openspace or homestead

Hi,

I am wanting the big space and don't give a toss really for a lot of prims. I just want to build a little house 50 prims or so, build a few little bits and pieces, a few visitors (no more than 3 or 4 people at once, and not often) and have a lot of trees and hilly space around me (for privacy)...

Openspace was stuffed up, is there any place where I can get a huge wack of area and 2 or 3 hundred or so prims?

If so what should the paying price be? I am not rich btw...

Does this even exist?

An OpenSpace sim for US$75/mo should be enough for you in that case. (US$375 setup, I think).

Have they changed it to allow people to buy OpenSpace sims without first owning full sims?

Is that a lot of money for just a few prims?

Probably not, but there are people out there willing to host them if you pay the tier (plus maybe a little profit), so its pretty close.

It is that much because it is a wide-open, private space. A 'few prims' are a bonus.

You should be able to find someone to rent you one for the 75$ or less, without paying the original 375$ for setup. And yes, technically this is a lot of money for so few prims, but because of the amount of space you'd be getting, it's balanced out a bit.

Openspace sims are full sized sims with a 750 prim allowance, and a 10 avatar limit. Sounds like it's about right for what you want.

75$ comes out to about 19,500 L$ atm, per month, and you can compare that to a Homestead sim, which is the same amount of land, but with 3750 prims and 20 avatars. Homesteads usually go for around 120$ USD a month, or 32,000 L$.

(OpenSpace has the prim limit of a 3300 meter plot (Approx), and Homesteads have the prims of a 16,140 meter plot (Approx). Each is 65,536 meters.)

Yes. If you didn't care about space, you could go premium and buy 512sqm (117 prims) and not owe any monthly tier at all. With an OpenSpace you are paying for ... an open space.

It's more $ than I have spare, maybe I'll find some other hermit who will share a half or quarter, eh?

Thanks for the info, appreciated.

Ian

Forgot to add pricing for tier for those land sizes outside of Homestead/openspace.

For the prim allotment of an OpenSpace (3300 Meters) you would pay 25$ a month, along with paying for the land (Not cheap. Mainland costs more than private land, as it's not rented and you pay LL your tier directly), and paying for a premium account.

For the prim allotment of a Homestead (16,140 meters) you would pay 75$ a month, again having to also pay for the land in the first place, and pay the premium account costs.

Both of these, however, also allow you to buy a bit more land without upping in your monthly payments, so allow you to have more prims.

If privacy is the issue, you could buy a smaller parcel and put a skybox way up high. True privacy in SL is a joke unless you own a private island, but this solution works for most people, most of the time.

I can rent you a 1/4 of a homestead sim 16384 sq meters 937 prims for $2500L per week or 1/2 a homestead, double all those numbers.

how does one know he or she is on homestead or open space property? besides taking the owners word for it? is it in the covent or if click on the ground does it say somewhere ?

Look at the "about land" dialog and note the number of prims on the parcel vs the size of the parcel. Pretty much is a dead giveaway.

Might also get the info from the Region/Estate dialog, but I don't recall if it populates the info if you aren't an EM.

Homestead would have 3750 prims total. Open Space have a couple hundred.

Is this a logical or accurate statement?

Since the Private Land owner has to pay 'tier directly' to LL, too, and at a HIGHER rate than for Mainland (assuming equal prims/square meter), and since the Private Land owner is going to charge rent to cover that Tier PLUS at least a small profit...

...then it would seem the statement isn't logical or accurate, when Private and Mainland are compared on a even basis.

Openspace have 750, as I said above.

Took me awhile to understand that people say/feel that because they tack on the cost of your premium SL membership.

In the longest of long runs, it may not be accurate. However, it's easy to find private land (Of any size and prim allotment) that is paid for purely by tier, without any original cost of land. Often buying the land counts as the first month of tier. While the tier may be a little bit (Really not tons, usually) higher than mainland, because of that initial lack of cost it's cheaper unless you rent for a relatively long time.

Mainland is not cheap to buy, especially not in areas like Bay City, and finding a place that isn't littered with ugly builds or spam parcels can be troublesome and very much expensive. The best priced plots are usually bought up quickly by bots, either for their resale (At higher prices) or rent.

Per prim, Homestead and OpenSpace land is generally more expensive, as you have more space, but if you're on a full-prim sim, the land tier price difference isn't too important after you bypass the lack of (Or much, much cheaper) initial buy price.

yeah like I said... a couple hundred. I couldn't remember exactly how many hundred while I was responding. Close enough.

I don't count the premium cost in it, really, I just mention it when discussing it because it's something you don't want new people surprised about. Personally, I count that more as support costs than anything to do with land.

I say private regions are cheaper because of the reasons cited above.

Even WITH that cost, which is only US$6/month if you pay annually, I think that you'd find few deals in private estates, with the same prims/sqm as mainland, that are cheaper than the mainland.

Not that price is the only reason to go private--people may well feel that paying more is worth it, if they can live in a well-run themed area.

And it's always possible to luck into a deal with some Private owner who will rent at a loss, just to get some tenants in. In that sitation, Private could be cheaper (at least for a while. The instability of being at the mercies of a Private owner is something that causes many to prefer mainland.)

The point is, anyone looking to lay out some cash for a place to call their own in SL should NOT simply take the word of one poster on a message board who claims that 'mainland is more expensive'. Or even the word of one who claims that 'Private is ALWAYS more expensive', if there is such a person posting.

There are plusses and minuses to both mainland and private estates, and any time spent looking into them would benefit the new would-be homeowner.

That's like trying to discourage people from buying a book by saying 'books are not cheap to buy, especially copies of the Gutenberg Bible.' Sure, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible will cost you a few million US dollars. But, should people refrain from buying ANY book because the cost of a rare one is extemely high?

Most people interested in Mainland don't set their sights on the L$50/sqm-plus parcels of Bay City---they set their sights on a nice water parcel, maybe, which can be had for L$6 or 7 per square meter. A very pleasant water 512m can be had for L3500 or so (in some cases, less), which is about US$13 initial outlay. Amortizing this over the year of an annual Premium membership makes total cost about US$7.08 per month.

Mainland can cost less than that, or it can cost more.

Private estates, too, can cost less than that, or more.

The point is: people should take a look at all their options. They might get lucky with a deal in either category of land.

I didn't mean to imply that all mainland is anywhere near as expensive as Bay City...bad choice of example, I suppose. I also don't mean to discourage people from mainland, not at all. I personally own a little over 10,000 meters of mainland, and absolutely love it. Both have their perks and downsides, and every option should always be considered.

It still stands, though, that initial cost of land on mainland is generally higher than private islands, because private renters often only ask for tier, as I said above. If one is brand new to owning land, I'd honestly say do that for a month first, if you like owning land, and intend to own for a long time, weigh your options better. If you can find well priced, stable land on a private sim, and like the perks of that, go for it. If you'd rather go for 'true' ownership, and the added support of LL, then go for mainland, and so on.

To each their own, and always be educated about investments, right?

I think that's very good advice.