Tier Free Land??

This weekend I spoke to someone about possibly buying his land. I asked him what the tier is. He said there is no tier because it is mainland. I was ready to sign up for a free account, pay the man, and have my little piece of land........ Then, someone else told me that is not true that there is tier on the mainland.

So, I ask all of you highly knowledgable people. Is there any land in SL that is tier free?

Hi, Mara. Welcome. The only land that is tier free is your first 512 plot of land. You have to be a premium member to own mainland, but you can buy a plot of 512 and pay no tier on it. You would only be paying your membership fee every month, quarter or year, whichever option for payment you prefer. You can rent land on an island without being premium, with or without an initial "purchase" price set.

If you have a premium account the first 512m2 of mainland is tier free

If you have a free account you cannot even buy land on the mainland


Renting or "buying on private islands of course is a whole other story

I hope this helps

He was lying. If you own mainland you must be a premium subscriber, and you must pay tier for all land that exceeds your first 512 square meters. In a sense you could call your first 512 tier-free, but you're still paying your subscription fee, so personally I don't think that counts as free.

All private islands must pay tier as well, but only the person who owns the whole island pays actually pays LL. Any other "owners" on a given island have to pay the island owner. The premium subscriber's "free 512" doesn't apply to islands, but then again, you don't have to be premium to live on an island either.

How much is tier on the mainland if you want more than 512 sqm? Let's face it! That ain't much! What if I want 1024 sqm or 2048?

I have 1536 and pay about 18 bucks a month I think, gives me a nice chunk of land and around 340-ish prims, which I haven't used all of yet.

How do I get this mainland land?

Although this is resident Answers and most residents would be happy to answer, in this case you clearly have not read up enough and researched the SL site where all the relevant information you are asking can be found.

http://secondlife.com/whatis/landpricing.php

Thank you. Here's my next question: Is it worth it? Right now I'm renting 1024 sqm for approximately $8 a month. If I'm reading that land pricing chart right, it would cost me $16 a month to own the same amount of land.

Owning your land gives you a few more choices on how to manage it. Mostly in dealing with griefers, trash-prims, advertising, and setting your TP point.

Renting is cheeper, and you can be forced to move on no notice with no recourse. However, if you like your landlord, and your local, then why move?

Most landlords will work to accomidate renters to varying degrees. For most, this is no problem and works fine.

So basically, it comes down to security. Do you feel secure staying with you landlord? Do you trust him/her? Do you like where you are living currently? If you answer yes to all those, then why pay more for the same thing?

If you want the security of knowing you only answer to LL, then buy your land yourself. With this comes the headaches there though. Tier is only one. OThers are what to do if ad-cutters move in. With renting, you can simply pick up and move, or (more than likely) the landlord owns enough land in the area to prevent such in the first place.

Either way, I highly suggest renting for the time being and learning more of land and how it works in SL before even thinking of paying anyone for land. Land is a big step, and one not always needed.

~Jessy

What is an ad cutter?

Here's what I've been thinking about. When my roommate and I first decided to move in together, we looked at a lot of places. We noticed that we couldn't seem to find a place that was as big/nice as we wanted for anything under 900L. So, we rented the land, bought the house of our choice, and moved in. I can copy my house over as many times as I want to. So, I was thinking of buying land and re-rezzing the house a few times over and renting it.

Plus, that security of not being able to be kicked off the land is a big plus. I mean what happens if my landlord can't make tier next month? My roommate and I will be out in the cold.

1024 would be 14.95

9.95 for premium and 5.00 for the extra 512. SO if your renting for $8 you are better off.

Of course youd get 1200L a month if you were premium.

so it would be 14.95 But getting $1200L back for 1024 of mainland.



Also never pay anyone directly for mainland. Buy the land using the land tools. Lot of scammers out there.

Ad cutters cut plots into 16m squares and sell advertising space on them. They are the ones responsible for the ugly spinning ads you see everywhere.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach

A species of slime in SL that buys land, then chops it up into 16sqm parcels, sells them to people who put up ugly, rotating ads to annoy the neighboring landowners into buying said 16sqm plots for large sums. Usually in the 5000-10000L$ range.



Well, as you really don't need land in SL, tis not that big a deal to be out inthe cold *chuckles* However, if you're that concerned, you could look at the long-time landlords (I'll mention Desmond here) that have been around long enough that it's quite clear they are going nowhere soon. Not saying this is what to do, but as an option to think about.

~Jessy

That is when I right click on the land to buy it, right?

Someone who buys an otherwise nice piece of land, cuts it into 16sqm plots, fills them all full of ugly adverts then puts them up for sale for extortionate prices like L$10,000 each, in the hope that people will buy them just to get rid of them.

Essentially, griefing.

Broccoli

Yes. Just be sure there is no covenant on the second tab of the about land page, otherwise it's not mainland.

Then there are those who sell their islands to other people and give the tenants a week to clear out...

Only one catch, it can last for 2 months only, but then again it can last much longer. Even over the minimum period of time its a opportunity to try 'having' land. The island is called Sinniq SIM 1.0. Join the group through group search for SIM 2-0, get the blog site link from there, read about it and apply if your happy with the terms.

The only other catch is that everyone is 'happy' with the terms when they join, but god I get a hell of a lot of abuse when they have to go, but then again, that at least stops me feeling bad!

Yes, there are those that do not care for their tenents as wellas they could, Oryx. It's why I mentioned Desmond. (I'd mention his rental property if I could remember the name. Darn CRS!) With his rep and amount of land, I'd rent from him in a heartbeat.

That being said, I do own my own land *chuckles*

~Jessy

If you buy land that is gray, how hard is it to turn green?

You can't. Not on the mainland.

Is there anything you can do to improve it? I'm looking at a hilltop proprety that - well, it's not really gray - more like marble pink. It looks the least like a junk yard of any place I've looked at.

you could lay down prims that are textured with one of the many terrain textures in the default library. Costs some prims, but if done well can look quite convincing.

The gray represents rock. Some people call it granite but being a geology geek, I can't call just any old rock "granite." Just make a nice modern place, or a rustic cabin type place. Not everywhere in SL has to have palm trees and oceans. Revel in the diversity!