Do people manage with 512m of land?

The house I used with a group as gone.
I'm on free membership I know if I had over 512m of land I have to pay a monthy fee, tier, to Linden can I have 512m of land without being a Premium member? I think the answer will be no but want to be sure.
Is it possible to have a house so small, if yes is it practical?
Anyone doing this? Will you tell me your experience?
Thanks
Love
June

to own land on mainland, even the free 512 tier size, one still has to be premium

yes 512 can be useful, but small, sparce, etc

Mainland yes, but does that mean if not mainland a one off payment only?
Love, June

Yes, it's possible..but you'll want more, I almost guarantee it.

If you like, I can build something for you in that space, but for 512 prims it would be pretty basic, no matter where you got it. 512m is mostly used for like a quick stopping point, not a long stay, though some do it, meet people, take them home, talk, etc.

Personally I find the 6km my home covers not enough, so I'm not a great one to ask on 'is it enough' (I own 10km... XD)

I lived for months very very happily in a skybox that was less than 512 in area. We had 117 prims, then we bumped up to 200. I entertained small groups of friends there even.

We had a 1st floor sitting area with an open space for building or temporary furniture, a bedroom loft, a roof garden with a fountain, and a shady small front garden for meditation and rez-in.

I built my first things there. I have oodles of pics of the place, because I was so delighted with it.
.

This is a good reason to rent. For this reason and the fact that I've have a wonderful landlord. It's why I do.

I am homeless and love it.

I loved my first ever land. My 512 plot!

*sighs* Things were so uncomplicated then!

you do not have to be premium to own/buy/sell land on mainland.

You can buy own and sell land FOR GROUP as a no payment info on file user.

you only need 'tier' in teh group, you can rent it, have a friend donate it to the group.

a group with tier doesnt care if you are premium or not, you can still ALLWAYS buy land for group

If not mainland then what? You cannot own estate land in the same sense as mainland unless you buy the entire sim which is considerably more than 512 sqm.

512 sqm is enough to put up a sky box with some furnishings and a little garden on the ground. If your thinking within that scale then it could be useful.

A couple of things:

Even though you can't purchase mainland on a Basic account, you can rent there. I live on a very nice piece of rented mainland and enjoy the flexibility it provides - ie. if some obnoxious neighbors moved in, I wouldn't have to sell...could just give notice and move.

My first home on SL was a small one-room apartment. I have no idea of the size, but the building it was in was probably on a 512 plot. I had an upstairs apartment with 128 prims. I made one half of the room the bedroom and the other half an area for guests. It was very comfortable and I never used all 128 prims. It even had a wrap-around balcony.

Just depends how much space and "stuff" a person needs/wants. In RL I live in a smallish, one-bedroom apartment and have been weeding out stuff over the years to live more simply.

I hope I undeerstand your question...

1. If you do not have premium membership, you can not buy on the mainland, but you CAN buy on private estates. Tier would be whatever the landowner wants to charge you.

2. If you get the premium membership, you can get 512 on the mainland and you would not be charged tier for your first 512 parcel. This is a great deal, because that's a US $5 per month value PLUS you get a L$300 per week stipend. So the annual fee practically pays for itself.

3. There are ways of living on 512 parcels. I am currently selling a 512 parcel on the mainland with a low-prim home already standing on it. 4 rooms, large atrium room that takes advantage of panoramic ocean views. There's even a garden area below. Check it out in Samodiva, 72,190,70.

"If not mainland" then most certainly *not* a one-time payment. Indeed, if not Mainland, you want to be very cautious about any up-front charges at all. (There are reasons such charges exist, but there's no enforcement at all to prevent the "seller" from just taking the money and kicking you out.)

It may be more cost effective to rent either Mainland or from an Estate landlord, and see how far 117 prims goes for a while. Usually the 512 lot size isn't a real constraint, although with those dimensions there's really nowhere with chat separation from all neighbors (hence the appeal of skyboxes, especially for smaller parcels).

But I've rented out 256s with all of 58 prims to folks who were perfectly happy for long tenancies. It all depends on how much stuff needs to be rezzed to make somebody feel at home and to support their particular in-world activities.

WOW!! Just saw your 512 parcel with the house. That is AMAZING what you did with that amount of land. It seems so much bigger. One thing with land that we have found in ours is getting good use out of vertical space which you did so cleverly with your home.

Yes you can own land on a private island without being a Premium member. It is only if you own land on the mainland that you have to be Premium. However, I heard that tier on private islands is higher. (You'll still have to pay tier to the landlord... however, you won't need to make payments to LL for a Premium membership.)

