Land Ownership vs. Renting or Leasing
When you buy land within Tato Estates, you actually own the land. It’s a mistake to think about this as a rental. Your ownership is very different from a rental in many important ways:
Owning land means:
- It’s just like owning land on the mainland, except the quality of the land is much better (there are rules in place to ensure a certain quality of experience on the land e.g. no red bars allowed, no garbage in the sky, no griefing or disturbing the peace, etc.)
- You buy the land for a price and sell the land for a price to whomever you want whenever you want for whatever amount you negotiate
- It means that you control ALL of the objects on the land without being a member of any special group (i.e. no group tags required by the estate in order for you to place your objects on the land; you don’t have to put up with any objects, design, or terraforming that the landlord had put in place).
- You can deed the land to a group and control the permissions associated with that
- You have access to all the land controls (name, description, object controls, options, media, terraforming, etc.)
Owning land in Second Life is a joy. You can build all kinds of things on it and have parties and do hobbies and show all your friends.
What is land ownership? It’s when you take responsibility for the land. You control it. You handle the monthly payments. And you get to sell it. You acquire it through a purchase. Each month or week you pay tier on it.
What is a lease? A lease is where you take ownership of the land, but you don’t have to pay a purchase price. Instead, you only pay a monthly fee. You don’t have the ability to sell the land.
What is renting? Renting is when you don’t have control of the land. Instead, you have permission to put your objects on the land and live there. Someone else owns the land. Typically, you pay the land owner a weekly or monthly rental fee.
What is “tier?” Tier is one of the most confusing words in Second Life. It means the amount that a land owner pays on a monthly or weekly basis to retain ownership of the land.
Why do I pay tier when I bought the land? Doesn’t ownership mean that it’s totally yours? Within Second Life, everything costs money on a monthly basis because it’s on the internet. Like electricity, you may have purchased the electrical equipment to wire your house in real life. However, you still pay the electric company for your ongoing use of electricity. Second Life is the same way. You may own the land rights. You can resell the land. But no matter where you go in all of Second Life, you will always make a regular payment for the land you own. Otherwise, the lights get turned off.
