What do you suspect for the future of Islands?

[Sonof Marvin]

As many of you know a few months ago you could buy any region, and grandfather it back to 195 tier. This is something that I hadn't seen done in nearly 10 years.. I along with many others jumped on it, and am very happy with my purchase.. I wish I had more disposable cash at the time to get more.. But I ended up with 2..
I know LL isnt going to give any hints here without an official announcement.. but what do you think the future of islands is?
Do you think we will see a return to 195 tier for all regions, Or was that truly a one time only deal? I would imagine the sales during those 6 short months of buying down regions LL's sales skyrocketed

Unfortuneately because there ARE so many 195 regions now, Those with 295 regions hoping to break even are finding themself out of business now..

.

Do you think they will offer a deal similar in the future again?
What are your thoughts on how LL will do regions from here on out?
Considering the prim bonus we all got unexpectedly recently, Do you think there are more surprises in store?

 

Love to see everyones opinions on it... Although I don't know for sure, I dont expect to see another BuyDown sale any time soon if ever. But it sure would be great if they did have another one.

[Alwin Alcott]

The numbers you mention about prices are only for the smaller landlords and single private sim owners.

The bigger estates have different price agreements with LL, so you don't know what they actually pay for the maintenance fee.

Perhaps it's 195 ?....

I think quite some small or single sim owners actually díd buy down the fees.

The ones that didn't will indeed perhaps get out of business.... but with their excellent way of giving customer service perhaps a lot of residents won't mind to pay a couple of dollars more.

When you love your sim, and live there with 10 residents ( most have more) will be only 2.50 a week at max.

And if the simowner now uses the higher primlimit to give the users a bit ánd makes the sim very attractive, it will perhaps not even make a huge difference.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

FIrst you are assuming that most sim owner's decided to pay the $600.  But I haven't seen any statistics that say that is the case.  Not many people have $600 sitting around.  Many people bought their sims from other owners and didn't even pay that much for the sim to start with.  I also think you are making a huge assumption that those paying $295 tiers still are going out of business.  Again no statistics are available that paying $295 vs $195 is the sole reason a sim goes off line.  All you could have heard is rumors or it's wishful thinking on your part because you don't want the competition.  

Just because a sim owner took the buy down offer doesn't mean they lowered the rent they charge their tenants or even will in the future.  Tenants don't know what the estate owner pays unless told by the estate owner.  LL won't divulge the info. Many single or small estate owners struggle to make ends meet or just break even.  If they invested the $600 to buy down the tier they would need to make that back first before even considering it.  Some won't lower it at all so that they can at least build a healthy reserve against leaner times or turn a small profit.

Not everyone wants to rent land from a bargain priced small estate.  Personally I find it a bit risky since these are the kind of estates that seem to fail by failing to pay the tier even though they collected the rent.  There is also a market for luxury in SL.  Some estates offer exceptional extra benefits or terrific customer service that some experienced residents are willing to pay more for.

A small estate owner that pays $195.00 tier may still be at a disadvantage compared to what large and very large estates pay since no one but those estate owners and LL know what rate they pay.  They may have gotten a more advantageous deal than that offered to small estates.

LL may offer the buy down again in the future if they need to raise capital. But there is no telling if they will or not or even when.  Maybe it will be tomorrow, maybe never. 

[jwenting]

And of course he doesn't take into account that larger land owners possibly/likely already were getting discounted prices simply as a bulk discount.

No clue what the discount would be, but a 10% discount for someone owning 100 full regions or 250 homesteads (for example) isn't something that in a normal business would be out of the ordinary.

As to smaller estate agents, I've had my full of their shenanigans. Even if they're reliable in paying LL, they often end up making life a pain for their customers.
More than once was I bullied off of my home parcel by a landlord/lady who wanted to raise prices and simply made life miserable for existing renters so they'd leave.