Want Lower Tier? Now You Can Get Grandfathered Land Rates!

In November, we lowered the set-up fees for land purchases by 40% . Today, were introducing a limited-time offer that will make land even cheaper by allowing you to lower your monthly tier payments (aka land maintenance fees).

From today until October 4th, 2016, you can buy-down your Full Islands and/or Homesteads to the grandfathered maintenance rates . By paying a one-time fee up front, youll be entitled to lower tier rates on your land for as long as you hold it (and remember, we now also allow transferring grandfathered land ).

The pricing for this offer is as follows:

• Full Island:
  • One-time buy-down fee: $600
  • Grandfathered maintenance fee: $195/month (regularly $295/month)
• Homestead:
  • One-time buy-down fee: $180
  • Grandfathered maintenance fee: $95/month (regularly $125/month)

Note: This offer cannot be combined with our Education and Non-Profit discount program , and cannot be applied to Skill Gaming Regions.

If you plan to hold onto your land for longer than 6 months, this is a great deal for you!

To take advantage of this offer, youll need to submit a Support Case using the Land & Region -> Region Buy Down case type. In that case you can provide us with the names of the regions you would like to buy down, and we will assess the appropriate buy-down fee per region.

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

updated by @tatiana-dokuchic: 26 Sep 2016 12:46:49PM

First reaction was - alleluia! - As the terrible exchange rate with USD is making me fork out nearly 500 NZD each month (which is a huge amount for a student). But on the other hand I wonder what the performance is like on a grandfathered region.

As a Canadian, I certainly feel your exchange-rate pain. My guess is that the performance will be exactly the same.

If you're planning to stay in SL for more than 6 months, I believe this is a good deal. I've just converted my regions & I'm looking forward to lower tiers.

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

OMG - brain is fried.

I been back through several statements calculating what LL has been charging me with AUD comparing to what I would have been charged with USD by using the exchange rates from Amazon purchases around the same time. The difference it around 9-20 NZ bucks a month depending on the exchange rates that month.

I also used live chat with LL and phoned the bank. LL said it was the bank making the double currency conversion and the bank said it was LL. LL live chat is closed for the day so I have to wait till tomorrow to phone them up. It's a small amount but I like to know who is actually charging me what.

That's concerning, I've never tried to verify mine. Tell us what you find out.

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

Our own concern about this is one of equity. Those who have surpluses in real-life savings accounts should be able to do their buydowns immediately, but those who have been struggling to meet current tier will have to struggle even more to save up their lump sums. Those who must struggle hardest to cover current tier will end up paying as much as double the buy-down sum because they will be paying extra months of high tier. Therefore, the buydown will tend to benefit the well-to-do more than those who are struggling - the very people the policy supposedly is intended to help. Those who will benefit the most will tend to be those who least need the reduction.

I suppose the historical precedent of "rich get richer" is well-established, but I wish Linden Labs had framed the offer with more effective regard for those who are under real-life economic pressure.

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Antiquity Hedgewitch

I actually prefer to see this as a "glass half full" kind of deal; I'm going to benefit (eventually) and I certainly wouldn't include myself in the "well-to-do" category. The lump sum payment was hard to swallow but in a year I'll be that muchfurther ahead.

LL has always given an advantage to the large landlords with discounted rates(I'm not criticizing just stating a fact)and I doubt that this new offer is meant to help those that are really struggling. My guess is that they ran the numbers and figured out the best way to maintain more of the "middle class". So far, according to the weekly Private Estate counts it seems to be working.

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

Yes, and I'll be buying down MarieGalante's tier with part of the signing bonus members of my union will be receiving on their April 30 paycheques. However, the fact that a later contract signing would have meant another few months of full tier (with a slightly smaller pay packet!) is a bit souring. It underscores exactly the question of how much regard LL has for large chunks of its client base. Of course those who can afford it are buying down now, and of course LL's real concern is for its own profit margins, but more careful attention to customer relations can pay off, too.

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Antiquity Hedgewitch

Ok after a chat session, a phone call and two support cases later I found out on my own what was going on. Tucked away in the Knowledge there is a sentence that says

"The currencies accepted for paymentinclude:

You would think information like that would be put in a place where people can actually see it :p but basically if you dont live in a country with those currencies their system picks the closest country that they do accept and converts it.

Thanks for the update, Claire-Sophie.

At least now we know what's going on. I can swear they're still doing something funny with the CAD so I'll keep watching.

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Proprietress of Tatiana's Tea Room ~ Owner of the Provence Coeur Estate ~ Webmistress of this site

And now, of course, we have the news that our land impact allowances will be increasing at some point in the coming weeks, with no accompanying increase in tier.

Certainly I will have no trouble finding a use for the increase on MarieGalante (the island's slopes and forest floor are barer than I like), and Jacon is fairly rubbing his hands now that we have the estate's grandfathering looked after - Buckingham is delightful as it is, but still has some unfurnished rooms crying out for primmage!

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Antiquity Hedgewitch