Buying Land for a sandbox

I was planning on buying 1/8th of a sim from LL i was told by some other residents that it would be on the mainland but yet when i tried to buy fromt he land store i got to choose som land out in the ocean. So whats the deal? If i buy only 1/8th will it be on the mainland or out in the ocean? Can i buy just 1/8th then expand in the same area later or will i have to buy it somehwere else?

You don't need to buy from the land store. Open up your map in world and up in the top right, you can tick a box to show land sales. This will highlight in yellow all of the available land for sale in SL.
You will have a much bigger selection of land to buy if you go this route.

Another option is to use the search in world and go to the land tab. Fill out the appropriate filters that you want and this will return a list of everything you are looking for.

The second option (search) will be in a list format though and I have always liked using the map to search for land because it allows me to see the actual location of the land that is for sale.
You will see that and is being sold for various prices so take your time and shop around for the deal that fits you best.

Hi Simplebear,

The land store is for ordering new island sims. To buy a mainland plot you can either search in world for land sales and TP round until you find a parcel that meets your requirements. You can then buy it in world using the "About Land" option to buy.

The other way is to check the land autions pages on the SL web site and see if there is a parcel up for auction you like - and put in a bid for it and wait and see if you get it.

Do look round and check everthing carefully though - check whether the land is PG or Mature and look at adjacent land parcels to see what your neighbours are like, and (of course) check that the price is ok for you.

Also read the Wiki on buying land and check out some of the relevant threads on this forum.

Hope this helps you a bit and good luck, I hope you find the land you want.

well the thing is i want it out in the ocean so i dont have interfearence from other sims plus i didnt want to have to go by someone elses covenant for the sim. Most say no heavy scripting. some of my member for the sandbox use heaving scripting for building stuff.

You could have a problem there - unless you are lucky enough to find a mainland island up for sale in a very quiet sim.

so if i buy land out in the ocean i would have to buy a whole sim?

I believe that is correct, to have unowned empty ocean on all sides you have to buy a whole sim.

ok so i am looking at land here.. everyone wants alot of cash up front for 1/8th of the sim then the 40 per month for tier... does LL do that also? or do i just pay the first 40 bucks to own the land

Make sure you distinguish clearly between Private Estate land and Mainland. People who have bought island sims can put parcels up for "sale" - however this is really a renting system and they ask you to pay the monthly fee to them (not to Linden Lab).

Mainland is more like buying an amount of server hosting from Linden Lab - you pay the purchase fee up front and then a monthly tier fee to Linden Lab.

There are pros and cons of going either route here - do read other threads in this forum about buying estate land vs mainland.

ok thank you all. I will keep searching!

Deira Lanfair wrote:


Not meaning to hijack here, but this is something that's been confusing me.....

I'm still new here and have been reading the forums like mad, and have read the horror stories of people "buying" land on an island, only to be ejected when a new island owner doesn't honor their prior agreement with the former island owner.


I have some friends who just recently bought a small chunk of island land. I warned them that this might be the case....

But if you do an "about land", it shows them as the owner......

So the litmus test here would be to find out who they pay tier to?

Thanks,

That's correct. The island owner has to pay tier to Linden Lab - but if they "rent" out parcels of the land, the tenants pay rent to the island owner.

The estate land will, most likely, have a Covenant which must be agreed to. This may stipulate what can be done on the land, what sort of building and activities are permitted etc.

Mainland has no additional Covenant associated with it - you are free to do as you like within the TOS. Since the OP indicated the intention was to create a sandbox - then non covenant mainland is likely to be the best option.

There are many reputable estate owners who run their land business in SL and provide good service and value for money. Unfortunately, there are also some who are otherwise.

One of the advantages of renting estate land is that you do not need to be a premium member - whereas to buy mainland from LL, you do need to have a premium account.

It would be useful to read through the relevant threads on this forum.

ok i was looking around and i think i will buy an estate. that doesnt' require me to pay an up front fee right? and i can buy an 8th of a sim? if so how do i go about uying an estate on here? all i see is for regions and islands

There are several estates out there, but chances are that you're going to end up paying a considerable amount of tier for them....and that they won't allow sandboxes.

ok so how in the world do i buy 1/8th of a sim with full perms no covenant for a sanbox?

No. An Estate or a Region will ALWAYS involve an up-front cost. Usually a substantial one.

An "Estate" is an area of one or more regions that are private sims, owned by the same person. An Estate is a management definition, allowing teh owner of multiple regions to set bans and access controls and estate managr roles that affect all their regions at once.

A Region, (also called a Sim), is the 256 M by 256 M area that runs on one server simulator. Regions purchased from Linden Lab as private island sims cost $1650 USD up front, and $295 USD per month maintenance. If you BUY a private island sim, you own it and pay tier directly to Linden Lab. You can also rent all or part of teh land in a region from someone else who actually owns it.

Anything smaller than a full region, you are either renting a parcel of land from a private island owner, and paying maintenance fees to them, or you are buying a parcel of mainland from another Player, in which case you pay the Player for the land, and then pay monthly tier payments to Linden Lab to keep it.

The only option for that is mainland, really. Like described above, use the in world search function. Go to the land sales tab. In the 'area' box, put in 8192 and in the type drop-down, make sure you have selected Mainland. Then hit search.

You will have to pay a large upfront fee to purchase the land, then your tier thereafter will be in the $40 / month range. The tier will go to Linden Lab. The land will be yours with full perms and no covenant.

-Atashi

To do that, you would want to find a mainland parcel and buy it. That parcel will NOT be isolated in the ocean, though it might be on a shoreline, or may be in an area where the Lindens have built a number of scattered small land masses, like the nautilus sims, where they designed the area with lots of water for pleasure boating.

Use the "Land Sales" tab in Search, in-world.

In the drop-down menu in the uper left corner, select "For sale - Mainland".

Uncheck the checkbox in front of price.

Check the Area checkbox, and enter 8192 in that field.

Click the Search button.

You'll get a listing of land advertized for sale by other Players. The parcels that show an area of 8192 are what you want to examine. (Larger parcels will also be listed).

That's not true. An estate owner can rent or sell land any way they like. An upfront charge is not mandatory. There are countless parcels out there that you can pay a token 1 L to "purchase," (I suppose so that they show up in the land search) but the estate owner in this case is making all their money from the tier or rent.