If you are a Premium member and buy 512 land, there is no monthly tier. Tier starts if you buy a larger parcel than 512. (Then you are paying both tier as well as membership payments.)

If you are looking for an alternative to buying, I second Qie's suggestion to rent. You could either rent a house/apartment or you could rent land and place whatever kind of structure you want on it.



Yes perfectly possible. My landlord divided his parcels so that 512sqm is 16mx32m. What you can do is build upward, for example have a two- or three-storey house if you need more space. Depends on what you want to do with your house. If you want to have parties and invite lots of friends over, it might be a bit small. But if it's just somewhere to relax, change clothes, etc., then it's fine.

Thanks! And I've seen the way past customers have furnished this same house. People have done some really nice stuff with it.

Hey June,

I have a 512 plot that I bought for the extra prims, but I'm not using them just now. If you are interested I'd be glad to let you set up house there for a couple of weeks. You could get a feel for what you can do with the size of the plot and the prim allowance before you make a decision about buying.

Just let me know if you are interested.

never thought of it this way
however by doing this you are subjecting yourself to the whim of another, you have to trust that they will not withdraw their tier, and that they will not leave the group (last I knew when someone left the group, their donation went with them)

so, using a group as a non premium and renting or having tier donated is just as chancy as renting from a private estate owner

I was assuming the OP wanted to know about owning land personally, not via a group

I bought a 512 plot when I first got into SL before I understood all of the ins and outs of buying land vs. renting from an Island sim. I decided to go with mainland. The person that sold it to me really wanted me to rent from an island they owned instead.

On that plot I refined my building skills and learned the fine art of terraforming. The person that sold me the property said that all 512 homes look like porta-potties.

There is a lot you can do with a 512 plot. My plot at different times had two houses, a garage, a tiny mall, and two skyboxes.

"CX"

I live on a group-owned 512 and have found it very practical. I've rezzed and furnished a variety of skyboxes, never overlapped the neighbors' parcels, and never found myself running short of prims.

Let's see, currently I have two library trees on the ground to keep the neighbors' ads company, a sky platform where my husband and I and a few friends log in, a furnished skybox (living room, bedroom, rooftop I use for a workshop but could be for entertaining), an unfurnished skybox (my own build, got nostalgic and rezzed it to think about how I should furnish it) and another platform way up beyond the clutter, just for ME. (LOVE the new 4096 ceiling!)

Of course, none of the above is very ornate, but it pleases me, and I probably have enough prims available to furnish the second skybox with leeway to rez and open boxes. I'm a prim miser.

This thread reminds me of a question I've had for a while. Some of the builds I'd like to experiment with don't fit the footprint of my 512 lot. I have seen "double prim" rentals, where an owner rents a parcel at a premium rate with more prims than that size would normally support. I'd like to find a "double space" parcel - say, a 1024 with the prims of a 512, at a 512 rate. Sort of like an openspace sim, but small. Anyone know of anything like that? (Or where to start looking, at any rate?)

This thread makes me homesick for my first 512. I loved that little parcel. Living there hooked me on SL.

I manage pretty well with a 512 parcel for my alt's home. I rent it and mostly just unpack boxes and change clothes there. The ability to teleport anywhere makes the main grid my living room.

I managed on a 512 for a while, and probably could again. I went up as for as about 5k, then dropped back down to 1024 plus group bonus when the VAT charges started to bite. I'd recommend creating an alt and forming a land owning group with yourself. The 10% bonus would let you own a 560m plot if you can find one, and with all the ad-cutting land being sold up that's not unlikely. The few extra prims for free are worth it, as is the extra yardage. You might also get a squarer shaped plot; one of my early places was about 26x20 and much easier to build on than a 16x32.

Skyboxes are nearly always a better idea on small plots, unless you are lucky enough to have empty land around you. you can live very well on a small number of prims... creative texturing, one-prim cushions to sit on can go a long way. Aim to de-clutter and not put in things you don't need in SL; coffee machines look nice and homey but aren't exactly useful. Soft landscaping like linden ferns can make an area look better. It's a good idea to stretch & shrink odd ones to get natural looking random sizes, and don't plant them in lines or grids all in the same orientation. Little clusters look better.

I think everyone should rent a 512 plot before they go premium. That way you can see exactly what you're getting and it teaches you to be creative with your prims.

S.

I spent my whole first year with only 512 of land, it was my little place and I was very content with having it, it taught me a lot about prim usage and decorating within my limits. Even now when I have two stores I still build with an eye on how may prims I am using and have to not shudder when I go over 30-50.

I sold and resold my 512 plots and still have one I rent out to a friend (she puts up with the fact that is always for sale and moves with it as I charge her less rent than it would take to cover the teir)