My First Land - How ?

Hey there, ok so im allowed to get my basic plot of 512 but how do i get it ?

I hate still being new but ive got some notecards saying i can search under '' first land '' via the search option but all i find is other people selling land, is this first land something that happens every now and then ?

Basically all i want to do is get the small plot so i can have a play around and experiment with all the tools available to me and so far all the bits of land are way out of my $$ range. Just how does a new person get land without having to fork out 10000's of $$.

Yes i expect to pay for the land but i need advice on it all i guess so if any can point me in a right direction id much appreciate it.

Thanks.

Ok so i now know the first land deal is old and gone.

Still some good advice on the other parts though is needed, maybe even you ahve some land to sell !!

Hi Yorkster,

You are correct that first land is no more.

Expect to pay at least L$5000 for a "decent" 512sqm plot. You can get cheaper, but this will be on private estates and you will not take advantage of your 512 "free" tier.

L$5000 only equates to around $19 or £8.50, so should be in anyones price range that can afford the $9.95 monthly tier fee.

The best way to find a good plot is to use the in-world land search. Make sure you choose "mainland" and not "all" or "private" in the search drop down box. Then it's a case of looking around for a plot you like.

Gomez

Your premium account supports up to 512 square meters of MAINLAND land without you having to pay extra money for tier.
If you want to own more that 512 you will be paying teir as well. Tier can be thought of as property tax. see here http://secondlife.com/whatis/landpricing.php

The best way to find land is:
1. go into SL
2. press the search button
3. select the land sales tab
4. VERY IMPORTANT - in the drop down box on the top left hand corner change it to "For Sale - MAinland". This is because your free 512 tier from your premium account only supports that.
5. put in any criteria you want in price and press the search button
6. This gives many many pages of pieces of land that you should teleport around

Advice
It will take you a few weeks to get a feel for what land is good and what isnt and how much it costs. Dont be to quick to buy.
The best land is land that borders linden owned land called "protected land" on as many sides as possible. Things like road or some water. This is so you are not squashed up to your neighboors.
Make sure its linden owned protected land as people will lie.
The most valuable land is land where the protected land is water as people like that.

How would someone know who owns the neighbouring lands? Do you have to go stand on their side and press 'About Land' at the top of the screen? How can you tell if a road or water is 'protected'?

Just be mindful bying that most people find 512 enought to rez walls, roof, bed, chair and toaster, so 1024 is much more popular

Just right-click on the parcel in question and choose "About Land..." from the pie menu; it's goes to the same place as does the blue lettering at the top of the screen for the parcel you're over.

Just now, using the Search / Land Sales tool for "For Sale - Mainland" and Area >= 512sq.m., I'm seeing a few at under L$10/m2. For just playing around, the OP may not care much what the neighborhood is like, so cheap may be fine. (I would just be careful to make sure the whole 512 is in one contiguous parcel, not scattered around in bits and pieces of burnt-out adfarms. I haven't checked any of the listings, so I'm not suggesting that's a problem now--but it has been in the past, so worth just making sure. The most common and popular shape for a 512 is 16m x 32m.)

Also, speaking of adfarm parcels: by deeding a bonus 512 to a group you create, you can actually squeeze in another 10% -- in land "quanta", that's another 48 sq.m. -- so without paying tier you could hold 560m2 (with 128 prims instead of 117)--but it must all be owned by the group, so one would have to actually "Buy for Group" in order to get that full amount. And of course it all has to be in the same region in order to be able to share prims across the parcels, so an ugly region with lots of dead adfarm microparcels can actually be an advantage, if they're cheap enough (a lot of 16s listed at L$8.7/m2 now).

Thank you so much Qie! Great tips! I'm bookmarking this mini-thread. I know these things may sound simple, but when you don't know, well, you don't know. I'm also thinking of buying, and I've already created a group with my alt (for fun). I will be sure to leave the box 'open enrollment' UN-checked first (am thinking that it would be important...) and when I DO buy my 1st 512, I'll use 'Buy for Group'. 560m2, no tier sounds perfect for a newbie land owner. Ty

yes.. thanks also .. very helpful thread. I'm also thinking about buying, I wasn't aware that 512m2 would only allow such a basic build..
me is thinking it must cost an absolute fortune to buy and maintain an entire sim

Tegg likes to joke around *puts her finger on his lips to hush*

I lived in a skybox with 117 prims. The box itself was a very pretty 12-prim build. I just looked at a spreadsheet listing prims for a typical furnishing (I changed it often lol), and at one time we simultaneously had:

-- an indoor sitting area for 4 with lamp and drink dispenser
-- a loft with a 7-prim scripted bed, pose stand, and railings
-- teleporters to the roof garden which had a scripted fountain, nonLinden trees/plants, fire pit with seating, and swinging hammock with pose
-- A very pretty little front garden with freebie trees, shadows, birds, meditation cushions and a chest for storage/sitting.

You can do a lot with 117 prims!
.

Yes if you can be prim conscoius 512 is enough for some people, your first land may just be a stepping stone, renting is a good way to work out how much you need too, so don't get too fussed on finding a "perfect" plot

Thanks alot to all of you, many helpful pointers, so they are all taken on board.

The skybox was what i was going try also, so i guess the state of the land itself isnt much of a problem.

After looking around at alot of spots today another question came to mind...

Music !! some land had it, others didnt, so my question is, is that music fed in by the current owner and it will stop when i buy. Ive noticed i walk out of the 512 plot and it either stops or changes.

Music is a must you see, mostly i will be working in the small home i need, inventory stuff, designs and the like. SO if i do lose the music is it hard to pipe in my own ?

Thanks again everyone.

As the owner you'll be able to set your own music. Streams you can locate through Shoutcast.com You can do so through your land controls by changing the streaming music link. You could also get one of the many radios. They don't add any more stations, they just make it easier to change the music without going though your land controls each time.

Thanks everyone for such a helpful thread. I have a few questions of my own. Say I buy 512 parcel and I build a skybox. Is there a certain height that the box must be? and can I build anything on the ground below it? or maybe even stack several boxes? I guess you can do what you want as long as you dont go over the 117 prims per 512m. Correct?

I believe the maximum height for a build is currently about 768m. You can build below ground, you can usually terraform +/- 4 m.

You can put a skybox anywhere you want, up to 768m. (That ceiling will lift dramatically with Havoc 4, eventually. And it's even technically possible to go much higher now, but it's not a happy place to be yet, above 768: nothing much works up there.)

*But*, you will do yourself and your neighbors a favor by keeping it above the cloud layer (around 200m). Below the clouds, it just looks bizarre for stuff to be hanging in mid-air, but above the clouds: anything goes, at least as far as my delicate sensibilities are concerned.

Building *in* the clouds sounds tempting, but try to resist the urge: the results are interesting for about ten minutes, and then just really annoying, especially the part where you explain to guests how to turn off cloud rendering for the umpteenth time.

Note that parcel "whitelist" access control (allow individuals and/or group) only extends 50m above ground level. If you're concerned about security for a skybox, scripts are the only option. (But you probably won't need them anyway, unless you're located on a particularly busy sim--or have enemies.)