Setting up a home -- easiest, fastest, cheapest

What is the easiest, fastest, cheapest way to set up a home? Something that I can do with a one-time payment, not recurring rent or paying someone out of world. I just want to get something planted on the ground, nothing fancy, very early base of operations. Any suggestions?

Pretty much everything has some kind of recurring payment, unless you're Premium and limit yourself to the tier-free 512m of land that gives you. Of course, you still need to pay for the land in that case.

Yeah, I'm going to go premium and I'll start with the initial limit. Are there still monthly fees for everything?

If you go Premium, you can buy 512 sq meters of land on the mainland. That initial 512 will be free of any monthly fees. Any larger plot and it will be subject to tier.

Membership for premium is 9.99 if you pay monthly. Tier only goes up if you buy more then 512m2.
Only other way to avoid spending anything monthly is finding a friend who will give you a home for free.

I answered this on another of your threads, but if you have 512m on the mainland, there is no tier. Islands are owned by other players and land there is generally NOT tier-free. You can filter for mainland using the drop down menu on Land search.

I rented a 512 residential parcel on a private sim for 375 Lindens a week. It's enough to build your home. You can do that even with "no payment info on file" as long as you earn enough L$ to keep it. But you should keep in mind that you don't own anything, you cannot sell anything and you are bound to a covenant.

Thanks, Ann! Sorry for making you answer twice.

How can I tell if land is on the mainland or on an island?

Oh, and when Ann says "mainland" she means any of the huge continents that you see on the world map. Any little islands are privately owned by individuals and you would be renting from them. You can't actually buy land from island owners, because at the end of the day, they still have to pay Linden Lab THEIR tier for maintaining the island, and most people would prefer a regular source of incoming money rather than a one-time sale.

In the search engine you can choose either Mainland or Estate.

yeka i suggest you go to the secondlife.com page and reading all the faq's they have on various subjects like land and there is te search you can use also i understand your trying to learn things but tons of posts started up is going to cause problems

If you haven't already plunked down the premium (9.95 a month) I charge 600L a week for a double prim 512 lot (234 prims instead of the 117 you get on a standard 512 on the mainland or likely the one for 374 lindens referenced above).

To say their are no recurring fees if you're premium is only sort of true since the premium membership itself is a recurring fee, though it does include your weekly stipend, which can convert back to USD at about half what you pay (more if you pay quarterly or yearly in advance).

Char

Arua, this is RESIDENT ANSWERS. People are here to help. For shame!

How much is the monthly stipend?

300L per week, which is around $1.15. Monthly depends on how many Tuesdays there are in a given month.

i understand that but alot of these questions/answers are easily found and she could have put it all in one post

Easily found for someone who already knows where they are.

The truth is that most of the questions asked here have already been answered, or can be answered by searching the SL Knowledge Base. Some readers get annoyed by this, but most don't seem to be bothered by it.

My suggestion: If some piece of knowledge IS available elsewhere, tell the person how to find it AND provide a link. Even the oldsters learn new things this way!



100% disagree. One topic per thread!

It would be great to see one topic per thread for some of you but its just not going to happen.
Not everyone knows how to get search or even knowledge base to work. And even when they do it doesn't always show them what they are looking for.
Things are complecated, the learning curve is steep, its harder for some.
If you don't have something friendly or encouraging to say why post at all other then if you're just enjoying be rude to new players?
There is hundreds off topic subjects that are nothing but opinion post that repeative and redundant. plus tons of subjects that have nothing really to do with residence answers other then its posted by a resident. And majority of time they pages and pages long.
Yet if newbie post something its often filled with unfriendly comments and how they should post.
Well you know what only person who can lock or say thread is wrong is a res mod if you been around.
If you really want to be helpful post links, welcome the person, give the information and if you have issue with post don't post, do something else, if its against TOS report it and get it closed .
Yet this is my opinion in what I wish people would do here but that doesn't mean any one else is going to listen or give a darn any more then those who say this should happen, you should do such and such.
BTW Welcome New players!! Be really, really careful about what you invest in the game and where you invest in it. There no protection and there huge chance you're going to lose whatever investment you make. Be extremely I mean extremely careful renting or buying from strangers or non Lindens. I strongly suggest you find a free home join NCI or group for new members that owns land and set your home there that doesn't charge you until you get idea if you want to even be long term resident.

Agreed! I only wish I had found the Forums a LONG time ago, when I really WAS a newbie. Instead I just harrassed my friends. I remember the whole "I have a box on my head, how do I open it?" conundrum. Thank God my friends were patient!

With friends, good friends you don't really need home or spend a dime in world.
I strongly recommend enjoying and learning about SL first before spending a dime.
I learned that the hard way.
Now I have friends who helped me, who generous and kind who reduced my tier cost but ideally if I had to do it again I would spend more time in places that are for new residents, learn and spent less time spending real money in SL until I understood and knew about SL a whole more.
Premium though is good because it gives you stipend without having to struggle without finding camping spots and spending hours trying to get just 100l.
The 300L if spent right can do whole lot, plus you're supporting SL.

nci is a great place for nearly everything! tutorials, freebies, etc its well worth your time to check it out.
my only real advice is:
a) dont spend any money your first month or two
b) keep your inventory well sorted from day one
c) resist the temptation to collect every freebie box you see

here are a bunch of great sites to visit:

http://secure-web11.secondlife.com/community/land.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/faq.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/creations.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/building.php

http://secondlife.com/whatis/scripting.php

http://secure-web11.secondlife.com/community/resident_resource.php

http://www.lewisnerd.com/ look at the help guides section

Cheapest way is to buy tier from a land baron instead of from LL. You don't even need to be premium. You make a group, have the land baron donate the rented tier to the group, and buy land for the group. There is no downside to this; land barons buy tier in bulk so they can pass on the savings to you. Just find a respectable land baron, I just Elanthus Flagstaff. I rent around 12300 meters worth of tier for $40 a month, whereas $50 would only get me 8704 meters of tier from LL.

For smaller land sizes it is an even better deal. for a 1024, it would be only $3.50 a month, whereas it would be $15 from LL.

easy simple fast and no monthly payments u can`t live anywhere

even owning an 512sqm plot u have to pay $10 a month for premium account
on an island u have to pay the owner the monthly tier but no premium account needed
rent an 1024 plot for $6 and no premium or 512sqm for $10 with premium but there is allways a monthly cost

If you buy an annual membership, Premium is $6/month, $4-5 of which you get back via stipend. Done that way, you pay $1-2 per month for your 512m, or $6-7 for 1024m.