auto-lease v3.x Instructions
From Apez
Contents |
Introduction
Thank you for choosing Apez.auto-lease for your space leasing and management needs!
If you're new to the auto-lease system, you may consider reading the Setup Guide first - which includes background information and a step-by-step guide on initial setup (with pictures).
In order to take advantage of the online configuration, you'll need to sign-up for an Apez account (if you haven't already; it is free). Just teleport to Apez HQ (search for "Apez" in the map) and you'll see ATMs at which you can sign-up.
Overview
In order to lease space, such as a parcel, mall space, office, apartment, home etc., you need to rezz an auto-lease somewhere in the space where it will be clear to prospective tenants which space the unit is leasing.
When rezzed, the auto-lease unit will register with the Apez system. You'll see a "Registered" message in chat once that it complete and then that unit will be visible from the web-site lease.spaces page. If you delete it in-world, it is important to delete it from the list online too (explained below).
The auto-lease will display a "for lease" sign (see picture). There are a number of themes to choose from and you can also use your own textures (more on that below). When a prospective tenant touched the auto-lease it will show some of the lease information in chat (such as the price etc.) and will also display a pop-up menu (the User Menu).
The menu allows the person to start a new lease (or extend a current lease if they have one active), via direct debt of their Apez.bank account, or they can simply right-click and Pay.. the auto-lease L$ from their SL account. It also allow tenants to terminate their lease and other options.
Once a lease has been started, the auto-lease moves up and reduces its size to the small info-box state (as shown in the picture). The size and offset of the vacant and info-box prims is configurable. While the lease is active the tenant can touch is or check online to see how much time the lease has remaining. They can also pay the unit, use the Extend... user-menu option or go online to extend the lease and number of times (but limited to the maximum lease duration set).
If there is a non-zero maximum overdue period set, then once the lease time expires the unit will go into an overdue state. By default the "space overdue" sign is displayed (although there is an option for it to stay in the info-box state when overdue). When in this state, the tenant must pay enough to bring the lease current in addition to one additional time-unit in order to continue the lease and return it to the normal occupied state. For example, if the lease is by weeks and is overdue by a week, the tenant needs to pay for 2 weeks to continue it (and it'll then have 1 week remaining). Another person may 'take' the lease by paying it (or using the menu) to start a new lease (it behaves just as if a new lease by that person was started when it was vacant). There is an option to disallow overdue take-over, so that either the tenant must bring the lease current or it will terminate and become vacant once the maximum overdue period is reached.
When a lease is active, the auto-lease will keep you and the tenant notified. The tenant will be notified several times as their lease nears expiration and then when it expires (becomes overdue or terminates). If overdue the tenant is notified continuously until they extend or the maximum overdue period is reached. You'll also be notified of expirations, terminations, extensions and of course new leases.
By default, the lease payments are credited to your Apez.bank working account, but you can select any of your accounts. You can also select the special "avatar" linked account to have all the payment remain with your avatar in-world. In this case no transaction will show on your Apez transaction history, but payments will still be logged on the lease.logs pages.
Important: In order for the auto-lease to credit your Apez.bank account it must pay all payments to the Apez.bank funds-holder avatar, currently "Apez Mann". It requires in-world debt permission for this to function.
Setup
This section breifly covers how to setup your auto-lease with the most common settings. For a more detailed, step-by-step explanation, see the Setup Guide.
First, if you haven't already signed-up for an Apez account, do so using any of our in-world ATMs. Next, go to the place in-world where you wish to lease space(s) and rezz one auto-lease there (it is named "Space #1" in the Apez.auto-lease Kit inventory folder - which is only a suggested/default name).
Wait until the unit has registered online and then touch it and use the "locname" menu option or chat command to change the location name from the default "Shops" to something suitable for your area (e.g. "MegaMall First Floor" (the location name can also be set online, but it is easier to set it in-world once at first because the site lists spaces by location).
If you have many spaces to lease with the same or similar settings, the easiest approach is to configure one unit correctly first and then copy the settings to many others. How to do that is explained below.
Online configuration
Spaces list
Login to the Apez site if you're not already and navigate to the lease.spaces page using the menu at the top of the site. You'll see your space listed in a table as shown in the picture.
Several of the basic settings can be modified simply by directly editing the fields in the table rows and then pressing the "update" button to update the database. All of the detailed settings for a space can be edited by clicking the Edit action (the paper/pencil icon). We'll go over the basic and advanced settings on that page next and then return to the space.leases page to mark the space for copying to other spaces/auto-lease units.
