land for begginers

Hi guys
me and my partner are looking to buy a nice piece of land to build a house on.
It seems to be a bit of a nightmare.
It seems all the land sellers out tere dont take into consideration the 512sqm that you get when you join, and charge a tier for the whole plot.

Where do we start, how do you know how many prims to go for.

Is it better with or without a covenant


we have both donated our initial allowance to our own group and may consider some monthly ground rent to maybe double our joint allowance.

any pointers, how do we know if we are getting ripped off, or if there are any hidden items and costs

Thanks
Mark

You can only use the 512M tier you get for having a premium membership on Mainland parcels.

You still have to pay for the actual 512 parcel, but the maintenance cost for keeping it is covered in your premium fee. Which is the "free" 512.

You can contribute your 512M tier allowance to a group with another person and make a 1024M allowance group parcel with a friend.

You still have to buy the 1024 parcel, but the monthly upkeep is included in what premiums already pay.

You do need to make sure that you are looking only at Mainland to try to take advantage of this .. Covenant land is not included. Which you have noticed, but didn't know why.

For a 512 plot with no tier involved, you will need to purchase mainland, in my experience (which is very little), private estates will charge you a tier even for a 512 plot, you do not need to be Premier to buy from a private estate. Personally, I have bought mainland, a 512, I actually own that outright, never any tiers to pay, with private you do need to be more careful. The prims are not many, 117, but it does for my needs.

As for the prims, that all depends on what you want to do on your land, how big of a house, how much furniture etc. I have been renting a plot (1920) for about 4 months now, which is my home, has a very generous prim allowance (600) and that does me for my home and a base for my building, if I only needed it for a home, 600 is a few too many for me but renting to me on a private estate is almost like buying (just my personal opinion).

You have lots of options open to you, best advice .. don't rush into it! Good Luck

mainland, no tier no restrictions, start out small then move up. Anything smaller then a 512 is going to be to low in prim use to be useful, and it all depends on how large or how much you wish to put into your home base . Then there is PG & M (mature), for now pg plots are quit reasonable but also more restricted in what you do, no x activity but romance, kisses and cuddles are kewl.
Best of wishes and welcome to the in world, im me in world if you would like any help, always happy to help those new to the in world.

To find a 512m² plot on the mainland:

1. Click the "Search" button at the bottom of the screen.
2. Click the "Land Sales" tab.
3. In the first drop-down box, select "For Sale - Mainland".
4. In the second drop-down box, select PG or Mature as desired.
5. Uncheck the "Price <= L$" checkbox.
6. Check the "Area >= sq.m." checkbox. and enter 512 in the edit box.
7. Click the "Search" button in the window.
8. Click the "Area" column header so that all the 512s come to the top (or the "L$ Price" column header).
9. Pick an entry and teleport there to see if you like the land.
10. If you don't like the land, click the "Search" button at the bottom of the screen again and you'll go back to your search results.

--Hugsy

My standard suggestion for these queries is to get to know a bit about SL (mainland if you wish to use the 512 free tier someday, if not now) and the various types of sims. Even though things can and do change on SL, some sims have a certain "feel."

For example, do you enjoy the wide outdoors, green land type of sims, or ones with a more urban atmosphere (based on present builds)? Do you like water, beaches, certain themes? I've been in SL a bit over a year. I first rented a small apartment in a role play sim. That helped me become familiar with prim limits and how to decorate nicely on a prim budget.

My Partner and I have since lived on 3 sims - 2 mainland - each with their own "character." After renting on our current mainland sim for approximately 6 months and watching what was being built on the sim carefully, I went Premium and purchased some land in that same sim.

I am very glad I took time to familiarize myself with SL and its landscape, prims, how mainland vs estate land works (took me awhile to really understand that one), and see where I felt most "at home."

Good luck in your search.

There might be some useful info at land-answers.wiki.zoho.com .

Because private sim owners have bought the sim from Lindens and receive no subsidy for giving you free land.

As for how many prims, go and look at houses you like and the same for the furniture and see how many you will need. Then either adjust your expectations about what you can fit or buy more land.

A friend asked me to help her with a rental the other day which was advertised as 500 prims but they already had the house and trees and waves leaving about 260. That is somewhat deceptive and wasnt made clear in the info so do check if you in down the rental route.

I have a sim of DOUBLE PRIM 512's and 1024 parcels. They are rental only. No up front buy in.

