Buying land for first time

i don't understand about the prims and how to figure out how many prims will be enough to put a house and furnishing on the land i purchase. everytime i try and find first time buying land i get nothing found. so im buying from the classifieds. is 9499L a good price for 512 sq. m?
this part is very confusing to me:
Simulator primitive: 108 out of 1757 (1649 available)
Primitive parcel supports: 117
Primitives on parcel: 9

Is this telling me that i have 1649 prims to work with or 117? and the owner has 9 prims on parcel, does he take the 9 prims off after i purchase the land?

Also how do i know if this is on an island or mainland?

I want to thank whoever can give me some answers in advance.

confused zORIE

A 512 m2 plot gets 117 prims.

Scroll down partway on this page and it'll tell you how many prims you get with how much land. http://secondlife.com/knowledgebase/article.php?id=055 Those 9 prims that are being used, could be trees, bushes, a forsale sign or anything really. You can get rid of those after purchasing the land.

If you look at the map, the mainland is really the 2 large groupings of land. As opposed to, when you zoom in and see all the single (or maybe a few lumped together) islands. Also, most islands have a covenant written, so that will also clue you in on if it's mainland or an island.

$9,499L for 512 m2 ($18.56L/m2) is about the going rate currently. A lot of people are saying to wait a while (how long I don't know) as they feel prices will drop dramatically. First land goes for $512 / 512 m2 ($1L per m2) when you can find it.

Good luck.

thank you Mia now it makes sense to me.

zORIE