Buying Cheap Mainland without Lag

I am interested in cheap cheap cheap mainland and I am willing to live high in the sky, but I don't want server lag. How would I go about finding such a sim? Is there any way to guarantee, or at least increase the chances that the sim stays lag free?

Neighbors come and go, so there is no chance in hell to guarantee unless you buy a whole sim for yourself.

And cheap cheap usually has a reason for being cheap cheap, just for the record...

There's never a guarantee that low lag locations will remain so. I would simply suggest checking out the inexpensive spots, and see what makes 'em cheap. If you an live with it, then buy it.

I don't necessarily buy cheap, though I do look for bargains. I've been very lucky in that regard, landing plum spots in Bay City and Shermerville f'r little L$. Also helped my brother find a nice chunk of a San Francisco sim for a low cost. My advice is to find an area you like, that has features you want, then watch for land to come up near it. Watch for good prices and don't be afraid to ask for a better one.

Yes, always go in with a counter-offer, never hurts...all they can say is no

When buying my last mainland, I looked around at traffic numbers for my neighbors. As noted, you never know when your neighbors might change. So I took a close look at who my neighbors were.

One thing to which I paid attention was when my neighbors' purchased their land. My assumption was that people who had been there for a while were more likely to continue being there for a while.

I looked at profiles of land owners (and group owners if owned by/set to group). That gave me additional information as to how they were using their land and whether I might expect them to stay there a while. Owners who had been around were more stable, I assumed; owners who were new might be part of the overwhelming percentage of people who try SL for a short time but don't stay.

I don't know how good of an assumption it is, but I also assumed that owners who were more involved in roleplay or artistic endeavors (evidenced by profile) were more likely to be good neighbors. I assumed owners who were more into SL "business" were more likely to do whatever they could to profit from their land, no matter how it affected me the neighbor.

I also looked at size. I assumed generally that larger plots were more likely to be sold to future clubs; smaller plots were more likely to be sold to future homes.

Any commercial-use property that seems to have low traffic might be in danger of selling soon, despite other indicators.

Neighboring property for sale at ridiculously high prices, I assumed, were more likely to stay unsold and empty.

Finally, a great sign, I thought, was when a sim had a lot of property still owned by a Linden, set for sale to someone as part of the First Land program but unclaimed for years. That land is remaining idle for the foreseeable future.

The fact of the matter, though, is that no matter how diligent you are in your research, Second Life is just simply a place of high turnover. Your neighborhood just simply isn't going to look the same a few months down the road, under the most stable of conditions.

As for cheap: you'll be waiting a long time if you are looking for bargains. Everyone is looking for a bargain. (People have "land-bots" which any exceptional bargains within seconds after land is put up for sale, so it can be immediately flipped- you can't compete with that.)

I used to set my price based on the rates Sarah Nerd was using (since she priced land consistently and was among the lowest-priced sellers). Unfortunately, it seems that she's getting out of the land-sale business (though fortunately, I've been happy with the mainland I've had for a while, and have no need to move).

You can find land for less than the "going rate" you'll see people quote you, if you look hard enough, but don't expect to find hidden bargains. There's no substitute, though, for looking at as many parcels as you can, and doing your research on each parcel. Finding good land in Second Life is a time-consuming pain, there's no way around that.

Don't buy after just one day of looking unless you happen to stumble across the deal that can't be refused (and be darn sure you spend a lot of time examining why that deal exists).