Advice for first land purchase

I'd like to get the 512m2 land that came with my membership.

Does anyone have suggestions for an infohub, or location to settle in?

I prefer a quiet area. My interests are graphic arts, business, technology, cats, walking, reading.

Any other tips on acquiring my first piece would be appreciated.

Hello,

Landprices have dropped by almost 50% these last weeks, and they will go lower without a doubt, you can find this new price parcels to the North-East on your map (the new continent corsica which is not fully on the map yet), its to be expected that land on the other continents will become cheaper too, so My advice at this time would be to wait for another few weeks, while checking the map for locations you might be interrested in, till you find the right parcel at the price you like.

there's a 512 for sale in my sim right next to an art sim and cool environmental bubble.

check out Shark. prices seem higher than folks here are pushing for tho, but not unreasonably high.

The first two pages of search>land sales have a lot of bargains right now. Make sure you have the For Sale: Mainland filter on. Do some browsing...you will find a plot you like. It's a great time to buy. Prices are the lowest they've been in a year.

Plus, just keep in mind that you don't actually GET 512 m free... you just don't have to pay tier (like land tax to Linden Lab) for that first 512. Any more than 512 and you start getting charged.

look at alot of places
search the entire sim and all the boardering sims
see what your neighbors are doing and what the area is really like
i bought a sweet lil 512 plot and so did my best friend so we could do our shop together
then a neighbor bought up all the land around us and did a laggy mall
luckily i was able to talk him into buying our land at a profit to us since it was becoming slowly unusable to us

i have now downgraded and am just renting land for a home while moving in rl

Spend lots of time looking, it took me about 2 weeks of daily looking before I decided on my initial parcel, but prices were a lot higher then too. Other considerations-

If you think you'll want to expand (hint- many many many people expand after a few weeks/months to at least a 1024, it's cheap.) look and see if there will still be room once you get the itch, and see if expansion areas might be reasonably close by. If you move into the last lot in a specific sim it may be great, and you may find yourself unable to expand when you want to. By the same token, it's considered a generally bad idea to be the first or second person into a sim after it's opened- you might be surrounded by idiots.

Get into a sim that you can pronounce/spell the name of. Seems simple enough, but I've had 2 ars bounce back at me because I always try to add an extra r in Sva(r)varsson and the Lindens can't find the area >.<

Remember to leave a little space open for trees when you settle! Sure you can fill your land from parcel edge to edge, but a great view out of big windows is amazing and most people don't need as much space as they tend to buy in a home. Personally, I live in a 10x10 studio but that's a lot more extreme than most people can tolerate- I don't need a bed, kitchen, bathroon, etc. I've got an absolutely amazing view from inside though, even with spinners next door, and floor to ceiling one way windows. (Search "Rainy Day" in places if you'd like to see what can be done on a 512 lot- come down the hill and across the street from the store to my workshop)

Before you even think about buying land though, go read every page of the Knowledge Base you can find links to land,land sales, land management, group land, tier, selling land, tiering up/down, and anything else you can think of to search for while reading those links.

Why do I say this? Land is a big issue in SL and mistakes can cost you big time in RL USD. Knowing what you're going into first can prevent this.

Point of fact: I've owned land for a year and a half. I recently sold off some of the 16m plots I bought (to get rid of some ad farms), but I didn't get the L$ for the sale. Though the land did transfer correctly.

I submitted a Support Ticket to Billing (it was only 336L$ but was my 336L$ lol). I recieved an answer within a few hours telling me of a fact I never knew. "If you sell group owned land, the proceeds are split amoung those in the group that have the 'pays group dividends' ability checked off. These proceeds may take up to 24 hours to process."

Even though I was the only one in my group to have that ability set, the transfer of L$ still took 24 hours (after which I did recieve it).

My point being that even after 18 months of owning, and working with, land, I still learned something new about the intricacies of the workings of land/L$ within SL.

Read those links. Then come here and ask questions about things that are not clear, or that you want to know about.

The time is well worth the loss of headaches in the furture.

~Jessy

Jessica, i sure didn't knwo that. thanks. lots of good advice in the last 2-3 posts.

This is all good info. I have read all the Land-related articles in Knowledgebase. I didn't really title this thread correctly. It should have been "Where to live?" Having said that, everything touched on here is most helpful.

PS: If anyone has a spare "Patience" object, I could use it...lol

Spare? ROFL Mine broke about 20 years ago and I'v enot found replacement parts yet

As to where to live? Ummm....where ya wanna live? Beach, mountains, by a lake, grasslands, volcano, city, rural suburbs, in the sky, on top of old Smokey all covered with cheez......errmmm.....nm that last one

Seriously, the options are limitless. I live in a semi-developed area near an unfinished roadway. Sorta as much in the country as I can get without buy a huge tract of land or my own island ^.~ But anything you want to find is out there.

