Yep more land buying questions

Sorry if this on going barrage of questions bothers anyone, but it might help some other newbie’s too….

Ok so the on going FUN begins! I found land but yeah I have a few questions…

Is it a good idea to have an *L* shaped lot?
It has water frontage so some of it I’d like to raise. that’s terra forming right?
How do I know this on Mainland?
How do I know this is not estate land?

I’m sure there will be more ….

Never feel bad about asking questions here.

I'll see if I can answer some of the questions, but I am sure you will get better answers from others.

L shaped: I would say up to you. If it meets your needs then it is fine, but I would guess it will be a little tougher to resell.

Raising the land: Yes that would be terra forming. Most places you can only move the land +/- 4 meters from its original level, so you most likely can't make big changes.

Mainland vs. Estate: I would check the covenant, if there is one you KNOW it is an estate. You can also open the map and see if there are many, many sims together which would likely be LL mainland. If there are just one or two sims then it is likely estate. There are some estates that are quite large though. There must be a better way to tell, but I can't think of it right now. Sorry. Someone else will do better.

L shaped is fine if that's what you want for personal use.

On the mainland you can terraform +4/-4 meters on most sims.

If there is no covenant on the second page of about land window then it's mainland. You can also sort by For sale:mainland in land search.

EDIT: No Nim, You did just fine and you type fast too!

L shaped - not really that useful, but can be.

Terraforming - yes, that's it.

Mainland - if your region is still part of a visible 'chunk of land' when you zoom the SL map all the way out, it's probably mainland. Tell us the region name and people here could tell you too...

Estate land... see above re: mainland. Also, estate land might have a 'covenant' listed in the 'about land: covenant' tab... mainland generally doesn't. But an estate may not also, so, don't rely on this.

That's what we're supposed to be here for, once upon a time.

L-shaped has six borders, whereas rectangular has only four. If this is on mainland (that is, with no covenant) you stand a tiny bit more chance of having unequal or terraced borders with six contiguous neighbors rather than just four. This is probably not a huge problem. A lot of people don't mind the choppy terraced look, and I was able to smooth out my own six borders fairly well. One of my neighbors helped in this on his/her side without my asking.

If you want a prefabricated building, its footprint might not fit easily, but you could always build your own or put two smaller buildings in each branch of the "L."

Or a make it a garden

I have an L shaped plot that is up for sale, and coincidentally has a water front. The smaller part of the L makes a very nice secluded area, which I once used as a grassed garden. L shapes are fine, imo.

L shape is just fine. To know the difference between estate and mainland you need to look at the map. I don't know how else to say it. On the mainland you will see many adjacent sims while on an estate you usually see an island.

It is important to know what you are buying. You can not "own" estate land unless you buy the entire sim. All you are doing on a private sim is renting the land no matter what the owner calls it.

On the other hand, when you buy mainland land, you actually own it.

I hope this helps.

I think I've seen mainland regions with a covenant before, so I wouldn't go on that, but the estate owner is shown right next to it. If it's mainland, the owner will be blank. If it's owned by some random avatar or group, it's estate.

If the estate owner is Governor Linden, it's mainland.

And if I buy mainland and sell it to another person? That person will be buying a private parcel of land.... is a sale or a renting trade? It's secure to buy that way?

Yes, on Mainland, when a parcel is sold it disappears from the previous owner's tier and is added to the new owner, who pays the monthly tier directly to LL. (In contrast, on Estates, the parcels "for sale" are still owned by the Estate owner after the sale, and monthly fees are paid to the Estate owner, not LL.)

Thanks for letting me ask away, I have to say you guys are the most informative group to run into. I appreciate all your help and ideas!!

Now, can someone give me the courage to right click the land and *buy*!!

Just wait till I purchase the land... Oh man, the questions.

We are here to help.

Keep in mind that your initial purchase price is not the only financial factor. Make sure you are comfortable with the amount of monthly tier that you will be charged for owning the land. That is the real expense in the long run for smaller parcels.

right click and buy....

if you want to buy it and put it in a group, it is easier to just put on the group tag (activate the group) then right click and buy for group, that way it auto donates the tier needed hehe

(yes I like to add to the confusion)

and if you decide later you do not want it just sell it, or if you can not sit on the tier, abandon it (however if you abandon you will not get anything for it) but it would discontinue the tier

also keep in mind, that tier will remain in effect even if not being used, until the end of the billing cycle