Buying first piece of land

With only a week after my birth I still have the noobie tag on my forehead lolol and with the following question I think I woun't get rid of it so soon lolol

I have a free basic membership account, so if I decide to buy 512sqm what would the system do?:

- allow it without no problem?

or

- oblige me to get a premium account before the purchase?


(some of you might also say that 512sqm is too small but for what I want is enough for a starter)

The fast and basic anwser is that you cant buy and own land without the premium membership. You can however rent from another player which is another topic alltogether.

ok, many thanks...

I was in doubt because when I see some land the buy botom is active to click, that's why my question, thanks again

if you try to buy land as a basic account holder, it will prompt you to upgrade to premium when you click the buy button

clicking the buy button is not an instant purchase, you get another window explaining if the purchase changes your tier, or account settings

(also be sure it is mainland, or private estate)

private estates will have land for sale, but you do not need to pay tier to SL, or have premium, you pay the tier to the land owner, and actually are only renting the land, as they always retain ownership of it and can reclaim it at anytime, for any reason, and do not have to give you any refund or explanation (not all are bad, but you must be aware that it does happen)

I've derived a lot of pleasure from owning my own land and building stuff there. I'd recommend becoming premium, but there's no hurry. It might be worth take your time exploring SL and learning building etc. first. Land prices seem to be rising, but only very slowly, at present so you are unlikely to get priced out of the market by waiting LOL!

Yes, I remember only a few months ago I bought a beautiful 512 sqm waterfront (Linden protected ocean) for only 8000L!!

Now they sell you 512 sqm fake unblockable waterfronts for 13500 or more!!.

They sell you in a sim border where there's no sim in front...it doesn't mean "unblockable".

Price increase - indeed, but not really pricing out of the market. Someone postponing becoming premium is saving on subscription until they take the plunge too, which would cancel out any increases during the wait.

Actually, you can buy land, just not Linden land BUT ask around, when you see a plot for sale, look around like you would a RL sale of land. Who are the neighbors, is the sim owner established, what is the price, etc. take your time, and you'll find just the right spot If you want to rent, you can really rent anywhere, LL land, or private sim.

Any other tips about choosing a piece of land? (I'm searching for only 512sqm near water)

My standard advice: Wait a few months.

Even though the cost of 512m2 seems small, there are a lot of gotchas. It really takes some time to learn them all. Besides, after one week, are you really sure you're going to still be interested in a few months.

You need to be comfortable with the UI. There are plenty of stories here of people who accidentally put their land up for sale for L$0 or L$1, a landbot buys it within seconds, and they're out their entire investement of both money and time.

You need to understand prim limits. 512m2 may be enough space for the things you want there, but is the prim limit enough? Have you checked the prim counts on the things you want to put there? What happens after you've spent more time and discovered that there are much nicer things you want, but their prim counts exceed your initial plans?

You need to understand groups and parcel permissions, otherwise griefers will find it and make things miserable. Or your friends won't be able to use it the way you want. You may need to learn about security systems.

You need to understand the future of any neighborhood where you buy. On mainland, the only real contraints are the PG/Mature distinction. Someone could buy surrounding land and put up an ad farm that will make your view ugly. Or put up a club that will make your sim unbearably laggy. Or put up particles or animations or sounds that will make things miserable. While some things are abusive and can be reported, others are within the rules, so you can't do anything about them. The only thing you can really do about this in advance is to get to know the neighbors, make sure they're in it for the long haul.

You need to understand the distinction between mainland and private islands. The advantage of a private island is that if the estate owner is competent and reputable, they'll enforce their covenant, and you won't have the risk of the neighborhood going to pot, as described above. If you're on good terms with the estate owner, you can get all sorts of help. On the other hand, the estate owner becomes an additional risk. They can kick you out arbitrarily. (So can Linden, but they're not willing to risk their reputation that way.) Or the estate owner can sell out, and the new owner change the covenant. Or the estate owner can fail to make their payments to Linden, and Linden will confiscate the island.

My advice is to spend a few more weeks exploring. If you're planning on building, get some practice in a sandbox. If you're planning a residence, do two things: Visit lots of places that sell prefabs, to see what's out there, and make friends with other people who have their own land, to see what they're doing with it.

How can you tell what is Mainland land and what is 'other' land?

And how can you tell how many prims it can handle? What is average?

Thanks!

Very good advice!!! Well said Kidd .....

What Kidd said.

AND go and use the Knowledge Base to look up any and all information on Land, Tier, Group Land, Land Management, etc, etc ,etc.

THEN read it word for word.

THEN read it word for word AGAIN.

THEN come here and ask specific questions on what you read.

THEN go back and read the information word for word again.

While this may sound like I'm joking (and I am writing it with a bit of humor), I'm very serious too. If you have the money to jsut throw away, learnign by mistakes is fine. However, I'm on a budget, as are most in SL, so making mistakes in Land can add up fast. Esspecially in tier fees and double-charges if you don't understand the system.

Ask, read, ask, read and ask again.

We'll be here when you're done reading

~Jessy