IM me for further info. d'Alliez has been in business in SL for over 4 years.

Go to Youtube and hunt down user Torley

Do a search on their video page with "land"

Very helpful in hunting, purchasing, and setting rights.

Also up front: Remember to set the media so it is restricted to the parcel. This means that no one outside the boundaries hears your place's sound effects.

Wait, what are you saying?

People *don't* want to hear their neighbours wind chimes?

/me looks bemused

Oh boy, I wish I could mute them in RL

Seriously though, as a first time buyer I'd recommend buying a no covenant Mature 512 plot on the mainland. Or larger if you're combining 512's with a partner or friend. Don't expect to ever recover the initial cost as there is no guarantee land prices won't fall over time.

Alternatively you could rent a place. As a first time renter I'd recommend a place that doesn't charge an upfront cost and that lets you pay the rent weekly into a little rental box with L$'s. This is the easiest and lowest risk renting option. Pay for just a couple of weeks at a time. (My personal favourite place for this is Cariad).

If however, you are prepared to spend some time browsing this forum and other info sites to find out more about land buying and renting then there are other options. There are some wonderful places to rent and live and some amazing landlords out there. However there's a lot of info to absorb and sadly there are ways in which you can be ripped off. It all takes a bit of time to get your head around.

With regards to prim count, you will never have enough even if you own 50 sims But in my opinion a 1024 plot is a good size for a home. After a year and a bit in SL I've settled on 4096 being a good size for me, but then I'm a prim junkie!

Renting a house or apartment on a week by week basis, is the best option for newcomers I think. Rent a place that allows you to add your own stuff to any existing build; so you can learn how to buy small items and learn how to decorate a home in SL. And just to get used to the idea of living in SL.

When you've got the hang of it then look at something more permanent like buying or renting a parcel that you can fully build on and terraform. Like mainland and many private estates.

I've seen too many people rushing into buying mainland only to be confronted with a empty section and going umm! what do we do now. Several and more thousands of lindens later they go; gee that was a bit expensive wasn't it. When it didn't have to be. And even their best friends go; gee its still ugly after all that money you spent =)

OK, contrarian advice. Don't rent. When you are ready for land: BUY a 512 on mainland. I'm not telling you this because I did it. I'm telling you this because it just makes economic sense.

If you rent and spend say 100L/week that's 5200L/year (and I think this is a lowball figure but I could be wrong. I'm thinking of a house/apartment/plot that allows about 100-125 prims) 5200L/year comes out to $208.

If you buy a 512m parcel you can pay between 1800L and 2400L up front. (Look at the L land auctions or walk through Gaeta or other places with cheap land.) You will also have to buy a premium membership which does NOT involve tier at this level. The more cash you can swing up front the cheaper this is. If you pay yearly, a premium membership is 1800L per year. All told the land is about $8.00 and the membership is $72.00. You're looking at $80.00 versus $208.

That said, land is a long term investment, you you need to be an educated consumer. If you want to experiment with houses, there are free prefabs. There is also a whole industry of low prim houses, some of which are free. Second Life is full of sandboxes. You can build, set up, take snap shots, and then have to put everything away in inventory, but if you are going to have a 512 plot, you are still going to do most of your building at a sandbox.

Do lots of walking around. Learn the geography. Spend time in the sandboxes. All this is free except for a few dollars you spend to upload textures.

And 117 prims is a lot of prims. I still have half a bit less than half of mine left. My house (including platform, ramp, and door) is 7 prims. I've used another 9 prims for indoor and outdoor furniture. Most of my prims went to build a garden with bee hives. One of the great bonsuses of a premium membership is I can uploade a fair number of textures for free each week.

Well that's rather subjective. It's a lot if your aspirations are low or you don't mind having your purchasing decisions made for you but i can viol of one TV which is 41 prims. I have a patio set which is about 30 and a very entertaining toy which is 53 and that is already over budget.

So yes you can buy ultra low prim stuff and have choices made for you or the buyer goes and looks at what sort of things they would like and buys a plot of land with a suitable prim limit. If not they could soon end up with a jump of land they have grown out of in no time.

I lasted all of a half-hour on 512sm of land before realzing it was just not enough prims and immediately bought the adjacent plot of land. If you can afford it, I highly recommend starting at no less than 1024sm, which is still low-budget for prims.