Stock up on the patience though. It took me 3 months to find my plot.

~Jessy

What kind of land are you looking for? that'll probably affect your choice more than anything else. Can't find a beach in the mountains or a river in a plain. ^.^ Really anywhere will do for a newbie as long as it meets your expectations! Corsica is dirt cheap, older continents cost more but may have prettier established areas. I love my sim, but if I didn't I'd have moved. >.> That's probably the generic response. If you're feeling in the mood for green land with a very slight slope (most plots are terraformed flat for convenience), no water, a linden road down the middle 10L/sqm and neighbors who like trees- Svavarsson is a nice place to be. Lots of room to grow still and several 512's. There are a lot of other good sims out there though =)

My advice would be to buy your mainland piece of land touching as much linden labs owned protected land as possible. This way you wont have to worry about neighboors on that side an it makes your land seem so much bigger having an empty area touching you rather than being boxed in by your neighboors.

Remember to actually check that protected land is called "protected land" and it is owned by a linden.

Protected land is land that is usually never put up for sale but remains owned by the lindens. It is used for things like roadways (which they usually just leave as grass) and for water for boating.

There is plenty up for sale now.

The best way (I think) is to use your map. Click the option to display land for sale (it will turn the plots yellow on your map) and be prepared to invest a few hours scrolling around your map and teleporting to see the various parcels. It's well worth the time investment. Do this on the mainland areas (there are two older ones toward the south-central part of the map -- you can pick them out by their density -- and a new set of mainland coming online in the far eastern part of the map -- you can tell that by all the $ signs there once you enable the display for sale).

There is a lot on the market now and more mainland sims are coming online in the east, so that should continue. While it's probably true that parcel prices will continue to drop, if you don't want to wait, the land is there at good value (I think).

1. you get what you pay for. imo youre better off spending 8/m on an established sim than 6/m on a new sim. this is probably less true for a larger 4096, but its certainly true if youre shopping for a 512.

2. turn on property lines. you will be able to see the sizes of the plots around you, locations of linden roads, adgrids, which land is for sale and which isnt, etc.

3. take somebody with you if you can.

I have looked at a few spots now. Most are surrounded by unsightly developments. I did find a nice new spot that the owner has arranged like a chessboard, squares alternate between open water and land, so you have a little space around you. But there was a monthly tier of L$1500, which I assume is in addition to any tier I pay direct to LL.

I like the idea of a piece on the mainland surrounded by protected Linden-owned property...now to find some.

I'm still open to any other suggestions, regions.

Have a great day everyone.

if you are paying tier to live on an estate you do not need to pay tier to LL.

OK, thanks, Nina, that's good to know.

That's why I said to have the For sale mainland filter on in search. so you are not confused as to whether you are looking at a mainland or an estate plot. You can also just look for estate land. But remember, as a premium member, you don't have to pay tier on mainland for just a 512 plot.

I'm pleased to report I did find a nice 1024 on Adrift. I want to buy the adjoining pieces, but have maxed out my monthly account limits (in only 4 days).

Anyway, it's a great feeling to have your own spot to relax. I have a sandy spot right next to the water with a nice view. Now, to learn how to build on a slope - that should be fun.

Hi guys,

I'm looking for a mountain area with residential feel...not commercial..would like to have land up high with good view..any suggestions for sims?

Sorry for posting again so soon.

I've been scrolling around the map at:

http://www.secondlife.com/apps/mapapps/homepage_map

It's great for overall view of the areas. But I can't see the sim or region names on it.

Is there a way to view the sim names so I transport there in SL?

Not on that map, no (as far as I know) plus it seemeed to be out of date when I looked at it yesterday, the eastern continents were not on it.

many of the sims auctioned off in the last few days have mountain terrain and will have plots that will be inexpensive once brought to market. Start here, tp to one of the new Corsica sims and start flying around: http://secondlife.com/auctions/closed.php

I am only 1 day old in SL and already finding myself looking for a parcel. But There are a couples questions that I can't seem to get answered.

1). Do I have to have a premium account to OWN land?
1a). If not, can I buy land from LL, or an invididual? or do you have to buy from an individual if I want less than a whole region?

2). Are the regions kind of arranged like our real world continents? Like most American's own in regionX while most British own in regionY, etc.?

3).An entire region is really expensive for a "game". Can rentals, etc. REALLY pay for the monthly tier charge?