the Second Life land game over the last four years, those are the sims that are more likely to not be there one day when you log in. (they were sold or abandoned)

Your only defense against this is either to move to mainland as was suggested above, or when you buy your next Estate land buy land in a sim that is nearly full.  The more full a sim is the more likely it is to be in profit, which means the less likely it is that it will be sold out from underneath you.

Have fun, and good luck!

Lizard Howl

Segarra Estates Owner

 

[holly Mistwood]

Hadn't intended to shoot the messenger, apologies if you felt that,

Just that piece of advice is really why I am where I am, I used my professional instincts and picked professional long serving popular outfits and came unstuck twice.

I felt I had to point that out as you might think I had used a low end sim owner who was treating it as a hobby not a professional business with satisfactory history.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Some of the large estate holders with a mass array of sims have been profitable by being merciless and shifting people about rather suddenly - and are known for this.

Others have been profitable by being very communitarian and managing their reputation with their clients carefully - while holding a stable set of a moderate number of sims.

Research them by their reputations among their tenants, and more importantly if you can find it - their ex-tenants. Not by the scale of their business.

 

[holly Mistwood]

I appreciate all the help that people are offering - please bear in mind this situation is very akin to being made redundant in a way, so going through the six stages:

1. stunned/shock   2. Denial   3. Anger

4 Bargaining    5 depression  6 Acceptance

I think I am in the Anger/Bargaining phase

[Melita Magic]

It isn't about what I think. Just was trying to say that the people here seem to be on your side and wishing to help you. No need to lash out. We only know what you tell us. Since you are upset maybe you aren't seeing how you might be coming across. Rather than venting here maybe cool down and then come back and try to find a solution which is more what the forums are geared toward in my opinion.

You did ask for opinions.

Or else why post here?

Do you see how you are lashing out a little bit? There is nothing any of us can really tell you. If we even recommend someone and your experience is later bad, then it's our fault.

ETA: I think people do understand how you feel, and that is why you've received 100% sympathy here. Which is not all that common in the forums when people come to vent. A lot of us have 'been there' too or our friends have in the past.

Pussycat had some good advice for you in both posts, and we both recommended you simply buy some mainland. In  your profile you seem to have more than one location already so I think you will be OK. Maybe you will just rent in another mall. I know you are steaming right now but this is the reality of the rental situation in Second Life.