I hope this question is not too blunt.

I just upgraded to a premium account, with the intention of getting the 512m of land. I know its not much, but I plan to just live off of this for a while.

Anyway, I can't figure out, how do I choose where this land is? Is there any way to get it on a specific island, or does it have to be on the mainland?

Or, is there any way to rent off this land? How much would 512m go for?

Any answers are appreciated, thanks for your time!

First, if you're talking about the 512m 1L$-per-square-meter "First Land" that program has been discontinued. A premium account still gives you the right to own 512m of land without having to pay tier/land-use fees on it, but you will have to pay market prices to acquire the land. You acquire this land by looking for 512m lots in Search > Land sales, and make sure you choose the option for Mainland, as Island/Estate land does not count against tier, and you pay rent there to the island owners instead of Linden Lab.

You do not need a premium account to rent on islands; you only need that for purchased mainland. You CAN rent on mainland properties too, but that's handled differently from island rentals.

I very much doubt you'd have much luck renting off 512m (finding a customer would be your biggest problem), and you wouldn't even come close to breaking even on your premium fee even if you did find a tenant.

Alright, thanks a lot!

So, the main reason for upgrading to premium is to get rid of the monthly limit on how much $L you can buy?

I'm not sure what you mean by "live off of" your 512m. If you mean generate an income to cover your premium charges, then renting it out is not going to do it.

A better way to think of it is having a bit of land to build and decorate a home or whatever you would like to create and think of your premium charge as coming out of your entertainment/hobby budget.

If you have the skills you can create content and set up a store on your 512m land and then you can possibly cover your premium charge that way.

If you can identify why you want to buy land, the forum regulars might be able to better direct you on how to shop for land.

Okay, sorry if I wasn't too clear. By live off of, I just meant put a house there and call it my home, thats all.

Nope, you still have trading limits with premium. The 512m² of tier, the stipend and access to some more support options are what you get.

Then yes, 512 is a good size plot to start with. There are freebie houses and nice prefabs you can buy designed for this size.

Okay guys, thanks a ton for the help! I'll go pick up some of those freebies and find a 512m plot of land to rent.

Both basic accounts and premium accounts have the same trading limits. Limits increase automatically depending on how much time has passed since your first transaction. If you do a lot of buying/selling of L$ you can request a limit raise.

Here is the schedule of L$ trading limits:
http://secondlife.com/currency/describe-limits.php

No, the primary reason to go premium is to own land. You need to be Premium to buy mainland or to buy an island.

It used to be that the amount of stipend you got with your premium account (L$500/week) more than paid for the cost of your premium account if you chose the yearly plan, versus month-to-month, but at the current rate L$300/week, you're better off being Basic and buying your Lindens off the exchange, unless you want to be a landowner. There are many who believe there should be more benefits to premium accounts.

Right now the big gap is between people who have a credit card on file and those who don't rather than who's premium and who isn't.

Now that you are premium, you can buy a 512 on the mainland, not just rent one. Search Land sales and select the For Sale: Mainland tab. Then sort by price per meter and start looking around until you find a plot in an area you like. Right now the cheapest land is around L$7 per meter.

Seems to me that one could break even or perhaps a little better paying Premium membership on the Annual plan (works out to US$6/mo), collecting the L$300/wk stipend, and renting out the bonus 512. Using L$265 / US$, ignoring currency conversion fees, and ignoring cost of capital to buy the land, break-even rent for that 512 would be L$67 per week. Maybe it would take a little effort to find a renter, but that seems like pretty cheap rent for a 512.

7 a sq.m? more like 5.1968

Hi Archaedin -

I think you're getting caught on a very common terminology problem for new Second Life landowners.

On Second Life, you are said to "own" land if you are paying the monthly fee for it to Linden Lab, and to "rent" land if you are paying a regular fee for it to someone else. (In the real world both of these would be called "renting" because you would pay no fee at all for land you "owned", but in Second Life the terminology is slightly different.)

Your Premium membership gives you the ability to "own" 512sqm of Land - that is, your Premium fee includes within it, the monthly fee for 512sqm of land. If you "rent" land (from another resident) then you will be wasting your Premium membership, because you will still have to pay the fee to the other resident - you could have done this without being Premium.

What complicates matters a bit further is that although you'll be paying your monthly fee to Linden labs, you probably won't actually buy your land from them - Linden Labs generally only sell land an entire region at a time, and other residents then divide it up and sell the smaller sections on to other users. So you'll buy your land from another resident, but you will only have one transaction with them, after which your Premium fee will continue to pay the monthly fee for the land to Linden Labs.

So, what you need to do is to find a 512sqm area of land on the mainland, and Buy it. (To make sure that the land is on the mainland, choose World -> Region/Estate -> Covenant and the Estate Owner - what most people in the real world would call the 'landlord' - should be listed as "Governor Linden", ie, Linden Labs) You will have to pay the asking price that the current owner is asking, and your Premium membership unfortunately doesn't help with this (except by giving you the stipend). Once you have done so, the land will be yours for as long as you are a Premium member with no fees above your Premium membership.

I can't find anything like that in land search for a 512.. I see 6.6 and 6.7 but they are mostly smaller than 512 plots.

Where did you get that figure for mainland 512 or larger?

Hi, Archaedin!

This recent thread on how to live on 512 land might be of interest to you:

/327/69/254601/1.html

Indeed, I will buy it at that price. I am seeing most decent (not great) parcels at between 7 and 8 per m2.