1. Losing land by selling it to a person other than the intended buyer.
Symptom: You have a plot of land that you want to sell or give to a friend. You put the land up for sale to them for a reduced price, but leave the "sell to:" box set to "Anyone", since there is no-one else around. Before your friend even has a chance to click, the land is instantaneously bought by a stranger, and put back on sale at a higher price. You have lost your land.
The problem: Remember than "Anyone" in the "Sell to:" box does really mean Anyone. Anyone will be able to buy your land, even if their avatar is not present there. Many land traders will be constantly monitoring the Land Sales Search for any parcels that are available under the going rate. Some will even run automated systems to do this for them, which can react faster than any human user can, so you will be guaranteed to lose your land if you put it for sale at a low price to "Anyone". Make sure to set explicitly the name of the person you want to sell to.
2. Being betrayed by a landlord on a rental or private estate.
Symptom: You buy a parcel of land on a private estate under a covenant. A few weeks later, the estate disappears entirely; or you are told that the private estate has been sold to a new user, who no longer wants you there. You are summarily evicted.
The problem: When you buy land on a private estate, you are completely under the control of the owner of the estate. (The same applies to renting land on the mainland. If you are not paying your monthly fee for the land directly to Linden Labs, in real money, then you are renting.) If they fail to pay their tier fees, or change the rules, or evict you, then Linden Labs will not take any action on your behalf; although you might be able to take legal action against them yourself, this is completely untested in any real courtrooms, and may be an expensive process. Many estate landlords are excellent and completely trustworthy, but there are always a few bad eggs around. Make sure to check the landlords' reputation very carefully before buying rental or estate land.
3. Going over tier by transferring land.
Symptom: You and a friend decide to exchange two 512sqm land parcels. You buy their land parcel, and they buy yours. The following month, you receive a tier bill higher than you expected.
The problem: You are charged tier based on the maximum amount of land you owned during a month, even if you only owned it for a split-second. If you wish to transfer land between two users, this can be done via the use of a group without either user needing to exceed their tier.
4. Putting tier contribution into a group that does not need it.
Symptom: You have a group which owns 512sqm of land. You abandon or sell this land, and then deed a new 512sqm parcel to the group. When you deed the new parcel, you click the Owner Makes Contribution with Deed box as you deed the land. The following month, you receive a tier bill higher than you expected.
The problem: Selling the original 512sqm does not remove the 512sqm of tier that was supporting it from the group. The tier remains in the group ready to support the group's future land purchases. If you click Owner Makes Contribution With Deed, Second Life interprets that as your intent to add another 512sqm of tier to the group to cover the new land, even though the group didn't need it. This puts you in the 1024sqm tier and you are charged the higher fee. Make sure to always check the group settings before deeding land to a group, and ideally, avoid using the Owner Makes Contribution With Deed box at all; manually put tier into the group, via the Land and L$ panel on the Group window, before buying the land.
5. Buying "waterfront" land next to void water.
Symptom: You buy a nice piece of waterfront land on the edge of the map. A few months later, your land suddenly ceases to be waterfront; a new area of land appears where your waterfront once was!
The problem: "Void Water" is the term for areas that look like water on the map and screen display, but are in fact only drawn that way because they are beyond the edge of the map; in fact, there is nothing there at all, not even water. These areas look tempting at first, but Linden Labs regularly adds new land to Second Life by extending the existing map, and so the water will probably not be there forever and may not even be there for very long. Before buying waterfront at the edge of the map, or on an island estate, always check by trying to fly your avatar over the water area. If your avatar seems to hit an invisible wall before being able to fly out over the water, most likely that water area is actually void water, and may be filled in at some point.
