Homes

How does one go about purchasing homes here? So far, I cannot get any info, and I even went to "search" and typed in "homes for sale" and got no place.

Try houses for sale or prefabs, personally I'd recommend having a look at Coco's Cottages and Aces Spaces.

Barnesworth Anubis is good too, but there are lots and lots of choices.

Nigell, are you talking about the physical structure, or the land, or both?

These are generally two different issues, as people either purchase land on the Mainland, or rent land on a private estate...and then purchase a house separately. (some land might come with houses, but I'm not familiar with that)

First, you need land to put the house on.

Land may be "bought" or rented. (I put "bought" in quotes, because you don't truly "own" land in SL in the same sense you do in RL. Regardless of the terminology, you are really renting a bit of server capacity.)

Some rental land already has a home, or other dwelling on it, provided by the landlord. Search "rental properties", or use one of the big in world rental clearinghouses, like Rental Warehouse or Rental Advantage.

Or you could buy or rent bare land. In that case, you have three choices: Buy a prefab house and plop it down. Hire a builder to make you a custom home. Or build it yourself.

I recommend the latter. Building your own house is one of the most satisfying things you can do in SL. If you aren't familiar with the build tools, go to The Ivory Tower Library of Primitives and spend a few hours going through their self-paced tutorials.

There are a huge number of prefabs available, in all prices and sizes. One way to take a quick tour is to use http://www.xstreetsl.com and look in Marketplace/Buildings and Components/Residential Structures.

When buying a house, you need to consider three things: price, size (footprint)...will it fit on your lot?...and prims. If you are renting a lot and your landlord only gives you an allowance of 100 prims, you'd better not buy that 250 prim mansion.

Go to the Classified tab and type in 'residential' or try 'home'. You can rent a plot of land with a house already on it.


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I agree with this. But some people will have more appreciation for the lessons and resources of the Ivory Tower after they've put in some time building on their own. (And many don't want to begin their SL experience with hours of lessons.)

I'd recommend rezzing the free houses in the Library (go to Objects and Atoll Continent Stuff) and spending time taking them apart and otherwise modifying them. More freebie houses are widely available (type 'freebie house' in Search in the All tab; or go to a well-known freebie haven such as YadNi's Junkyard. Most freebie places will have one or more boxes marked Houses).

The time spent messing around with freebie houses will make the lessons of the Ivory Tower more relevant and interesting for the average newcomer to SL.

(And if you haven't yet bought land, type "sandbox" in Search to find places where you can rez houses and play with them.)

I recommend avoiding the rush to buy land and do what Ponsonby advises in sandboxes for a while. Although it's nice to have a home base to start and end your explorations /experiences, you don't really need a house or land to enjoy the virtual world, especially at first.

"A House Is Not a Home" Burt Bacharach