land and houses

I apologize if this is not the place to post this question. I was not sure where it should go and will gladly accept any advice on a better place to post it if I should...

I am fairly new to SL and want to buy land...just the 512m that I can buy without being charged tier fees.....I DO have a premium account already.
What I want to know is:
How can I measure the land to make sure a house will fit on it...and how do I find out the measurement of the house?

Also....I want to buy mainland...as to avoid the tier fees....how can I make sure that the land I want to buy is mainland and NOT from an estate? Any tips would be greatly appreciated...)
Thanks,
Elena

Hi,

When you are on land you want to buy and select WORLD -> ABOUT LAND then you see the type of land in the window: MAINLAND or ESTATE.

Most 512m² parcels have a size of 16x32m and have 117 prims.
When you buy a house keep also in mind that you need prims for furniture and decoration.

The 16x32 is not fixed. Can also be 4x128; 8x64; ...
The smalles land parcel is 4x4. Any combination in blocks of 16sqm are possible.

Make sure the parcel is a rectangle, and when you go to buy it, there are a few confirmations that you must agree to, read those. It tells you what your tier is and will be after purchase.

Also try to always look on the map and see what the land looks like in the area. If the prices are all over the place for similar sized parcels, it is definetly mainland, if the prices are stupid low, then its a estate scam trying to get you to pay for something you will end up having to pay rent for.

One more tip -- the viewer has a menu item that says "View Property Lines".

After you make your purchase, turn that on and you can find the exact corners of your property.

One of the tricks up my sleeve is to place a prim at each corner precisely on the edge of the boundary and then lock them down until done building. Make them nice and tall so they are easy to see

Heck, use View Property Lines BEFORE you make your purchase! Make sure you're getting what you think you're getting.

yes.....I did all that....and I bought a nice little piece of land. I have won several houses and skyboxes and I go to a sandbox to rez them. What I need to know is if they will fit on my land...without having to go back and strip everything that I have on there right now. Is there some way to "measure the land and/or the houses? Any help would be appreciated...
I plan on taking some classes at NCI...maybe they can help???
Thanks,
Elena

Go to each corner of the property, and write down the coordinates. That will let you see how big a rectangle you have. For example if the corners are <32,32,45><32,48,47><64,48,47><64,32,46>, subtract the smallest X and Y and ignore the Z, you get <0,0><0,16><32,16>,<32,0>. So it's a 32x16 rectangle.

Go to a sandbox and put boxes down in the corners of a 32x16 rectangle.

Rez a copy of the house.

See if you can fit it in between the boxes.

You can always just build a flat panel on your land were you want the house then link it together and take it to the sandbox and see if the house will fit on it. After you learn to build you might just want to build your own house though. =)

1) As Levi said, you can use prims to make a flat platform the shape and size of your land (or determine the size and get a flat megaprim that size from someone - if you want to do that IM me with the size you need, I have loads of them). Link the prims together, name the object and take it into your inventory. Then go to a sandbox, rez the platform, and rez whatever house you want to test, see if it fits on the platform.

2) If you have a standard 512m parcel, you are limited to 117 prims. Unfortunately, there is no way to know how many prims an object has without rezzing it (is there a JIRA for this?). So you will need to check the number of prims used/available on your land (About Land > Objects Tab), and then when you go to that sandbox to rez a test house, see if the house is within the prim limit for your land.

3) You can check XStreetSL, there are a lot of free "starter" houses which are designed for a 512m parcel (including my Teahouse ).

Thank you SO much for all your help..it has helped lots! Another question....I have "won" several skyboxes and when I go to rez them in a sandbox, they have no doors...and so I can't get in. I have tried "camming" in on several of them, but are unable to do so. How do you get inside? I know this sounds dumb, and I am sure it is something that is very basic to building, but since I don't know anything about building I have no idea. Also...some of the houses I have won have doors that come with them. Can I somehow use those doors on the skyboxes???? Thanks again...
Elena

"build" a box inside the house and sit on it, this will get you inside.... when you rez a skybox like that to live in, make sure you set to home or make a landmark inside the building it'self.