Combining two premium land allotments

[SunnyBeacon]

Hi. I'm returning with a new avatar after a few years away, and I forgot how land works. 

Currently a RL friend and I both started premium memberships, and eventually we want to open a small store and skybox house (that should fit on a 1024sq/m piece of land, or we might spring for the 2048sq/m out of pocket). I'd rather our house/store be on private land I think, as I have bad memories of mainland scenary, lag, neighbors, etc.

I vaguely remember from years ago that it was better to sell/rent your mainland land and rent an estate plot somewhere. I can't remmeber how that all works, or if it's changed since then. 

 

Can someone advise what our best course of action is for two premium members to end up with a 1024-2048sq/m estate?

 

[ChinRey]

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SunnyBeacon wrote:

Hi. I'm returning with a new avatar after a few years away, and I forgot how land works.

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Welcome back

 

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SunnyBeacon wrote:

I'd rather our house/store be on private land I think, as I have bad memories of mainland scenary, lag, neighbors, etc.

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The situation on Mainland is better now than it was a few years ago but it varies a lot. Some parts are still pure Hell, others can be quite nice. Unfortunately for you, the best Mainland neighborhoods are all themed in one way or another. There are places like Bay City where all the landowners agree to work together to create a conistent community and there are places like my own Coniston where a single landowner owns a large area and effectively runs it as a private estate.

If all you want is a skybox, your best Mainland option is probably to find a location surrouned by abandoned land.

 

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SunnyBeacon wrote:

I vaguely remember from years ago that it was better to sell/rent your mainland land and rent an estate plot somewhere. I can't remmeber how that all works, or if it's changed since then.

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The free tier that comes with a premium account can only be used on Mainland or for Linden Homes, not on private estates. I suppose the idea was that you could use the income from your Mainland parcel(s) to pay rent for a private estate plot but that's not likely to work anymore since the Second Life real estate market has more or less collapsed. If you try to rent out, you'll be struggling hard to find tenants and if you try to flip land - buy cheap sell at a profit - you'll struggle to find buyers.

 

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SunnyBeacon wrote:

Can someone advise what our best course of action is for two premium members to end up with a 1024-2048sq/m estate?

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For an estate parcel? Just rent it. Rent from one of the big serious estate owners to minimize the risk of unpleasant surprises like sudden price increases and the sim closing down. But you have to be aware that even the most serious and reliable estate owner can't give you any guarantees how long you can keep a parcel that size. They can't afford to maintain half filled sims and once the number of tenants in a sim is too low, they have no choice but to evict the few remaining ones and close the sim.

For Mainland: Create a group with only two members. Both members deed their tier to the group (and get a 10% tier bonus when they do). Then when you buy a plot, make absolutely sure you buy for the group and not for yourself.

[Chic Aeon]

Along with Chin's comment on mainland and groups you could each also buy a 512 and then DONATE it to a group that you are both members of --- like a group you made for the purpose. That works too.  

 

If you are both premium then mainland is certainly the best deal and you would have no costs at all. 

[ChinRey]

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Chic Aeon wrote:

Along with Chin's comment on mainland and groups you could each also buy a 512 and then DONATE it to a group that you are both members of --- like a group you made for the purpose. That works too.

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Yes, that's what I'd normally recommend too since there's much less chance of accidentally clicking the wrong button and end up having to pay double tier for a month. But you can't use tier from two persons for a single land purchase that way. So unless you happen to find two adjacent 512 m2 plots to join, the only way is to donate tier first, then buy for group.

[SunnyBeacon]

This helps a lot. What we'll end up doing is:

Home: rented from a private real estate owner

Store: group our land and put it on a mainland.

Thanks!