Land & House

First, let me appoligize for all of these newbie questions......

Here comes another one.

Once I'm ready to buy some land, can I just use the free house I got on Help Island? Unless the land already has a house on it. I'm really not interested in building one. My main theme is clothes, social functions and just having a great time in SL.

Thanks in advance for your time responding...

Besides the one you got on help island there are literally dozens of free houses of various sizes floating around the grid, many of them quite nice. Just type "freebie" into your search function and you'll find a bunch of them.

So your instinct is correct, you do not need to spend money for a house.

Thank you so much! This is going to be fun!!!!

just watch your prim count... your first land will have a limit of 117 prim unless you buy additional land. You want to place as low a prim house as is possible while still keeping the aesthetic look that you want. That way you save those extra prim for decorating the interior of your house.

Good advice all around. Just one thing I would add--based on my own experience as a newbie--unless you've bought land from the Lindens directly, there's a good chance your lot will have an odd shape. Make sure whatever size house you do put out fits within your plot's footprint, not just its size. (And fgs, don't buy your first house! I did, and it was a nightmare trying to get it to fit on the land!)

Kam

If you buy a house from a good maker, they usually tell you whether it fits on a standard shaped lot. I like Cocoanut Koala's houses when I put a house on my first land. That being said, take your time buying land if you want to, make sure it's where you want, as you can only buy first land one time - after that you will pay the more typical prices for it which are higher.

Thanks again for all of these quick responces!!!

Regarding the land purchase, what would be the best type of land to go for and where? I really don't mind paying a higher price for a nice piece of property. The lot doesn't have to be large, but big enough to allow for a decent confortable home. Nothing extravagant.

Definately buy your first land first. Even if you want to upgrade to another plot, you can sell if for a nice quick profit.

Well, if you're patient enough to find a plot of "first land" that would be cheapest.

For residential usage I've never worried much about location. Since I tend to spend much more time inside the house than out I'm not too concerned about what the neighborhood looks like. Then again, I live in a bunker with one door and no windows, so I may not be the best one to advise you on that score.

Rule 1: If you are buying land, always always always buy First Land first.

It doesn't matter if you don't want to live on the First Land. If you can get First Land that's on waterfront on in a good location, that's great, but always buy some: you can always resell it for more than you paid.

As for buying land, things to consider are:
* Shape of the parcel.
* Shape of the underlying land - on mainland, you can only terraform the underlying land by a few meters, so roughly-flat land is better than the side of a mountain.
* Mature/PG. Mature is more valuable than PG generally, but you might prefer PG.
* Waterfront is also generally sought after.
* Neighbours. Remember that the way estate rules work on SL is that once you're over that magic green line on the land, anything can be put there. Make sure what's there is something you want and also check how established or otherwise your neighbours are. Buying a parcel that's next to another parcel for sale is risky, because you have no idea what someone might put there. If your neighbours are seas, or Linden protected land, you're fairly safe. Bear in mind that if your neighbour is the edge of the map, the map can extend at any time.

I'll definitely use all of this information and also buy "First Land", first!

My 2 cents. I am three weeks old and I own both first land and a 3000m plot I got at auction. Given your interests, I don't think you really need anything bigger than 512m. You need a private space to try on clothes and edit your appearence and search for interesting places to go. You might want to try your hand at doing some very simple building by putting up some walls around your perimeter for privacy or to block something that is visible that you don't want to look at. I find it interesting that most everyone has a somewhat conventional looking house. There is no cold weather or rain. No need for a roof!

Thanks for the tip. You definitely understand what my priorities are. LOL Privacy is a MUST. I don't want just anyone walking through my place with out my welcome. I do plan to entertain but to my own friends and their companions. Like I previously said, I really don't need anything extravagant. Cosy, confortable and private will do.

There are many nice places around, but take a good look around before you buy.

I started first with a very small house that game along with an deal from SL when you upgraded your account from a free one to an premium one (and paid for 1 year ahead).

