Going Premium....Question

Okay..i think im going to break down and go premium, for one reason..so i can get my own land. I know i can get land as basic...but being as conservative as i am...i want my own.

So i've been lookign at all the options (still confused) and have a few questions maybe someone can help with?

1. I sign up as prem....so where do i go get the land? i have to go to auctions? I want to make sure and get mainland from LL, not anyone else - is there a way i can confirm this?

2. looking at the breakdown of cost....what does it mean if i "donate" my 512m to a club? Why would I want to donate, whats the purpose of that?

3. once i get my land..i dont have any "neighborhood" rules right? my land is my land, i can make it residential or commerical and sell things if I want correct?

Sorry if these seem simple qustions to others...just wanting to step over into the "land" relm and a bit scared...muuuwwwhaaaa...

1) While you *can* buy land from the auction, this is usually for people who buy whole sims for later resale or renting. It's more common for "normal people" to find a plot, either through search or looking at the map, and teleport in and buy it.
If you click on the parcel name in the title bar to call up the land info, you can select the Covenant tab. Mainland is listed there as mainland, with no estate owner, and never has a covenant. Also, mainland is clustered into recognizable continents.
Added: If you use the land sale search, you can specifically filter on mainland or estate.

2) If you donate your tier allowance to a group, the group can then hold land, which may be useful for collaborative builds, since various management rights can be shared. Also, to encourage such collaboration, LL adds an additional 10% tier on top of what you donate to a group. So one little trick is to have a group with your own alt, and use that to hold the land. That boosts your effective allowance by 10%.
Also, say, if you own land enough to push you up a tier level, but do not actually use the full allowance for that level, you can for example lend some to a friend by donating it.

3) On mainland, there is no covenant or zoning, which is usually more of a curse than a blessing. You don't have any restrictions on what you put up, save outright ToS violations, but neither do your neighbours. And with more of them than you, statistics dictate that it's more likely that one of them will put up something you don't like than the other way around.
A lot of mainland is almost surreal junkyards of half-finished builds, orange boxes and toeing-the-line adfarms, or at least wildly disconnected builds. You may be lucky to find a neighbourhood of concerned residents who work in concert to keep the sim beautiful, but if you do, be prepared to pay *really* high prices for the land there.
Many use mainland for skyboxes; isolated places in the sky with a 500-meter drop to the nearest neighbour.

I keep hearing this garbage about mainland and it's ugliness. I own mainland on one of the older continents. I've flown, walked (yes, walked every Linden protected trail on the continent and have yet to see a junkyard that people continually warn others of.

Yeah, I've seen some real trashed up plots........but they are really rare and few and far between. Same with ad farms...........I see "billboards" and spinnng towers but no clusters of solid, ugly ads like so many complain about.

I guess I like the realistic urban look that dots the mainland continents. Everyone who's been in SL for a while knows of Yadna's Junkyard. I envision what people are talking about is something like that.......and it's actually quaint. I like the atmosphere....it's fun. I've seen builds that are intentionally junked up......maybe to look trailer trashy. Again, it's quaint.....it's fun. But those builds and areas are few and far between.

To the OP.........just search for land in the search. Filter for mainland. Go and take a look. If you like it then buy it. If the "neighborhood" changes for what you consider the worse then just wait another couple months......it'll change again. I've owned the same plot for over 2 1/2 years......I've seen so many cycles. And they all were fun to experience.

If you are wanting to buy more than 512m, it is cheaper to make your Alt a Premium account also. At least it is if you pay quarterly or yearly - I never did the calculations based on paying monthly.


For example:

One premium @ 22.50/qtr x 4 qtrs = $90.00 / yr
L$300/wk x 52 wks (265 L$ rate) = -58.86 / yr

results in a NET cost of $31.14 per year per premium acct.

~~~~~~~

1024m
- one premium: 31.14 / yr + $60 ($5 x 12 mths) tier = $91.14 / yr
- two premiums: 62.28 / yr + $0 tier = $62.28 / yr



For larger amounts of land, it is likewise quite often cheaper to add more premium alt accounts rather than increase tier.

I'm no longer homeless... I have a parcel on the mainland and I love the diversity there. If I wanted a themed neighborhood, then certainly, I would rent. While what Tali says is true, that there IS a lot of junk on the Mainland, it's worth it to me to maintain full creative control over my parcel and what I build on it.

Since you seem to have decided on Mainland anyway, I'd recommend spending a good few days looking around at different types of sims. Your main choice will be: Mature or PG? There is a lot of debate regarding what is actually acceptable on a PG sim, so keep that in mind. You'll want to look at the terrain (rocky? Beachfront? Steep?) and remember that you cannot actually change the texture of the terrain on the Mainland. You buy granite, you stick with granite. You can't change it to sand or grass.

Looking at your potential next door neighbors is always a good idea, but you know that they might up and sell tomorrow, and a club might pop in, so take all neighbors with a grain of salt. By the same token, if your dream parcel is next to Ugly Club From Hell, chances are pretty good that Ugly Club will be gone in a few months, and you could get some good neighbors, or you can buy the Ugly Club parcel once it goes up for sale.

Have fun looking around, and have fun buying!

Pretty much the point here. There *are* beautiful mainland areas, usually in the old lands. But *buying* one of those... The prices are usually exorbitant, and/or more likely than not, you'll need the right connections in the first place. Those do *not* just go randomly up for sale for any newbie or land bot to grab. (No offense meant to OP).

Mind you, I don't mean to dismiss mainland. My first, and for the longest time only, plot is mainland, though for the control and stability rather than the beauty of the landscape.

There is a good amount of land for sale in Vyacheslav. I own half of it, and most other landowners are decent. So you would have a good neighborhood. It's not exorbitant.

I just went premium and purchased mainland for the first time a few months ago. I have lived on two mainland sims and visited many others over the past year and I LOVE mainland!

I purchased my land in the sim where I have rented for the past 9 months and kept an eye on the "evolution" of the sim. I like the direction it is going so felt good about purchasing there.

Good luck in your search - there is currently a LOT of mainland for sale now. Narrowing down the search to the type of land you like (grassland, mountainous, snow, beach/water), then concentrating on those types of sims will help.

I have owned the same land on mainland for almost 2 years, I would hate to give it up

I have worked for 2 sim owners and had full reign on their sims to build or what not, and while it is nice having all those prims, I still love my mainland


(I got nice neighbours)

Thanks for all the comments...very helpful. I've narrowed it down to this:

I'm looking for 2048 of Mainland
FLAT
Oceanside would be nice but not necessary
Grassy
Mature

SL had a great video tutorial so ya...pretty easy to search and buy land, but i spent about 1/2 day looking, didnt see anything really happy with...still looking.

Anyone know any "secret" 2048 mainland plots out there let me know...on the hunt.

Sly, there are some plots for sale behind our sim of Lebettu. Don't know if they're what you're looking for, but it'd be great if someone bought the one that has the ugly brown castle on it...

I noticed there are 8192s for sale in Allana.

Hmmmmm I own 2048 snow lot in mainland Larrson. The surrounding sims are spectacular. LittleMe Jewell you have given me an idea as I have a rarely used alt and I was thinking about terminating that account, but I think you given me a chance to breath new life. I am paying $15usd monthly in tier. If i am understanding correctly, I can make have my alt donate their 512 allowance to my lot in Larrson and may come out cheaper.

I am premium account member that receives 500L/weekly . Even with the current stipend rate of L300 I sounds like I can lower my tier cost there and possibly break even or come out ahead?

Dang...was hoping making my alt premium as well would help bring my tier down to the next level but I own 2560 sqm. Taking the first 512 off took me to 2048 tier but making my alt premium would only bring me down to 1536 sqm, still in the same tier range.

On the plus side...I can purchase up to 2048 sqm more land and stay in the same tier range (I think...I'm horrible at math).

ETA: I didn't fully understand the tier break levels so I read that chart wrong. As I've just discovered, I'm at my max for 2560 with the 512 tier free land to avoid jumping to the next level.