First Time Buyer

I have been looking around at buying a home (simple Waterfront).

I have the premium 512m account. Whats a decent price? Whats going to be my monthly fee's? the places with covenants, are they more in fee's?

Mainland prices are going through the roof lately, especially for premium property like a waterfront. So be prepared to shell out lots of L$ even for a 512m plot, assuming you can find one like that for sale.

Check out some of the other recents threads to see specifics about current pricing.

If you decid to buy a plot on an island instead, just be sure to read the Covenant very carefully and check out the owner to see that they are responsible and reliable. Unlike the mainland, island plots are an arrangement between you and the island owner rather than Linden Labs. Which means you can get screwed much more easily.

I'm also a relative newbie, but have some nice waterfront property after looking into things a bit. The old timers will tell you the waterfront land "should" go for something like L$5,000-10,000 for a 512m2 parcel of waterfront property, but what I see actually available goes for more like L$15,000-30,000 (although you can of course pay much more). So take a few days to shop around--it's not impossible to check out all waterfront parcels on the mainland in an hour or so.

Watch out for land that is waterfront now, but possibly won't be later. What that means is to find a parcel that has Linden-owned "maintenance" or "protected" property adjacent. Some lots are next to undeveloped sims, which means Linden Labs can come in at any time and create land where there is now ocean. Other waterfront properties are next to land where the owners can at any time raise the seabed or riverbed above the water level, turning your previously waterfront property into landlocked property. In still other cases, your neighbors can't raise their land high enough to get it above sea level, but they can build prims on top of the water to give the appearance of land. Those "water parcels" are nice when people want to build a yacht or a pier (or an underwater grotto or skyloft or just use the lot for the extra prims elsewhere in the region), but can detract from your enjoyment of a waterfront lot when they build "land" or billboards.

If you "buy" a parcel in a private estate or island, you may be protected by covenant from some of these risks; the covenants help bring order and continuity to many communities. Even though private sims can change ownership (nullifying the covenants), you typically don't have to pay as much up-front for your plot of land, so it's less costly to relocate, and your costs may end up higher over time.

As a premium member, you will have no fees for owning the 512m2 land beyond what you already pay as a premium member ($9.95 monthly, a bit less if you pay a quarter or a year in advance) and the initial purchase price of the land. If you want a parcel only on a private sim, there's no reason to be a premium member; you will pay the sim owner "rent" or "tier" each month, in either US$ or L$, and you may not have to pay anything up front. You can end up paying more or less to a private estate than you would end up paying for something on the mainland.

If you don't already have your First Land, consider waiting for a few days until the planets all line up just right and you manage to get some; you'll pay L$512 for it, and can quickly sell it for up to L$8,000 (and perhaps for twice that, thought probably not as quickly); that profit can help you in your purchase of the more preferable waterfront property you're looking for. On the other hand, if you'll enjoy Second Life more by jumping right in and developing your waterfront property right now, forget about your First Land (forever) and when you go to buy your land you'll have the option of buying enough L$ on the spot to cover the purchase price.

Thanks for the in depth response. Very informative.

My biggest misunderstanding was the linden fee's on a private island. I guess you pay the owner of the island and not second life.

Now that 512m is not always available. Is there a good time to search for property?

[edit] NM, just bought a parcel!