I'm going to buy some land.

I bought premium and I have about 10,000 L$ which is enough to buy a small bit of land to build a house on.

Now I have noticed that some are for rent and some are for sale and some are for auction.

I'm planning to buy a plot of land for 7000 L$ thats just a simple cash buy, no renting or anything, and what I want to know is, once I buy that, is it mine FULL STOP. I read about some instances where people lost their land due to shady sellers, and I really don't want to risk loosing my $, any help is greatly appreciated.

~Ser

Hey there, first off, welcome to SL

As long as you buy mainland, there isn't anything a shady seller can do to scam you. When you go under the search, on the left upper corner you should see a tab that has listings such as All, estate, auctions, mainland. Select mainland. Anything listed under there comes with no restrictions (other than the terms of service from LL of course) and is 100% scam free.

As Reece noted, you're safe as long as you buy mainland.

No matter what island owners may say, their "sales" are not ironclad transfers of land ownership. They are transfers only so long as the island owner chooses to recogize your claim. If you select a good, trustworthy landlord who is solvent, your transaction is the equivalent of land ownership. But if your landlord is untrustworthy or someone new with a start-up venture that fails, you could lose the land.

Also, may I add, that when you purchase land on mainland, you will no longer be eligible for first land, when it finally is available.

Yes, welcome to SL.

Land can be a bit baffeling at first, especially right now in SL.

The quote above is misleading and only one persons opinion.

Here are some more threads for you to read that might help...

The following thread talks about how a person spent a lot of money for mainland and now feels ripped off.
/327/91/160921/1.html

and

This thread talks about the pros and cons of mainland ownership vs. private island renting,
/327/91/160921/1.html

Such land exists nowhere in SL. If you buy more than 512 M2 of land, you must pay money every month to SOMEONE, be it Linden Lab for Mainland tier, or a private island owner for their monthly maintenance. If you don't pay your maintenance or tier, you WILL lose that land. There is no such thing as "I buy it and it's mine, full stop." You can call it a monthly rent or maintenance fee, or you can call it your Linden land tier and Premium Member renewal, but whatever you call it, all land has a regularly recurring fee associated with it.

Even if you pay that L$7K just for a nice 512 M2 parcel, you must still maintain your Premium membership, paying the member renewals, or you'll lose the land - even though there is no monthly tier fee on the first 512 M2 of land for a Premium member.

Mainland can be nice, if you luck into a nice parcel. But the parcel that is perfect today, and has 'no strings attached' in terms of land covenants... may, tomorrow, be surrounded by a noisy casino on one side and a forest of flaming flamingos on the other. Having no land covenant also means that anyone else is free to do absolutely anything they choose on the parcel right next to yours, even if that screws you over big time. Mainland is anarchy, with no zoning at all, and the Lindens won'd do squat if someone moves in and ruins the value of your land.

Buying on a private sim has it's risks. I have lost a perfectly good plot of rented land because of owner changes. I've seen an entire sim destroyed by bad management. But a sim owner will usually take care to make their sim a desirable place, and will enforce zoning to keep the casinos, flaming flamingos and 16M2 micro-parcels filled with annoying ads out of their sims. Personally, I find that private sims are far nicer places to spend my time.

Well, after getting all charged up about buying First Land... I sold it and am now renting a plot. 512 is simply inadequate if you're the least bit creative, mainland was way too costly, and island "purchases" involved falling down a rabbit hole of private tier payments and policies.

What I found instead are sims owned by someone who has actually created interesting terrain and divided it into interesting plots, and who says "this is a rental, here's how much it is a month, here's how many prims you get, build something neat and creative that doesn't make your neighbors want to shoot themselves (or you)."

Such an arrangement may not be ideal for everyone, but for me it's perfect. Not everyone should buy, and not everyone "selling" actually is selling. Maybe, though, if what is important to you is building a house rather than buying and selling real estate, renting land might give you more options.

Well, I got some land and put together a nice house, unfortunately, I can't put in a lot of items, but never mind.. Thanks for all your help.

By the way, thought I would post a pic of a part of the house

I'm with Egil on this one. That's exactly how my Sims are run. 'Purchase' of property on a Private Island is, 'at best', misleading. All Private Island properties should be 'Leased'.

OBTW, nice house, Serideth

I guess I was lucky. I bought mainland first land about a year ago (my SL birthdate is Feb 9). No hassle no fuss.........found it and paid LL the 512 lindens. I still own it.......and haven't bought any other land on either mainland or private. It all depends on what you want to do with your land.........me? I just needed a place to land upon login and a place to change clothes. My plot is more than enough for that. Now for the luck..........I was new and didn't know squat about buying land in SL. I actually wound up with what I would call prim land. Not on some beach but actually quite a bit inland from any edge of the sim. What I got is a plot that backs up to another region and on the the remaining sides Linden protected land. My nearest neighbor is my neigbbor directly behind me and we happen to get along fine. The others are barely within shouting distance across the protected land. Sure someone could put up a big club and lag the sim............but that could happen even on a private sim. But with all the protected land that is not likely to happen anytime soon...............well until LL decides to make that land available for sale.

You need to look and think about what could possibly develope around you..........mainland or private land. And another thing to think about (especially with private land) is that with the griefing going on and everyone putting up ban lines you might have a lot or red ribbons in your view from your land. And you might be confined to your land with the only way in or out is TP.

But that 117 prim limit sucks LOL

The way I see it mainland land is ugly, laggy and ridden in junk. I've got a nice 512 parcel with two clubs on each side and a very odd looking structure behind me. But I love it as it is.

I don't aspire to the pristine scenario and order. I would rather have campers, gamblers and random naked people as neighbours than someone trying to re-create postcard type settings.

But that's just me. I am a pornographer afterall

Now I remember why I moved away

Doors to my Member's Lounge are always open for you... just keep your eyes closed when you come in