Your2ndPlace

Monday to Friday last week I was a wizard, complete with wizard garb in three different colours, an ineffective wand though. Then on Saturday I went casual for the weekend, this was of course a mistake but I wasn't to know how big a mistake.

Sunday, I'm minding my own business when some git bites me and turns me into a vampire! Well that was it, I'm playing bloodlines now and I'm coming to a sim near you soon. I even had to go to bare rose to get a new outfit, this was after I'd been to The Abyss to get a new skin.

Now my take on vampires has always been that they go after virgins, so I eyeballed the Second Life landscape and realised I'd better get myself a 10L tank of blood because finding a needle in a haystack is always problematic.

Blood of course brings me nicely into the main meat of this update, the land market, which was described by someone the other day as a "Bloodbath" (did you see what I did there?). Well known owners are apparently abandoning ship.

An extremely reliable source informs me that "People in Concierge are offering sims for $450-500." . The temptation to buy is actually strong, but despite my love of gambling I'm going to stick rather than twist, I have my most serious poker face on.

There's something not right about the current land market. Yes it is summer, yes there is always the traditional slowdown. However AnsheLand has a worrying shade of yellow that isn't induced by the sun.

Yet there is a shining light. Now before I say too much about this shining light I should point out that there are times when I want to stab this estate owner with a spork, and what makes that all the more worrying is that he's a good guy. We sure as hell won't be on each other's Christmas card lists, there's something wrong with the chemistry between us (and naturally I blame him because I'm loveable aren't I and never stir the pot).

Yes I salute the man who makes me keep faith with the land market, Mr Desmond Shang, whose wonderful Caledon empire is expanding not shrinking. Caledon is full and has a waiting list and although the expansion may see that waiting list evaporate, the very fact that he still has a waiting list in times of the spread of the yellow mist proves that if you work hard and have a good community you can make the land market here work for you.

Obviously everyone can't be Desmond or create a Caledon but there are lessons to be learnt. I'm a hands off landlord, that is I keep my hands off the women tenants because their husbands chase me off with shotguns ...hahah no no I mean I'm hands off in so much as I give my tenants a little bit of information and then generally just roam around seeing if they want me. Some tenants don't like this approach, others love it and I do have a lot of long term tenants. Someone told me once that the knack to renting estate land is to get a high turnover because you keep getting the chance to sell your plots again. I disagree vehemently with this for two reasons, one I don't sell plots and two it costs advertising revenue when people leave.

I like my long term tenants and I like the guys who come back to me and ask if i've got anything available after they've left me, because it makes me believe I'm doing something right. I'm far from the best landlord around and my holdings are small which means I can manage my estate and mainland holdings reasonably well. I just have to beat my minions now and then to get them to do a bit of work for me.

The point is that Desmond exemplifies that the rental market is alive and although it's not so well, the added value he provides has cushioned the blow. Yes yes I know, how can you not get on with Desmond, he's wise and wonderful, I'm the pantomime villain, boo if it makes you feel better. Just remember, not only am I wizard, I'm now a vampire too!

So yes, there is a slight feeling of panic in the land market but there's also the danger that we will talk ourselves into a crisis. People need to show some backbone and hold their nerve.

Openspaces have of course caused problems for the market. Everyone seems to want to jump on the openspace bus. This is one area where I'm damn glad I get charged VAT because it was the VAT issue that made me wait, having to pay an extra thirteen dollars in tier meant I didn't rush in and watching this unfold I'm really glad I didn't. There's a mentality in Second Life with some people that upfront private land costs are bad, which I can understand because if an estate owner bails you're up a certain creek without a paddle. However when I see people in the classifieds asking for openspaces but demanding they are a certain price to rent "because they know how much you guys pay" it makes me worry. I'd only get one for someone if they paid the upfront fee and with me, that's going to include VAT so it isn't competitive.

I do expect to see a lot of tears and anger over openspaces, $75 a month tier a month is a lot of money for some people to leave a lot standing empty. Even half of that is going to make some people get twitchy, and as openspaces have exploded I feel a crash will come. Too much space is at the root of the current land twitchiness.

Now I've also discovered something this weekend that is very popular in Second Life, the Amethyst collar. Why has everyone been hiding this from me? I'm having great fun leashing people! Next I'm going to find out more about the MLP carpet one of my tenants has got, I'm told that's a popular creation too!

Now I'm off to listen to Kina Babii sing live at the LBN theatre because she rented from me for all of two weeks! See, I'm nice like that ;)

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