Totally New, and Homeless...

Hello, I just joined yesterday, and upgraded to a premium account today. My friend said when he joined the free trial offer got a piece of land with a house (which he accidentally deleted, lol). When I joined I let him teleport me out of help island way too soon, lol, and now I'm clueless and homeless.

I asked someone from Live Help about it and they said you aren't supposed to get land for free like that. I'm also having a difficult time navigating this world.

What I would like to know is... Where is a person like me to find a nice lil piece of land to call home? My friend is letting me hang out on his lot and play around with creating objects, but eventually he'll want his place to himself again lol.

Thanks in advance for any advice

Welcome Jaye!

Your friend may have received a parcel as part of a special incentive program that has now expired. He would have had to upgrade to a premium account to keep that parcel.

You can upgrade to a premium account and take advantage of specially priced "first land" one time; or you can rent land from another resident.

See this link:

http://secondlife.com/community/land.php

You should be able to find "First Land" for sale, which is only available to new players once.

In-world, go to Find > Land Sales, tick the "Price <= L$" box, make sure the "Area>= sq m" box is ticked and enter 500, and hit "Search".

You'll find loads of plots of land marked as "First Land" - simply teleport round them until you find a location you like, then when you do, right click on the land and select "About Land", then Buy.

First Land plots are 512 sq/m and cost L$512. Not big, doesn't give you much money to play with - but it's a start.

But whatever you do, don't sell it to someone who offers you anything less than about L$4000 for it, that's a reasonable market value. Some people will try and con you into "letting them do you a favour" by giving you L$1000 for something that only cost you L$500 ... but it's not.

Click on Help > Live Help, and ask if theres anyone available who can spend a little time with you to show you a few of the basics that you missed.

Good luck and welcome!

Lewis

Hi Jaye

Lewis is correct in warning you about people trying to buy 'first land' from you...but 4000l. is quite high...you'd be lucky to get that!

Take your time to choose some land from the First Land plots. (If you find a really good one you might even be able to sell it later on if you fancy a larger plot - perhaps for a big profit like the 4000 Lewis suggested). I waited a few weeks until a really nice one came along. Sometimes there is none available but it usually appears pretty soon after that.

Land marked mature can often fetch higher prices while pg land is sometimes quieter if you are thinking of building a house. It's just a matter of taste. Since you already have a friend in sl, you could always ask advice if you are unsure!

You can use the 'find' feature, select 'land' then use the filter to see what first land is available.

Happy house hunting!

Thanks so much for all your help. My friend has only had the game a few days longer than I, and so he isn't quite up to speed with all this either just yet.


I must be doing something wrong... I go into Find and put in First Land, and only 9 things come up, and the few I've teleported to are not land for sale.

This is so very confusing lol.

Ok, I went into Land Sales and searched for land but only 3 things came up, the first of which teleported me into the ocean, lol.


...I'm so very confused.

More accurate pricing of a 512m parcel (for sale) would be in the 2500-3000 range. At least this is what I have been seeing recently.

But yes, for a first time buyer, you should definitly look into First Land.

Thanks. Been looking a bit, and I think I'm going to slow down and wait til I'm not so clueless to buy land. lol

Thanks for all your help

I would be more than happy to help you in SL. I have two small 512 lots which I rent out, on is occupied right now and the other is empty. I also rent a small 4092 meter island. I have been in sl for about six months and am a SL Mentor. I also have several folders of a variety of things that may assist you in getting use to sl....IM me in-world and I will be glad to help.

There are *far* better, cheaper, and instantly available options in Second Life than First Land.

The 10 USD monthly membership that many new members pay get them what: 512m in Impeach Bush sign land, in a new player ghetto? Ick.

Myself or any number of other people can offer triple the land size for less than 10 USD, homes and so forth to go with it, with guarantees that griefers will be banned from your view forever.

Anyone in a similar situation as the original poster's - send me an IM if you like.

Does anyone else find it odd to use LL's forum to dis their First Land option, consequently discouraging the Premium membership upgrade so beneficial to the LL, and using it as a classified ad for one's own business at the same time?

I agree, That guy totally hijacked my thread! lol


I did buy a piece of land, and it's working out well so far

My sincere apologies, I've clearly overstepped.

Regardless, anyone reading this - don't be involved with me, that's fine. But *please* do consider other options available from my competition.

For your own sake.

I stand by my honest opinion that First Land can be a very raw deal for new folk.

Look at what happens to First Land sims for yourself. You may be wishing for an apology also from whomever tries to cover up the reality of them, soon enough.

Good luck with your land experiences,

a humbled Desmond Shang

Well, with a premium membership you also get a stipend. So if you are paying $10 a month you also get on average 2166 lindens in addition the right to own land. So, the deal is quite a bit better than others have suggested.

I think renting is a great option at first. But first land is such a good deal (even if you intend to flip it for a profit) that I think everyone who decides to spend a lot of time in SL should be a premium member and get your first land. You can always scale back to a basic acount, sell your land and rent later. Or do some combination, like get a premium account, buy first land and rent more land with your stipend.

What is the difference between a premium account and a basic account?

Premium, you get $L 500 a week and the ability to own 512m of land without paying additional 'tier'.

With basic membership, you get $L 50 a week for free but can't directly 'own' land.



If you buy one year of premium membership for 6 USD a month, you get 52*500 $L for 72 USD.

