Advice for first land purchase

1) To OWN mainland, yes. You can rent mainland or estate land without a premium membership.

2) No. There is no method to the mainland madness.

3) God, I hope so. I just bought a full sim for rentals.

So when I go to some "real estate agent" in-game, what are they selling me? They say I don't need a premium account and I don't want to get taken being as I'm a newbie.

edit:
by the way - what's the difference between a full sim and a 'region'? Or are they the same?

1) Yes, to own mainland. You can also 'purchase' from island owners without a Premium account, but as far as LL is concerned you don't actually own that land, so you don't have a lot of recourse if something goes wrong. Private islands generally also have covenants which restrict what you can and cannot do; mainland doesn't, but that also means your neighbors can do whatever they want too, and you may not be happy with the results.

1a) You buy from an individual or group unless you purchase an island or bid on an auction for a full sim.

2) No, not really. Islands often have a 'theme' and mainland sims could as well if a person or group owned large parcels in a given area, but there's no deliberate divisions beyond that.

3) Depends...some people are more successful than others. I certainly wouldn't expect it to pay for itself right off the bat, though.



If you don't need a Premium account, it's island/estate land. And sim=region.

What do you get out of owning a premium account (other than ability to own land)? Is it worth it?

300L/week stipend and better customer service access. Also, you don't have to pay tier (maintenance fees) on the first 512m of land you own. Works for me, but there are definitely those who differ. Being so new, I'd probably suggest forgetting about buying for now and maybe just renting a little place until you're more familiar with SL.

Land without a premium account means they are renting you land (either on their private estate or on the mainland). You will not own it and they could concievably boot you off at any time. Renting from Ninjaland is a safe bet. They are reputable folks.

Thanks, Ann!

And Millbar Maggs, sorry for temporarily hi-jacking your thread!

Hold on a minute, if you buy estate from a reputable landlord you own it as much as you own mainland. If you break the rules you can get kicked off estate or mainland. The difference is that LL are the most reputable landlord here. However you can "Own" land in the SL sense on estates.

We have been through the semantics on this a million times on this forum. Unless I do something blatantly against the TOS or don't pay my tier, the mainland that I paid for and is in my name is closer to ownership than "owning" estate land that I can be booted off of for any reason by the estate owner.

And a reputable estate owner won't be booting you off for any reason. If you have a reputable landlord, the philosophy is exactly the same. It's certainly not "Renting".

So then if I "buy" from a landowner other than LL, can I sell it to anyone, or do I have to surrender it back to the land owner if I don't want it anymore?

You're not the owner-of-record to our overlords, though, so it's not exactly owning either.



Usually, but sometimes you have to have pre-approval from the estate owner. Also, remember that, no matter where you buy, you'll have to pay additional monthly fees in the form of tier. There are pros and cons to both mainland and estate living.

True. That's why finding the right estate owner is key. But any estate owner has the ability to boot you. If they run into financial or health problems you could lose your land. One less degree of control is all.

What if you are a premium member and buy land off an individual? Do you then truely 'own' it?

If it's mainland and you pay your tier, yes. But if you get ejected from the game for some reason, it will revert to LL with no compensation to you. Same thing if you fail to pay tier.

Or, I should say, you own it as much as you can own anything you can't physically touch or take out of the game with you. It is virtual, after all.

In each case what you are buying is the right to hold land and pay tier. Neither is "true ownersjip" like real world ownership is, really. The difference between island ownership and mainland is that, in the case of island parcels, you are one step removed from LL (it's the island owner who "owns" the island as far as LL is concerned), while for mainland parcels, you have a direct relationship with LL. That makes a big difference in terms of risk, because while an island owner always has the ability to boot you at any time without compensation (taking a reputational hit if they do it, but the risk is still there), LL will never boot you as long as you are paying your tier. The risk you take with LL is a more generic "SL" risk -- it's very unlikely that LL will upset your landholding while you are paying tier as long as SL exists.

While it's true that the risk differential between owning land that is sold to you by "reputable" island owners/estate owners and owning mainland should be minimal, with the huge number of private islands out there and more coming online all the time, it can be easy for people to get themselves in a situation with a less reputable or less reliable island owner. It pays to do your homework. Having said that, "owning" a parcel in a well developed and covenanted island sim can be a great experience.

How do you find the well developed and covenanted islands? Or mainland parcels for that matter?

As I stated earlier in this thread, on the land search page there is a dropdown tab. You can select For sale - Mainland or For Sale - Estates and it will show you results only for the option you chose.

As far as well-developed, you would need to start with the older continents on the map as opposed to the new continents of Nautilus and Corsica.

Nautilus is actually cleaning up- I wouldn't steer newbies away from it. It's going to be more expensive than Corsica and more developed, but in many cases much less expensive than a lot in one of the really old continents. Development generally comes with time.

Don't buy land until you've been in game for at least a couple of weeks- rent. Set up your avatar, look for some basic furniture (if your plan is to own land for a house) or start learning to create (if your plan is to open a shop) and once you have your appearance sorted out and the basics of movement and object manipulation down, you can start *looking* for land. Spend a few days at least and a few weeks at best just looking at land. Decide what kind of terrain you want, what kind of neighborhood you want/can afford and when you've finally found the *perfect* piece of land, then buy it.

Don't rush in though.

This thread looks good for my questions.

1. What is a good deal for prims and rent? I am currently renting a house for 250 a week and I am allowed 140 prims. I first rented a condo,but it only had 50 prims,same price.I realized that was bad.

2.Eventually,I would like to buy land(512). How many prims are you allowed with that? Does that depend on where you buy it?

I ask,cause I love to decorate. Sorry if these questions are dumb.

Price is dependent on location as well as prims. Do you get 140 prims as well as the house or are the prims for the house included? Either way it sounds like a decent price to me.



512 allows you 117 prims on mainland.

Actually with the concept of "emminent domain" you don't ever hold uncontested rights to land you own in RL. The local government may decide your property is the perfect place for their new superhighway. (Or your insignificant planet is in the way of a hyperspace bypass, and big yellow Vogon construsctor ships come by, but that's another story.)

Also, you generally don't own the mineral rights to your land unless specifically deeded so. Some huge corporation has the right to tunnel right under your acreage.

Thank you for replying! I get the house in addition to the 140 prims. I have been looking around and it looks like I did get a pretty good deal.

I found a nice flat plot I'm thinking of buying,maybe. Surrounded by other plots for sale. I'd like to get one on a beach or a mountain,but I am afraid I won't be able to build a house properly. Is it hard to build on these types of terrains?

I have a nice little notecard on mainland vs esate for anyone that I would be happy to send anyone who would like a copy. I tried to capture the good, the bad and the ugly about both alternatives.

I strongly encourage everyone to learn as much as they can before purchasing/renting/leasing/whatever, but eventually some of the land lessons will be learned 'hands on'. No substitute for experience

Char

I would like a notecard Charlene. I really tried not to rent anything and to just wait awhile.However, I am impatient and very eager to learn all I can when something is of interest to me.

I do intend to wait,research and look for at least a couple more weeks before buying land though. I learned my lesson with the condo,lol.