Renting often can yield better results than buying, for less money. People who rent from larger landholders (half or full-sim mainland owners, grandfathered estates) will often get the benefit of their discounted price per prim. There are many places out there where you can get more prims than your 117 for the same or less than the monthly cost of your membership, even when taking the stipend into account. And it requires no large upfront payment, and no payment info on file. This is freedom and flexibility.

Buying your own land isn't a bad choice, but if you don't need all that, why should you? It just engenders a commitment that you might end up taking a loss on when you feel the need to move. Part of the reason why there is so much yellow on the map is because people don't want to take the loss on the land that they committed themselves to.

Anecdotally, I'm staring at a nice plot of land in one of the sims where I have land that is not selling, because it's priced too high for the market at this time. A few months ago, I would have seriously considered buying it at that price, but not now. Not when I can get a better deal in a different sim if I shopped enough. I made what I considered to be a fair offer in light of the market conditions, with room for a counteroffer, but it wasn't good enough. Now that person has to keep paying tier on the land long after they have moved. That's how that goes.

You've added a decimal place somewhere, 5200 Linden Dollars is around 20 US Dollars.

*laughs* I don't buy ultra low prim stuff. I build it. Then I go back and see what other people have done. My boxes of sculpties are my best friends on good and bad days, and when they don't feel like being my good friends, my texture collection is.

I still make a lot of clothes. Wearables don't add to the prim limit.

Prim constraints get you thinking outside the box.

Good for you building it. It's not for everyone either through lack of interest or lack of time. I for one would rather pay $2 for example for an exquisite dress for example than spend many hours trying to achieve inferior results.

If you want low prim, sure just rez a box, style isn't always what people are after either but 117 prims remains low..for many of us and of course i'm not just talking furniture. A sofa is one thing, then come the fun toys and bits of equipment that people may want. I love to leave a boat and a helicopter on my plot and at a low 29 prims each, that's rather a big chunk for toys.

Thinking outside the box would be "well don't rez them then!" and then i'd refer back to my previous comment, 117 prims is fine (for some) if you don't mind having choices constrained. People will always fill to their limit but then the difference is the choices you have in doing so.

Hi. My L$.02

My wife and I joined on July 6 and quickly desired a home.
We bought a "Free" 4096 lot from it's owner and enjoyed it for about a week.

It was a beach island in a region divided up in 9 square sections, we were on one of them.

We found a prefab house and really fell in love with it. It was designed to fit a 4096 minimum lot. After rezzing we still had a little beach on the front and side, but quickly ran out of prims half way through furnishing it.

The seller had a lot next door also for "free" sale and probably could have added that if wanted.
But we did some looking around and found a beautiful 8192 beach property elsewhere and paid L$150+Tier. It's a beautiful, "isolated" and extremely peaceful place with only one neighbor. We loved it so much that we immediately moved there off the smaller lot.

I suppose I could have tried to sell my smaller lot before next Tier but since the next lot was offered for "Free", probably couldn't sell it - and since we had no further interest had abandoned it.

So basically we wasted most of a Tier payment on the 1st lot - our first purchase (Or lease how ever one looks at it) and would have been better to start out with the larger one in the first place.

But we more than enjoy our little paradise and guess that's what it's about anyway.

-Zerock

Wow thanks Guys.
Normally on these Forums you either dont get a reply or some smart arse telling you to search the Forums.
You have all been very helpfull. I now understand it a bit more and have more things to think about.
Thanks Again
Mark

Above all, don't be too quick to buy land, or to pick up a monthly rental on a private estate either.

You can do very well in SL with NO land. Some people never have any at all. If you feel too rootless, then rent a place by the week. This will give you a feel for how land works, how many prims you will need/want, etc.

Meanwhile, explore. Especially, notice the differences between mainland (on which you pay a monthly tier to Linden Lab directly) and private estates (where you rent, usually on a monthly basis, from the estate owner)...both the differences in how the land works, and in how the place looks and feels. Estates tend to be quiet places with tasteful builds. Mainland tends to be much more freewheeling, but you may prefer a little craziness.

I am going through the learning process too Maka, and have found the search process In world a little hit and miss but today I just found a great outside site that shows pictures of the different lands as large thumbnails so its easier to find the terrain and style of area you're looking for! you've probably already figured this out but IM me if you want to know the name of it! good luck..

Hi Maka, Onagh

While I fully concur with what Lindal said about not rushing, as of last yesterday, i've just got some space on a lovely sim with great people all over and would be happy to show you around.