Effectively, buying 26,000 USD at a rate of 361.1 $L per dollar (very, very good).


But if you buy monthly membership for about 10 USD a month, the effective rate is 217 $L per dollar (very, very bad). You pay far more for $L than the going rate on the LindeX (where you currently get approximately $L 275 for every dollar).

Have a look for yourself if in doubt:

https://secondlife.com/currency/market.php

Thanks for your response,

But when i was signing up it seemed to me that the basic membership was the same price as the premium membership, $9.95 month?

I paid for a Premium membership with the quarterly payment option.

I'm not comprehending all this lol. I'll get the hang of it eventually, in the meantime thanks to everyone for taking the time to try to explain it

Oh I watch the linden very closely. You are right, the premium membership is not worth it JUST for the stipend IF you pay it month to month AND you don't own land. But you are getting the stipend AND the use of 512 of land.

Let's say you found a plot of land to rent for 150 a week (about 650 a month). You buy $10 worth of lindens every month or (2696 currently). So you would be left with 2046 to use elsewhere instead the 2167 a month you would have with a premium account.

Basically renting can be a good deal at 150 a month or less (per 512), but it's not such a big difference in value when you consider the stipend as well. And if you are willing to go for the annual account, that's a tremendous value.

Personally, I prefer to own land because of the additional tools at my disposal as an owner.

I'm actually curious about this - I'm fairly new to the whole land rental thing and don't fully understand every tiny privilege.

If, say, I deed a private island parcel to a person's group, what are the differences between that, and owning on the mainland for them?

The only things I can think of, are that they can't list parcels 'for sale' directly (cancelled out by the fact that it cost 0 USD, not 50 - 200 USD in the first place), and a sim owner can shut off P2P teleport. That and the general requirement to use a 'group' to access these functions - a $L 100 (37 cent) cost.

What else can't they do?

Far as I can tell they can ban, eject, make listings in Find, Classifieds, group access controls, terraforming, all that.

I don't know. I've only rented on the mainland.

I got $6144 for mine. I didn't expect it to sell for that, I just put it up at what I thought was a far too high price in an attempt to start a bidding war between the people on either side of me.

2500-3000 would be far more reasonable, if you can try to pick a block next to someone with a nice build who looks like they might want to expand.

As someone in the land business who is not offering rentals I might me biased, but I don't think advising an new resident in a way that suggests "renting is the cheapest solution" is a bit misleading. Lets look at three alternatives:

(1) If you subscribe to a Premium Account, select the yearly payment plan and buy some first land for 512L$ you pay 72US$, get a piece of land and still have some 26,000 L$ left (stipends) at the end of the year which you can use to buy other nice things. 26,000 L$ is worth at least 93 US$ at the LindeX.
Yes, you make a profit this way!

(2) If you decide to dwell on 1024 sqm, you pay 132 US$ to the Lindens, get 26,000 L$ in stipends but will probably spend some 7,000 L$ for the land. Taking into account that buying and selling your First Land you will probably make 2,000 L$ at the least, that leaves you with a cost of 132 US$ and 21,000 L$ left. 21,000 L$ is worth at least 75US$ at the LindeX. In effect you pay
57 US$ for living on 1024 sqm in Second Life for one Year.

(3) If you select a Basic Account and rent on Desmonds new island, you will pay
75US$ for living on 1024 sqm in Second Life for one year (12 * 6.50 US$).

Decide for yourself what is cheaper.



Renting is not bad. It has other advantages. But the marketing strategy used by some rental firms, to say or imply that renting is cheaper then living on land bought on the mainland, is ... false marketing?

Don't forget the 1k L$ premium bonus on startup

"What do I do now that I've become premium?" is not the same as "Is it better to rent or buy?". The OP had joined SL the day before and upgraded to premium the day of his post where his question was basically "Now what do I do?". He has subsequently indicated he chose a quarterly subscription. It just seemed poor form to not provide him with the advice he was looking for and, on top of that, to point out what a poor choice he had made (in your opinion!). There are certainly benefits and drawbacks to both renting from another player or from paying tier directly to LL. Renting could have been presented as an alternative should he find his present choice does not suit him.

Btw Jaye, the Basic membership is free which differs from the Premium membership monthly rate of $9.95. Your monthly rate is even less because you went quarterly which is what I did when I first joined. I felt pretty certain I'd like it for 3 months and after that I went with the annual which at $6 per month is an even better deal.

With full yearly premium membership, yes it's cheaper because you get the stipend discount. No argument.

I was referring to the 10 USD membership but didn't make it clear enough. Every single new player I've ever discussed the matter with had monthly - I'd say over a dozen during my home sales, setups, recent discussions and whatnot. Some were holding fairly big parcels too, which I thought odd considering they still had monthly membership.

Anyway I never wish to fool anyone, I'm glad I've been called on it and I'll be far more careful about such statements in the future. I'd rather be wrong once than intentionally dishonest.

I expect to be chewed upon further in this thread. So be it - you are right, I was wrong.



In spite of myself, the island is now mostly full. Had I been faster to respond to IM's yesterday it would BE full, I just couldn't respond fast enough. Something like eight IM's at once, at one point. I was shocked at how fast people came in.

I suppose the camping chairs, Impeach Bush signs, clubs and lag were more than reason enough.