Help with purchasing land

My hubby and I are thinking about buying land but we have some questions before we venture into that.

1. If we buy a 4096 and a 512 there is no tier for the 512, so we only pay the tier for the 4096?
2. Do we get the 937 prims for the 4096 AND the 117 prims for the 512 or just 937?
3. Can we pay the tier with lindens?
4. What is the easiest way to go about buying land?

Thank you for your help.

~Lorraina McDonnell

yes you only pay for the 4096
if you buy the land in the same sim they will share the prims across all land you own (or if you deed it to a group, then it has to be all deeded to the same group to share the prims)
no you can not pay tier with lindens, the land is purchased with lindens

find land, right click on land and select buy

(the above info pertains to mainland only)

(private estates do not require tier for linden lab, however you may be required to pay to the land/sim owner)

If you're both Premium and form a land group, you'll each have 512m tier free to donate...1024m total.

Welcome to the Forums! All that Rhaorth and Ann said, and also assuming we're talking of Mainland here (the only place the 512 bonus applies)... but I'm guessing the quoted question is about *finding* land to buy, not the buying process itself. To do that, use Search / Land Sales, and choose the dropdown for Mainland, and possibly the checkbox to find parcels large enough to be of interest. (Alternatively, you could buy slightly less in one chunk--however much you need for whatever you want to build, and some surrounding buffer in case the neighbors get too creative.)

The other option is to check the Land Auctions pages (http://secondlife.com/auctions/) to see if there happens to be anything worth a bid. Sometimes stuff goes cheap there, but often it goes for way more than comparable parcels on the market, and the selection isn't very wide, but still may be worth a peek.

(Advanced topic: Group bonus. If you donate the land to a group, and you control the group as sole owner(s), you can get an extra 10% of land (and prims) within your tier limit.)

Do a lot of looking around before you buy land, so that you don't overpay, or you find that you have something you don't want.

The way I read the question about tier is that you are asking if you buy 512 meters (which is tier free on Mainland) and then purchase 4096 meters will you pay tier on 4608 or just 4096. Well if you (as a couple) purchase 4096 meters you will pay tier on that 4096 meter...........the first 512 meters is tier free. But if you purchase 512 meters and then purchase another lot of 4096 then you will pay tier on the 4096 meters without the first 512 being tier free.......that other 512 meter lot you bought is taking that tier free bonus.

Any land purchased on Mainland is the first 512 meters is tier free........all land above that 512 is "taxed" with tier. There used to be a page on the website that explains it...but I haven't even looked for it for over 2 years. The tier schedule is something like 512 to 1024 = $5 USD a month. 1024 to 2048 is another $3 USD to make a total of $8 per month, etc etc etc. Don't take my numbers as absolute.......I'm working from memory and I could very well be wrong.

You cannot pay for land or tier on Mainland with lindens.......real money only directly to Linden Lab. It's a recurring monthly payment until you sell the land no matter how you pay your membership (monthly, quarterly or yearly).

If I confused further...........I'm so sorry.

actually you do pay for the land with lindens (unless someone is selling via paypal and I would steer clear of that situation)

you do not buy land with real money, you only buy it in world with the land menu with lindens

Questions 1, 2 and 3 have pretty much been successfully answered above.

The easiest way to buy land..probably better to think 'what's the best way to go about finding and buying land' You could go to your search facility and look under 'land sales'. Personally I'd ignore that and refer directly to your map (with 'land for sale' enabled)..then go click on the yellow patches and teleport. What you see on the map will bear no resemblence to what you'll find on the ground..so prepare yourself for disappointment after disappointment. It's really important to have a damn good look around. Have a good think about what sort of land you're looking for..coastal, inland, urban rural..which Continent..they're all different...then go take a look around

Here's a good tip when visiting potential land..goto 'Help' and enable your 'Lag Meter'..if it's showing red and stays red..might want to reconsider this location.

Here's another good tip when visiting potential land..if there's loads of land for sale in the immediate surrounding area (the sim) to the plot your interested in..what you see now will probably change dramatically (so that charming rustic view today might just be a city-scape tomorrow)

Also remember that the prices you see are not necessarily a true reflection of general land prices..it's not uncommen to find plots on sale at rediculously elevated prices for no apparent reason, when just down the road a similar plot is on sale for considerably less. The reason the price is elevated is most likely because the owner is simply hoping to get lucky.

Anyway..happy hunting..Perre..

Here's the bad news. 4096 plus the 512 bumps you up to the next tier level over 4096

4096 minus your "free" 512 tier does not get you a discount on the 4096 tier.

Best solution: form a group, donate the 512, get your 10% group bonus then rent some tier from someone I can't name here (search tier rental and think ninja's) then go buy the parcel of your dreams. You will save a bundle on tier.

Too sleepy to do the math, but it would be around 3200 $L a month (4 weeks) in tier.

3200+512=3712
3712+371=4082

Guess it is just a little more than 3200 a month, but not as much as 3300.

I also recommend looking at the map.
Check the "land for sale" box on the map window to make all for sale land show yellow. Then start tp'ing to yellow squares.
At each place look around the neighborhood.
Pull down the view menu and enable "property lines".
Then right click on the property for sale and choose "buy land" from the pie menu. That will open up a window with a lot of information. (Don't click the "purchase" button until you are ready to hand over money).
Look at a lot of land in this way and you will get to know what you want and what a good price would be.

Do a lot of research before you buy.

no, the 512 doesn't count, they pay only the fees for the 4096, they are not bumped to the next tier level.....so is 25 dollars plus eventually VAT ( for me , as european is 5 $ more)

Since you get 512 tier free, then if you pay tier for 4096 of land you can support
4096 + 512 = 4608

If you create a group (requires 2 members eg yourself and your real life husband or yourself and an ALT of yourself).
Then donate all that tier to the group and have the group own the land, then the group gets 10% extra tier.

So your group could support
4608 x 110% = 5068 approximately

Its best to all be in the same sim so it shares prims.
Most people also prefer it connected so they can have a nice big house.

You can see the actual number when you donate your tier to the group. Do this as an experiment BEFORE you buy your land to check all the numbers.

If you have tier in a group dont forget about that tier.

You can remove the tier from the group before actually buying the land, then have it auto donate the tier from you on buying the land for a group
Other people can proberbly explain it better as its been a very long time since I bought land.

Warning about groups
1. a group that has less than 2 members will cease to exist after a few days and the lindens will eventually reclaim and sell that land. So always keep yourself and someone you trust (eg an alt) in the group

2. Depending on the powers you assign to group members they may be able to sell the land. Dont give this power to people other than yourself.

Oops, quite right. I told you I was sleepy. Still a good idea to go group and rent the extra tier (that in excess of the free 512 + 51 bonus). Don't forget to factor in the free tier and the overall bonus before you rent the tier. Usually you can get the folks renting the tier to figure that out for you if you go to the right place.