best place to buy/rent land for building?

Hi. Where would people say is the best sort of place to buy (or rent) 1024 to do a lot of building on....making buildings, taking them down, starting a new one...so something is always going to be a "build in process" there, sandbox style, and I wouldn't want to irritate the neightbors

What are people's usual solutions to that scenario....outside of the public sandbox experience...which I've already had my fill of...

In the longer term I hope to become a land owner in the fullest sense. But in the meantime I need a place to build frequently.

I see that like me, you are relatively new to SL.

I rent a 1024 plot on the mainland in a subsidized newbie community for $L250/wk. Do an ingame (/slaps self, "in-world" search for Classifieds: Land Rental: Newbie. Ravenglass is the one I use.

It's a whole lot cheaper than most other options. You only "qualify" for these lots your first 120 days in world, so it's not a longterm solution, but a very nice one while you leisurely research your longterm options. And because its a "transitional neighborhood" with people coming and going somewhat frequently, few are going to care if you are constantly building stuff and tearing it down repeatedly.

In addition to all the general info about buying/renting, one thing to keep in mind in regards to the building question is the ability to place builds up in the air. Many people have some sort of building platform made of prims somewhere high above their land and use this for just the purpose you describe. This allows you to keep the ground level more stable/empty/attractive if you so desire.

For a new player, I generally think renting is a very good idea before you decide to buy. Are you already premium (allowing you to buy mainland), or would you have to incur that cost first in addition to land? If you are premium then buying some inexpensive mainland may be a good plan in this case as the looks of the neighborhood don't seem a primary concern.

First, either go mainland, or choose a private island parcel that has a covenant that would allow such use (many won't in a residential area).

Second, building might be easiest and less laggy if you use a sky platform up at the 600-700m level, which means what the ground level looks like really doesn't matter. If you DO want to build on the ground, it would probably be best to get something very flat so the terrain doesn't get in the way.

Third, look for good performance. Check the stats to compare sim frame rate (not your fps), time dilation, and script IPS. Look around to see how busy the sim is traffic-wise.

Fourth, think of the future. Just because a place is good now doesn't mean it will stay that way, but it's a better bet if the parcel is on an older continent and most of the parcels around it are NOT for sale.