Really confused and want to buy land

Hi! I'm relatively new so I'm not sure about how to do things. I want to buy a very small ocean lot and terraform it myself or a small beach lot. Just yesterday I upgraded to premium.

I don't have enough money to do anything much so I went to buy Linden dollars to buy land. It said I exceeded my trading limit because I upgraded yesterday. I'm confused. Why can't I buy Linden dollars to spend on land? Do I have to wait a certain amount of time?

Arg! LOL I'm so confused.

Hi Shellsea,

Yes, you have a limit for a few days on Lindens. Don't worry, it's not anything you did. It's to prevent credit card theft/fraud so that people can't use stolen cards to spend oodles of cash here. In the mean time, spend your days searching out a nice little parcel. If you find something you love, you can IM the seller and explain your situation; if you're dead set on the parcel, the seller can reserve it just for you, for when you can get enough money.

Oh thank you! I appreciate your help. I'll just have to be patient then.

Hi Shellsea...there are some 512 and 1024 ocean plots available in a sim I just purchased land in, on the new continent. Mostly people who are moving in there are building homes, so its still a decent looking sim. Give me an IM this evening if you'd like, I can show you some available.

You can buy Lindens from slexchange.com, they are the only source for buying Lindens that are trustworthy in my book.. !!!!do not buy LIndens from Ebay!!!!


-whyroc

Oh thanks Whyrock, I always forget about SL Exchange.

Shellsea,

Read up on the various aspects of buying land. Just a couple of high points:

1. You don't need a Premium membership to buy land from a private estate owner, only for buying land on the mainland continents.
2. When buying from a private estate owner, research their reputation. They are the ultimate authority, and can take back your land for any reason they choose (or for no reason). So you are dependent on them being honest and reputable.
3. Private estates are generally more strictly "zoned" than the mainland. You won't find someone putting up an ugly ad farm on the parcel next door to you, or a strip club. On the other hand, the greater freedom given to mainland owners applies to you as well...you can put up pretty much whatever you want, without having to worry about the estate owner's approval.
4. Use the "About Land" function to research parcels you're looking at...and also check the parcels around it. Check things like Covenant (if a private estate), tier level, prim count, terraforming limits, etc.

Do a lot of looking before you buy. Especially just now, there is a LOT of land on the market at good prices. No need to jump at the first thing that comes along.

On the funding limits: If you can't wait, you can get around them by setting up an account with a third party, such as http://www.slexchange.com Buy Lindens from them, then transfer them to yourself in-world.

Lindal is so great and so informative.

And just to further confuse you, one more option is to rent land on the mainland. Another way to get around the premium membership you just upgraded to.

Nothing like plugging your busines, oh figgy one. *grin*

We need to go flying one of these days.

If she chooses to read my signature and TP to my spectacular beachy mainland rental sim, that's her business.

I have GOT to see Fig's Place. But I want to go there in style. Trout, could I bum a ride in your biplane?

< perk > Beach rental? I'll have to check that out.


So I can buy lindens on SLexchange and not be limited? (I already passed my monthly limit,lol.) Is it safe to buy there?

Yes, safe and easy.

Nearly as safe and easy as renting beachfront from the figster.

*giggle*

Shellsea, since you have upgraded and pay membership, I would strongly suggest you buy on the mainland since once you are settled, you can then look around and consider other types of land.

I must confess that I have never 'bought' or rented on an estate or island, and if you consider it, you should read the info very carefully and be aware that the owner of the island can change the rules any time they want and you could be kicked off of the island without warning. That will never happen if you buy on the mainland, you own that land (as much as you own anything in SL) and you can do with it whatever you wish.

My friend is interested in renting and we have gone to view several places.

One thing I have never seen before is where you buy for L$1, say, 1024sq (which would cost you 5US$ a month for tier on the mainland) and then pay the owner 15US$ a month. Personally I think it would be cheaper to buy on the mainland and you receive a stipend which counteracts a part of the membership cost.

The other thing we have seen and don't like is where a part of a sim is under water and the owner has made prims to sit on the water and there are rows of identical flat prim 'land' plots for rent. It's ugly and you have no option to change the shape of the 'land'.

I am sorry if I have upset anyone with these comments, but just giving my opinion.

Yes...and it's also cheaper, at least it has been lately. If you use PayPal's Mass Pay feature to send money to SLExchange, you avoid most of the fees PayPal charges, you don't incur LL's $.30 transaction fee, and at least recently the exchange rate between $L and $USD has been more favorable on SLX.

Mine is available

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Faravari/113/183/39

See what you think

Shipper

I got round my new limit by creating an alt basic account, and sending the money to my main.

Hi Shellsea

Since you dont want to spend much money and you already have a premium account you should buy your 512 square meters of land on the mainland

This is because your premium account can support 512 of MAINLAND land without incurring any extra monthly fees.
However if you bought land on a private estate, you would have to pay regular monthly fees to the estate owner in addition to the cost of buying the land.

To search just for mainland plots of land, when in second life click on the search button, click on land sales, in the dropdown box where it sais all types, change that to "For Sale - Mainland"

Land buying tip:

Look at the tier due date for the month, usually the 23-24th....

Right before the tier is due you can find a real bargain. (10L/sqm for beach land or less recently) Keep in mind though that you will pay the extra tier for the entire month even if you only own it for one day.

Right after the tier day you may still find a bargain and you will get your month's worth out of the tier, but likely anyone who has been dumping land will have already sold it or pulled it off the market, raising prices etc.

This is just my small experience having turned over a few parcels.

Oh and I also have a nice mainland beach parcel that I could be talked into selling for cheap, IM or PM if you are interested.

-whyroc

well if were going to start doing this now...