Settings
After you click on the Edit action icon from the spaces list page you'll be presented with many detailed settings for the particular space and lease (see picture). Each setting and option has a small help-balloon icon, which if you hover your mouse pointer over briefly will describe it. The settings are as follows:
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The name of the space. This is also the name of the auto-lease object itself (and can also be changed by simply editing the object name. The name is used with the location name to uniquely identity your space - both to you and your tenants. Although any name can be used, it is recommended that the name end in "#n" where n is a number that is different for each space in the location. That way, the unit will function with some of the other add-on devices that identify spaces by number. The Setup Guide has more tip about naming your spaces. |
| Location name | A name for all of the spaces in a given location (which has no relationship to position or regions in SL - a location can cross a sim boundary, for example). For example, "Mega Mall". If you want to further subdivide your spaces you might choose to use location names like "Mega Mall Floor 2", "Mega Mall Floor 3" etc. |
| Rate | Both the monetary rate/price and the time-unit option appears on this line. The time-unit can be either hours,day,week or month. The amount specified is per/time-unit. For example, L$50 per week. If you just enter a number in the rate field it is assumed to be L$. If instead you prefix the amount with $US then the rate is set in US Dollars. It is still displayed for tenants in L$, but the unit will automatically convert from the set US$ amount to L$ based on the current LindeX L$ to US$ exchange (and will keep it updated as the exchange rate changes). |
| Leased by | This is the tenant's name if a lease is currently active (including if overdue). When no lease is active, is displays "VACANT". You cannot terminate a lease by entering "VACANT" into the field - you need to use either the terminate or vacant action icons at the top for that. However, if vacant, you can create an active lease simply by entering the tenants name into the field. |
| For | This is the remaining time on the lease (if active). If it is overdue the time will be negative. You can edit this directly. Inputs such as "2 months 3weeks 2 days 13hours" are accepted. The different units can be in any order or omitted, a space between the number and unit is optional and any numeric amount is acceptable. For example, "100hour 3weeks 2days" or even just "18373hours" will also be accepted. You can also prefix the field with "+" or "-" to add or subtract time from the current value. For example, entering "-2weeks" will reduce the remaining active lease time by 2 weeks. |
| Prims | The maximum number of prims you want to allow the tenant to use. This is informational only and cannot be enforced by the auto-lease. The only way to enforce prim usage is to parcel the land so that each space is one parcel (which has a limit determined by the parcel size). The auto-lease can count the number of prims currently in use by the tenant if it is owned by the parcel owner. That count will be displayed for the tenant and on the spaces page. The auto-lease kit also comes with a handy stand-alone prim counter. |
| Min {units} | This is the minimum number of time-units that a new lease can be for (hours,days,weeks or months depending on the time-unit option). It can be zero. For example, if the time-unit is "week" and this value is 2, a person much pay for at least 2 weeks to start a new lease. Once the lease is active it can fall below that duration as it nears expiration. |
| Max {units} | This is the maximum number of time-units that a lease can be for (hours,days,weeks or months depending on the time-unit option). Neither a new lease not a current lease can have the remaining time greater than this duration. Attempts to pay for more time will be refunded. |
| Max Overdue | This value specifies how long a lease that has expired can remain active in the overdue state until it terminates and becomes vacant again. Set this to zero if you want leases to immediately become vacant upon expiration. You can use input of the same form as Leased by - such as "4 days", for example. Once overdue, if the tenant wishes to continue the lease they must pay enough to bring the lease current in addition to one time-unit period. For example, if a weekly lease is 4 days overdue, the tenant will be required to pay for 2 weeks to extend. When overdue you can choose if the auto-lease displays a "Space Overdue" sign or stays in the info-box state just as when the lease is current. You can also choose if the lease can be 'taken' by someone else when overdue. If you choose 'allow take-over', another person can start a new lease, hence immediately terminating the tenant who's lease was overdue. This encourages tenant to keep their leases current. Alternatively, you can choose to only allow the tenant to extend - in which case no new lease can be started until the maximum overdue period expires and the space becomes vacant or the tenant explicitly terminates the lease. |
That covers the settings you'll likely want to change initially. Some of the other settings used to find-tune the behavior and appearance are described below. Most of them can be left as their default values until you become more familiar with using the auto-lease.
Once you've changed the setings as desired, just click the "update" button to submit your changes to the server database.
To learn how to copy the settings to other auto-leases, skip to the copying section.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Reserved for | You can reserve a space for someone in particular. When vacant, simply enter the person's name in this field. Once reserved only that person will be able to start a new lease. If the lease becomes overdue it cannot be taken by someone else. The reservation will persist until you remove it (by clearing this field) - even after the tenant's lease expires. |
| Init Free {units} | This is the number of time-units that a tenant receives free when starting a new lease - as a bonus. For example, if the time-unit is "day" and this is set to "5", then upon starting a new lease the tenant will receive an additional 5 days above what they paid for (which must still be more than the minimum). This can be zero. When it is non-zero, by default, the auto-lease displays an alternative "Space for Free" sign instead of the usual "Space for Lease". |
| Lock | If locked, the auto-lease will not accept any payments (nor can any be made online). It can be locked when a lease is active, in which case the lease will eventually terminate as usual since the tenant won't be able to extend it. When locked you can also choose which state the auto-lease is in if vacant - either the info-box state (the default) or showing a "Space Unavailable" sign instead. |
| Lease payment | When a lease is active and current you can choose if only the tenant can pay to extend it or if anyone can. If only the tenant can extend it, then payments by other residents will be refunded with a message indicating they're not the current tenant. If overdue and allow take-over is enable, another person will still be able to pay to start a new lease. However, if you choose to allow anyone to pay to extend the lease, it will be extended on behalf of the tenant regardless of who pays it. The exception is that if the lease is overdue and allow overdue-take is enabled, when another resident pays the auto-lease they'll be given a choice between extending on behalf of the existing tenant or taking out a new lease for themself. The user menu will also allow debiting from their Apez.bank account using either "Lease..." or "Extend...". |
| IM level | Selects the level of owner notifications you receive from the unit. One of "Verbose" (everything), "Informational" (the default), "Quiet" or "None". |
| Chat output | When the auto-lease is touched, in addition to opening the owner or user menu it also displays some information about the space and lease state in chat. The exact information displayed depends on who touches it. The owner always sees all the information. The tenant can see their remaining time and their prim count. Anyone else can only see that the space is occupied and by whom. Much of the same information is also displayed in the pop-up menu, so you can disable the chat output if you wish. |
| Contract | If enabled (not set to "none"), residents are offered a contract notecard that explains the basic lease contact. You can choose either "location contract" or "in-unit contract". If "in-unit contract" is selected, the notecard present in the contents tab of the auto-lease unit is given upon request. You can edit that notecard, but the disadvantage is that if you need to change it you'll need to make the changes in all of your auto-leases separately. If you select "location contract" the notecard you selected from the location settings page is given instead. That can be any notecard in your Apez.vend inventory, such as one in any permanently rezzed iServ in-world. An iServ is supplied in the auto-lease kit. |
| Revenue sharing group | If you'd like to share the lease payment revenue with other people, you can select one of your Apez groups here. From the groups page you can create as many groups as you may need and set the percentages for each member. Every time there is a lease payment the revenue will be divided among the group members according to the percentages you set (or evenly if you don't set any). Note that revenue sharing only applies if your linked account isn't "avatar". |
| linked account | This is the Apez.bank account you'd like all of your lease payments to go into. By using an Apez.bank account you have the possibility to organize lease revenue into different accounts dependend on the spaces it comes from. You can share the revenue with any numnber of other people via the revenue sharing group, withdraw it at any time, exchange it for other currencies or even setup recurring automatic payments to yourself and others. If you select the special "avatar" account, lease payments will be left with your SL avatar in-world instead (in which case it can't be shared, saved, exchanged etc.) |
| Hover text | If you'd like some information about the space and lease state shown using standard 'hovering' text about the unit, you can enable that with this option. You can also choose the text colour. This is the kind of SL text that keeps the same font size regardless of the viewing distance. If you have many objects that display hover-text it can clutter the SL client screen and become confusing - hence you may wish to lease it disabled in that case. |
| Apperance | These options allow you to choose if the auto-lease prim is slightly translucent (so that it doesn't completely obscure the space you're leasing when vacant) or solid looking like normal objects. You can also choose if it is brightly lit or only passive - such that it will be very dark at night. It uses the "fullbright" SL texture property - so it doesn't contribute to lag by actually casting light onto other objects. |
| Vacant image | This option allows you to select the sign texture shown then the auto-lease is vacant. You can choose any of the provided themes (shown in the thumbnail) or select any appropriate texture you have in an iServ permanently rezzed in-world. An iServ is provided in the auto-lease kit. Alternatively the texture can be changed by replacing the one named "SpaceForLease" in the auto-lease's Contents tab in-world (keep the name the same). |
| Overdue image | This option allows you to select the sign texture shown then the auto-lease is overue. You can choose any of the provided themes (shown in the thumbnail) or select any appropriate texture you have in an iServ permanently rezzed in-world. An iServ is provided in the auto-lease kit. Alternatively the texture can be changed by replacing the one named "SpaceOverdue" in the auto-lease's Contents tab in-world (keep the name the same). |
| Free image | This option allows you to select the sign texture shown then the auto-lease is vacant and thee is a non-zero Init free period set. You can choose any of the provided themes (shown in the thumbnail) or select any appropriate texture you have in an iServ permanently rezzed in-world. An iServ is provided in the auto-lease kit. Alternatively the texture can be changed by replacing the one named "SpaceForFree" in the auto-lease's Contents tab in-world (keep the name the same). You can also choose to make this the same as the "SpaceForLease" sign. |
Copying
Once you've setup one space the way you'd like, you can easily copy those settings to many others. First you'll need to mark this space as the source for copying at this location (or any location if it is the only one marked). To do that, select it on the spaces page by clicking the check-mark box at the left of the row and then clicking the "mark" button. The row will be highlighted to indicate is it marked. To clear a marked space, just click "mark" without any spaces selected.
Now, rezz more auto-lease units in-world at the location in other spaces you wish to lease with the same settings. Once they've all registered they will all appear on the spaces page - probably under the default "Shops" location name (select it now). Since we only have one unit marked, we could proceed to selecting the new spaces and using the "copy" button now, but later on you may have other locations with other spaces marked; so we'll set all the new spaces to the same location first.
To change the location name of many spaces on the page, select them all (perhaps by using the select all) then enter the location name in the field titled "Location Name" in the "Apply to selected" section just below the spaces list. Then click the "apply" button so that it applies that setting change to all the spaces you selected. Note that when the page refreshes the spaces may no longer be in your list - you may need to click the new location link in the Your locations table at top to see them.
Once the new spaces and the initial space we previously configured are all in the same location, we can copy all the settings to the new spaces. Just select all the spaces you'd like to copy the settings over (either by using the selection check-boxes or using the select "All" button - it doesn't matter if the marked space is also selected as the copy operation will ignore it, as it doesn't make any sense to copy itself). Then just click the "copy" button. The changes will be immediate on the site, but, depending on how many spaces you copied the settings into, it may take a minute or two before all the auto-leases in-world get updated.
That's all you need to do to copy settings from space to many others. In this case the space was vacant (no active lease), but the copy operation actually copies the whole state of the space - both settings and any lease related information is a lease is active. It doesn't copy the space/auto-lease name (or it would get very confusing).
The auto-lease in-world "Advanced.." owner menu also has a "mark" option to mark that space as the copying source and a "copy" to copy from the marked space to that unit.
In-world configuration
Most of the settings and lease management functions available online are also available in-world via the auto-lease owner menus and/or chat commands.
Some times it is more convenient to make settings changes for a space or lease in-world. If you have many changes or want to make the same change to many spaces/leases it is usually easier to do it online using the "Apply to selected" section on the lease.spaces page.
Settings
As the owner, when you touch the auto-lease it will show a pop-up dialog menu - the owner menu. Once the menu appears, the auto-lease is now in settings mode where it will listen for menu options and also for chat commands. You can exit using the "done" option or by entering done into chat. It will automatically exit settings mode if inactive for a short time. Be careful if you have several auto-leases withing chat/hearing range in case you've left one in settings mode and it acts upon commands you enter into chat when you intended them for another unit.
Probably, the first setting you'll want to change is the location name using the "locname" menu options. Just click the menu button and then you'll be prompted to enter the location name into chat. For example, you could enter "Mega Mall Superstore" into chat on the line by itself. As with any menu options, they are also chat commands which you can enter directly without using the menu. Once in settings mode you could just enter "locname Mega Mall Superstore" to achieve the same thing.
Any changes you make in-world will be propagated to the Apez server so that they update on the web-site (a page refresh may be needed). Depending on the status of the grid, it is usually only take 20-30 seconds, but it may take much longer if the grid is experiencing issues.
If you're setting up your first auto-lease space, go ahead and set the location name (locname), timeunit (e.g. hour,day,week or month), min and max lease time-units, the prim limit and of course the price.
A more detailed description of the various settings is given in the Online Settings section above.
Copying
In order to copy one space's settings (and lease information if there is a lease active), you first need to mark one of the spaces/auto-leases as the source for copying. You can do that by opening the Advanced owner menu (choose the "Advanced.." option on the main user menu that pops-up on touch), by selecting "mark". There can only be one marked space per location. Go ahead and mark the auto-lease you just configured, if you haven't already. Also select "done" to ensure the settings mode is exited.
Next, rezz another auto-lease at the same location in a different space that you want to lease with the same (or similar) settings. First, set it's location name as you did previously - using the "locname" menu option or chat command. Now, go to the Advanced user menu and select "copy" and the auto-lease will take a copy of the whole state of the currently marked auto-lease in the same location. You can continue to use the same method to duplicate your settings to as many other auto-leases/spaces as you need.
Promoting your location
Once you've setup your spaces for lease, you'll want to let people know what a great place it is to attract tenants! Obviously you can use many of the common promotion methods, like web banner advertising (for example through our subsidiary SL Marketing which hosts the largest site advertising network for SL). However, another great way is to have your location and spaces listed right on the Apez lease.find pages. From there potential tenants can browse for a space to lease and start one right from the page. Many tenants like to lease only from the Apez.lease network so that all their leases around the grid are easily managed from them from one place (the lease.leases page).
Management
Once you've setup your spaces to be leased, the system mostly takes care of itself. You'll be able to use the lease.logs page to see a history of new leasing, extensions and terminations. You can use the same facilities you used to setup on the the lease.spaces page to perform common tasks required to run your leasing.
Here are some common tasks you may need to perform and how to achieve them:
Adding time to many leases at once
Perhaps for a promotion or for compensation, you may sometimes want to add a fixed amount of time to a number of leases - perhaps all in a specific location. That is easily achieved from the lease.spaces using the Apply to selected section. Simply select all the leases you want to extend, then enter the time you want to add, with a "+" prefix into the "Leased for" field - which will indicate you wish to add that duration to the existing lease times. For example, to add 2 week and 4 days, just enter "+2weeks 4days" or equivalently "+18days". It doesn't matter if vacant spaces are selected - it will have no effect on them. Then click the "apply" button. As usual, the effect in the page will be near immediate, but, depending how many leases were selected, it may take a few minutes for all the auto-leases in-world to get the updated time.
Note that you can also subtract time by prefixing with "-". For example, to remove 1 day and an hour from several leases, just enter "-1day 1hour".
Deleting many spaces from the site
Some times it happens - through auto-return error, land ownership changes or simulator rollbacks - it can be that many auto-leases you had rezzed in-world all got deleted at once. In order that they don't show as being available for lease or extension online, you'll want to delete them all from the site database. If you plan to replace them, you might want to rezz replacement auto-leases in-world first and then use the copy function to copy all the leases over to the newly rezzed replacements. To delete many spaces online, just select them and click the "delete" button. Once deleted, they cannot be recovered (so if you're not sure, use the CSV export link at the bottom of the page to save the lease information first). Don't worry about hitting the "delete" button by accident - it will prompt you for a confirmation.
Sending a short IM to all tenants
You can send a short IM to all your tenants in a given lease location (or all locations) using the connect.IM page's group IM function. You'll notice that there are special virtual groups with names like "Tenants at Shops" in the group list (in addition to any of your explicitly created groups). Note that people cannot reply to these IMs - since objects in SL cannot receive IMs - though they may actually reply in their IM window it won't go anywhere unfortunately.
Sending an item to all tenants
Sometimes you might like to send a seasonal gift to all your tenants. Using the vend.give page you can send any item contained in your vend.inventory to all your tenant in a given lease location or any location. Notice the groups list contains special virtual group with names such as "Tenants at Shops" in addition to any of your explicitly created groups).
In order to have an item in your Apez vend.inventory, you'll need to have it contained in an iServ item-server which is permanently rezzed somewhere. The iServ is included in the auto-lease kit, but is also available separately (free) from the Apez.shop.
Further information and assistance
If you run into any problems and need assistance using the auto-lease system, first try looking at the auto-lease and Apez.lease Documentation on the Apez Community Wiki. You night also ask on the "auto-lease users" and "Apez users" groups in-world. Failing that, you can open a help ticket from the Support page to ask our support staff for help.
Once you're an expert with the Apez.lease service, feel free to help out other residents by contributing your own tips, tricks etc. under the Resident Contributions section of the Wiki.
Thank you.
