I was thinking of buying some land

It's difficult to really make a general comparison. If one factors-in stipend and bonus and an annual Premium membership, the cheapest land in SL (by quite a large margin) is a single Mainland 512 (well, actually, a group-deeded 560).

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Although I've never followed this advice I'd still recommend starting with a simple cheap rental somewhere, with every intention of moving on after a month or two. I think that is generally a good idea, just to get some feel for what one likes and dislikes about land (it can be a little different when you're using it as your own than it is just admiring it as an observer). But it's an especially good idea right now because the "up front" purchase price of land, though historically low right now, is very likely to dip further when the Adult continent opens up and folks have existing Mainland to dump onto the market. (That stuff may end up being so cheap that it will depress even the Estate markets.)

I think you'll find that a lot of stuff matters less than you expect. PG or M or Adult probably won't much matter unless you're selling stuff from the parcel; green, snow, rock, or even waterfront makes less difference than who the neighbors are and what they do with their land.

My few cents as well then

If you are premium (or plan to become just that), I would start out with the tier free 512 m2. That does give you a taste of what it is to own land, and exept from a small upfront price (about 3k I guess these days) it does not cost you a penny in tiers.

If you are not premium, try renting a parcel on a good estate. Like others said, ask people living there, or browse this forum to find a few names that are trustworthy. Renting at estate can be cheaper then paying Linden tier, and in general the support is way better. If you are from euroe, like I am, estate rent is cheaper for sure, since you do not have to pay VAT on that.

I still think that scams with estate land are NOT happening quite often. Even after I got scammed out of 9k linden, I think these things are not happening too much, and most estate renters are happy renters. But it does pay to investigate, it prevents that one morning you find a message about all prims returned

Good luck with your quest, and if any questions, just IM me inworld. I rented estate before, and at the moment I rent a Homestead sim at a very trustworthy landlady.

Katnip - to reinforce this, last night I saw what looked like an empty lot next to my 512m in Basenville and walked over to it. Land Properties showed that it was actually for sale at a very good price so I snapped it up and now have an L-shaped 1024m with a water view. I know it wasn't for sale last week. Can't beat being in world. Jackie

Google this

i'll let you have
$L1000/wk for 468 prims
$L2000/wk for 937 prims

one unmentioned advantage of renting:
when you default on rent all that can happen is your prims get returned. if youre too late with a payment to LL, they take your land and delete your account.

Yeah, specifically for this reason, I would not buy anything right now.

ETA: Unless I was able to nab some waterfront area like you did - but I have none near me.

Google this

Actually, I'm one parcel back from the waterfront but raised well up. The parcel in front of me has a strange little compound called the Firebug Shop (I think) with just one little storefront that I can't see unless I walk down there. They sell fireplaces, stoves and AK-47's so I fire a few rounds down there when I'm bored (no damage allowed, but it's fun anyway) just to see how my neighbors are doing Cheers! Jackie

They do not need to resell, they are free to just leave, estate tools alow me to reclaim the land if nothing gets payed, I have no way of tracking someone down that does not pay so this arangement can't limit someones freedom to move, all the risk of someone leaving is for me.
I'm fully aware that a year is a long time in sl, currently I have about half a sim worth of the 2 sims I opperate in this manner that has the loan part payed off, the rest usualy gets used for a few months and then given up, wel it might look that the faqt I can start over with the loan part from the start is a puur profit it's more a way for me to cover the risks of land being empty for a few weeks or longer, especialy with pargers parcels in a tight land market.

I'm not complaining though, I willingly set my own level between profit and risk at the way it is now and in the 2+ years I still don't regred it.

Having recently offloaded a lot of PG then mature land it was depressing to find 512's weren't selling at L$1900. Land bots finally arrived at L$1600..the only way to get shot of it. the land wasnt ocean front but west ocean view...not buried in the middle of a continent even This BEFORE the adult stuff had really hit the fan. The bots still own the land unable to sell it.

Estate land can come with covenants as long as your arm...if you are premium now is the time to pick up a mainland bargain.

NCI gives free land ownership classes, where you get lots of information and can ask questions.
The weekly class schedule is here: http://nci-sl.org/education/Schedule.pdf