I want to be part of land owning and selling business, but how?

[Voodoo Schnyder]

I've come to realize that land business is the most profiteable in Second Life, and I'd like to get involved but I do not own a premium account, is this a problem?

I'd like to invest some of the money I've earn with my store to buy and (re)sell land but have no clue of how to start, nor do I know if it is even possible without a premium account.

I've been wondering for a while to either build up a big mall sim or just buy and resell my own land, but where do I start buying from, and how do I know if I am allowed to resell it or not?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Morgaine Christensen]

I believe you will need a Premium Account in order to buy and sell land.  You will have to pay a full month's tier on the land you hold, even if it is only for a single day or less.  Your tier will depend on the highest amount of land during a given time period. If land doesn't sell as expected, you still have to pay for the tier.

Look under the land tab in search, it would list what is for sale from Private Islands to Mainland and where.  You can TP around and assess the property.  You will need to read the Covenent information on each piece of land to see what you are allowed to do with it.  If you need more information, check out the SL Knowledge Base.

 

 

[Griffin Ceawlin]

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Voodoo Schnyder wrote:

I've come to realize that land business is the most profiteable in Second Life, and I'd like to get involved but I do not own a premium account, is this a problem?

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You need a Premium account to own Mainland. You don't need one to own private regions.

[Rival Destiny]

There are a few different forms of land ownership.  Buying and selling for profit would be restricted to mainland or Zindra if indeed there are profits to be made.  When I say buying, I mean buying from the land owner & paying tier to LL.  For mainland (incl Zindra) you need a premium account.  I will add here that since mainland prices went in the toilet, mainland buy/sell is really not a profitable biz IMO.  Rentals would be the way to go should you choose to buy mainland. 

For private islands, you can buy from LL directly or buy from an estate owner who will transfer the land to you.  This is done by both buyer and seller filing tickets with LL.  You do not need premium acct to buy private islands.  Also, the profits here come from reselling (which is really leasing) the land to other residents.  You can also buy from estate owner but that is in effect leasing the land, & you cannot sell with full rights ie paying tier direct to LL, etc.

I would recommend doing a lot of research before you do anything regarding land in sl.  All land be it mainland or private islands, require monthly tier pmts to LL.  Tiers also have many variables.

Also note that mainland tiers to LL are cheaper than island sim tiers.

I cannot stress enough that you research the heck out of this before you venture forth. 

Good luck

[Jennifer Boyle]

I advise extreme caution.  I used to buy and sell land to make money.  I quit after LL flooded the market with new land and drove prices precipitously downward in the spring of 2008.  I got rid of my inventory without losing too much, but it was a close call.  I will never reenter that business because I realized that LL can and will, for any reason or no reason, cause completely unpredictable changes in prices.  Another thing to consider is that land prices are so low now that it would be hard to make much trading land.  The only mainland that I know of that is worth much is double-prim land and adult land, and the latter seems to be steadily declining in value. So, be careful and start small so that if your inventory loses value you don't get killed.

If you want to be able to follow general land values, Sarah Nerd posts prices in her profile at which she will but any land offered.  Currently she offers L$2.4 per sq m for adult land nad L$0.1 per sq m for other land.  To give you an idea how much they have changed, until 2008 a typical price for typical land was around L$10 per sq m.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

There is not much profit anymore in buying and selling lots. Prices are extremely low for all the reasons other posters have said as well as reasons not mentioned.

If you have the money to buy full sims on an estate level than you may be able to make some profit buy finding distressed owners who are abandoning a sim and/or that will let it go for a very low price then selling it for more.  However unless you get lucky and are able to flip it within a very short time, you will end up having to pay tier that will may eat up a considerable amount of any profit.  If you end up having to pay more than a month, your sunk.  

Buying homesteads without owning a full sim is really just buying a large lot.  To buy a Homestead on the estate level you need to own a full sim and will have to then sell it to another estate owner with a full sim.

There are people that are making some money on land, but they are mostly large estate owners that rent out large amounts.  Their profit comes not so much in how much they profit on each lot, but by profiting a bit on a large number of lots.  So, if this interests you you would need to buy a number of sims at one time, and/or be prepared to make no profit or even lose money as you find tenants and grow the size and reputation of your estate.  There is a lot of skill and luck involved with this and you could lose your shirt if you don't really know what your doing.

From experience I can tell you that if you decide to do this, however you decide to do it, be prepared to spend a LOT of time educating yourself, searching for things to buy, dealing with buyers and/or servicing your tenants.  I can be a full time job time wise and rarely do you make full time pay.

Not to discourage you, but realistically, given that you admit you don't know a lot about this, unless you have a lot of money you can afford to risk and a lot of time you are willing to devote to this I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[iCade]

Instead of starting at the top with no knowledge I'd suggest that if you /really/ want to get into the market to start as a sales agent for one of the estate managers. There's several hiring and you will get to know the job as you move up the ranks. You will also realise how easy/hard it is to sell land and you'll also get introduced to the various problems, questions, concerns the tenants have.

Never start directly at the top as it'll go wrong 99% of the time.

[Lizard Howl]

There's plenty of good money to be made buying islands and renting them out.

I've been doing it since 2007 and profit every month.

I'm in the process of writing a How To book about it taking you step by step from nothing to Land Baron.

It should be on the market later this year, in the meantime Im posting tips and tricks on my blog:

http://www.virtualbreadwinner.com/blog

Hope that helps!

Lizard

 

[Rival Destiny]

...and you want to look your best while reading that 'HowTodo' book!

You can see my designs here at www.xyzSelfPromoOpWebsite.com

 

 

[Griffin Ceawlin]

LOL!

[Lizard Howl]

your link is broken :matte-motes-crying: