From box to first tenant.

Before you start

1. Unpack the box. Rez the VelvetRent box and touch it, or wear it where you can’t rez. A VelvetRent Rental System folder (with the version, e.g. v1.3) arrives at the top of your inventory, and the rezzed box removes itself; you keep the box in your inventory.
2. Open the dashboard at velvetsys.com/dashboard and log in with your avatar. The VelvetRent menu appears there once your first meter or box connects.
3. Every item connects to the dashboard by itself when you rez it: there are no codes or keys to type.

Rent Meter and Rent Box

The meter lies flat on the parcel; the box suits skyboxes and homes. They work the same way.

1. Rez it on the rental. Second Life asks you to let VelvetRent Refunds take L$ from you: accept. It is only used for refunds you approve on the dashboard.
2. It connects and shows Available. Touch it and choose Config: a one-time link opens that unit’s page on the dashboard.
3. Set it up on the unit page:
   • name and group, weekly rent, the minimum first payment and the longest prepay (up to 8 weeks);
   • grace days after the rent runs out, and whether the rental then ends by itself;
   • prim allowance, and Land size in sqm (shown as “Land Size: 8192 sqm” under Prims, on the Land Sign and on your website);
   • Land description, shown on your website only;
   • hover text while rented, Accept payments, extra prims to sell, bonus time and promos.
4. Saved changes reach the unit in-world within seconds.

Your touch menu: Refresh, Status, Config; Reserve (hold it for someone) or Lock (take it off the market) while it is free; Evict while it is rented; Delete. Add time, remove time, reset and refunds are on the dashboard.

The plot is somewhere else? The meter can stand in your office: set where the plot is on the unit page, and vends, the website and teleports go to the plot.

What tenants do

• Pay the meter or box (buttons for 1 to 4 weeks; any amount buys exact time). The rent goes straight to you. After their first payment they get your rules notecard and any move-in gifts; the touch menu has Info, Rules and Landmark.
• Tenant menu: Time left, Pay, Co-tenants (add people who may pay and get the reminders), Hover On / Off, Prims, Leave, Won’t renew, Remind Off, My page and, if you offer them, Extra prims and a group invite.
• My page is their own read-only page: time left, prims, payments and a teleport to pay. The link is also in every reminder.
• Visitors touching a rented unit can join the waitlist; when a unit of that group frees up, the first person waiting gets it held for them.

DropBox

1. Rez the DropBox anywhere (one is enough for all your regions).
2. Drop in your rules notecard, a landmark and any move-in gifts. Make them copiable.
3. On each unit page, under Items from your DropBox, pick which rules notecard, landmark and gifts that unit gives.

Until you set one up, a unit gives the notecard and landmark in its own contents.

Reminders and grace days

• Tenants get IMs before the rent runs out and when it does, each with their My page link. Change the texts under Settings; tenants can switch them off with Remind Off.
• When the rent runs out the unit is Overdue for its grace days, then the rental ends (unless you turned that off on the unit page; then it stays Overdue until you evict or they pay).
• You get an IM from the unit when someone moves in, pays, runs out or leaves. A bot of yours can send all of these instead (Bots page).
• Refunds: approve them on the unit’s page, from its list of payments; the unit pays them back. A payment to a locked unit, or one with Accept payments off, is refunded at once by itself.

Vends

1. Rez a Vend 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8 (one, two, four, six or eight maps). It connects and appears on the Vends page.
2. Choose which units it shows (all, a group, a region or units you pick), the order, and how often it turns the page. Only units that are free, priced and taking payments appear.
3. Show hover text on the Vends page, or Hover text in the vend’s own menu, turns its floating text on or off.

Visitors touch a map to teleport, get the landmark or open the unit on your website. When everything is rented they can join the waitlist from the vend.

Website and Kiosk

1. On Website & kiosk, pick your address (velvetsys.com/rentals/your-name), title, logo and colour, and which units it lists.
2. Rez a Kiosk: its screen shows your website in-world. Each kiosk has its own row on that page with its own filter and landmark.
3. Kiosk buttons: LANDMARK gives the landmark you chose, WEBSITE opens the site.

Land Sign

For estate land where the tenant buys the parcel and owns it while renting.

1. Rez a meter or box for that parcel (in your office is fine), price it and keep it Available.
2. Set the parcel for sale in About Land at a token price, e.g. L$5, to the avatar who asked (land bots buy cheap land set for sale to anyone). Don’t sell the objects with it.
3. Rez the Land Sign on the parcel and pair it with that unit on the Land signs page. It shows the rent, prims and land size in big digits.
4. The buyer becomes the unit’s tenant with the rent due. Once they pay, the sign removes itself. If they don’t pay within the grace days you’re told to reclaim the land.

Prim Counter

One counter in each region with rentals. It counts every tenant’s prims (co-tenants included) on their parcel every 5 minutes. Over the limit, the unit shows OVERPRIM and the tenant gets an IM.

1. Rez it. It tells you by IM what to do on that land.
2. Land you own yourself: no need to deed it. Touch it, choose Set perm and accept.
3. Land owned by a group: set the counter’s group to that group and Deed it (Edit > General). Then a member of the group’s Owners role touches it, chooses Set perm and accepts. Second Life refuses anyone else.
4. The hover text shows Online once it has the permission. Check it on the Prim counters page.
5. To return a tenant’s objects when their rental ends, tick Return the tenant’s objects on that unit’s page (off by default). Someone who still rents another of your units in that region is left alone, and you’re told.

Managers, bots, branding

• Managers: invite people with a Velvet login and tick what they may do (units, tenants, refunds, settings). They get the landlord menu on your items too.
• Bots: add up to 10 of your own bots (VelvetBots, SmartBots, a SmartBots Group Inviter or Corrade). One sends the tenant reminders and your notices by default, and any unit can use another one. Each group invite choice names the bot that invites tenants into that group; a Group Inviter only invites, it can’t send messages.
• Branding: your own logo and textures on the meters, boxes, vends, kiosk and Land Sign, and on your rentals website.

Updates

1. When a new version is out, the dashboard shows a banner listing what is older, per region.
2. Click to Deliver sends you the Update Ball.
3. Rez the Ball in each region and touch it: Update updates every meter, box, vend, kiosk and Land Sign of yours there. Tenants, time and settings stay as they are.

A deeded Prim Counter can’t be updated by the Ball: rez a new one, deed it, Set perm, and delete the old one.

Moving, missing items, importing

• Delete an item from its touch menu or the dashboard: it removes itself in-world. A rented unit has to be emptied first.
• An item not heard from for an hour is marked Missing. Nothing is ever removed by itself. Rez a new one and choose Replace on the missing one: it takes over its tenant, time and settings.
• Moving a tenant to another unit keeps their time and payments (unit page).
• Coming from another rental system? Use Import on the Units page to bring your tenants over with the time they have left.

Questions? IM Wiz Windsor in Second Life. About VelvetRent