Later I started to look and found a nice spot in Maia. I had luck. Overtime I was able to buy small spot around me untill I had the 4600-something square meter that one can own for 25$ per month (be careful when you do this, they have to be in same area when you want to add the prims to your main spot... so all my spots are in Maia... and nicely arranged around my house).

Privacy is another matter. My house used to be open and that is way I like it, but by some events that happened recently I had to do some things to protect my privacy (I used scripted doors now, so I can lock doors when I want to. And the doors to some rooms are now permently locked).
I prefer to protect my privacy on this gentle way, instead of hard way as accesslist and device that kick people away. I still want people to be welcome at my house.

Morwen

I think a 4096 plot near to water should give you all the space and prims you should normally need for a private type residence, including that of the prim (and virtual real space) allowences to have a Sky House as well as a more usual ground type house.

While I agree that there are some okay free houses it may well be worth buying one, for say $L3,000/ to $L4,000 (say $12 max real US/ £8 sterling) you would get a very nice build with security built in. It is not a great deal of money by most peoples standards, I mean £8 sterling is not even enough nowadays to buy a round of drinks in a UK Pub for more than two or three people, but will greatly enhance your Second Life experiance.

Take a look at Caledon, Otherworld, or the Dreamland sims for some examples of nice builds, privacy, no griefing, and general issues before you decide.

Just a personal view

Regards

John

All of this information is extremely helpfull. I'll definitely use what you all have told me. Thanks again!

I would normally agree with the others advice to Always buy First Land first but one exception did come to mind. If you crave more land or more prims than the 117 that you get with a 512 plot or maybe you just can't find a First Land place that appeals to you, you can buy a place on one of the private sims. Premium membership is not required for land in a private sim, you pay tier to the sim owner rather than Linden so you still retain your ability to buy First land at a later time.

I also got lucky with First Land in Shermerville that resold for a nice profit. I've had various Mainland lots and now have an island in one of the private sims. It is generally less expensive than mainland and I really like the peace and quiet. There is some beautifull land out there and you don't have to worry about someone building an eyesore next to you.

As for houses, I sometimes think I have looked at every prefab out there. There are some nice small houses that will fit on a 512 lot for under $L500, there are castles that sell for several thousand and everything in between. There are builders that will bring a house out to your lot to see how it fits/looks before you buy. Very convenient if you have an odd shaped lot or if you find a house you like but don't want it to "overwhelm" your land

What I said before about my house being a bunker is the truth, and reading your comments it sounds like something you might want to consider.

To build my house I rezzed a cube to maximum size, hollowed it out and cut off one side, making a kind of "U" shape. Four of those linked together is walls, floor and cieling for one side of the house. Four more make the other side and six make the endcaps. One prim for the door.

The end result is a very private room with high cielings that takes up an entire 512 m2 footprint, using a grand total of 15 prims. And this kind of construction requires extremely low-end building skills.

Such a dwelling isn't much to look at from the outside... it's just a box. But with such low prim usage you have a lot of leeway to decorate the inside, which is what's really important.

The only caveat I'd offer with this is to be careful where you do it. I live in a crappy neighborhood where a pile of rocks doesn't constitute an eyesore. You probably wouldn't want to try this on an island or in a nice residential sim.

Thanks Lewbowski,

Although your dwelling actually does fit my requirements, and I really do care more about the inside than the outside, I would really prefer to live in one of the nicer neighborhoods.

I haven't even attempted building anything and I really don't think I will be. Call me spoiled but I'll probably buy what I need. Maybe after a while, I'll give building simple objects a try.

Thanks again for the info.

Hi Sylvia,

That is true, but we do have a hazard you don't have in RL - your neighbors (or strangers) flying overhead and peering down at you (assuming you allow flying on your land).

Grace,
In a very conventional little house and with new neighbors who seem (so far) to be a gigantic improvement over the guy who built a big ugly warehouse blocking 2 of my windows and infringing on a corner of my lot. (Of course, I haven't logged on in over 12 hours, so who knows what new horror may await me?)