Homestead Rental Third Party

[Shhy]

Homestead rental if I click to buy land from a third party"RGE Estates" but the land is owned byRich Grainger, who would I be paying rent to?

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You will not be paying LL.  If you buy the land of an entire homestead, most likely you'll pay the estate owner, unless it's a sublease, then you'd pay the primary tenant. You can find out who the estate owner is by looking at About Land under the covenant tab.  If the estate owner is different than the land owner it's a sublease.

I wouldn't recommend a sublease since it's a bigger risk than paying the estate owner.  If the primary tenant defaults on the rent you'll be evicted and won't get any money you paid back.  However if you proceed, check with the estate owner to make sure subleasing is allowed.  If not then look else where.

If you pay the estate owner it's pretty standard that you'll get estate rights and have access to the Region tools (and can even name other estate agents) so you can change textures on the terrain and control just about everything on your region.  Even if you pay the estate owner, do your homework and be sure it's a reputable estate prior to putting any money down. 

A super cheap price below what other's are charging may not be the best deal as it could be the owner is in distress.  There are plenty of homesteads for rent if this one doesn't pass muster.  In fact a lot of reputable estates will obtain one for you if the ones they have are all rented out and they feel you will be a good long term tenant.  So check around carefully. 

[Lindal Kidd]

From your closing question, "who would I be paying rent to?" I believe you are aware of this, but...

The only way to actually BUY a Homestead region is to 1) already own at least one full private region, and 2) transfer the ownership of the Homestead region from the current owner to yourself by both of you submitting Support cases and you paying the purchase money to Linden Lab to hold in escrow.  When the region ownership is transferred to you, the money is released to the seller.

When you "buy" a parcel, or even an entire region, in any other way, the estate owner still owns the region and pays the monthly land fee for it to LL.  You are renting from the estate owner, and paying a weekly or monthly fee to them, not to LL.

If you rent from another tenant who is in turn paying the estate owner, you're subletting.  It's possible to do this, as long as the estate owner permits subletting (check the Covenant.  If it's not specified, check with the estate owner.)  However, as has been pointed out, you're increasing your risk by increasing the number of people between you and LL.  You-->Tenant-->Estate Owner-->Linden Lab.  If any link in the chain fails to pay the next person in line, guess who suffers?  You are also probably paying more in this situation, because each person in the chain wants to take a little cut for themselves.