land question - i know it doesn't go here ;P

ok i'm sorry, i know this isn't like the proper place to ask a stupid nooby land question, but it's important (to me) to find an answer, so i overlooked the potential hatemail & surefire embarrassment..

So I am currently a small land-renter. I pay such&such price every week.

I am considering purchasing land using my us$.

I guess I don't understand it all very well..
If i purchase land through the site, with my real dollars..
then do I literally own it?
Or must I pay more money later to maintain it?

I'm not a rich person, if I buy land through here using my real dollars, then it is a one-time thing you see.. so I need to know, before I blow my hard-earned money on a virtual plot of land, will I lose it later? or is it mine to keep always? do I only pay once? or do I keep paying a tier somewhere, somehow.

thanks again.
-vox

Everything you want to know (maybe) is at http://secondlife.com/land/purchasing.php.

ohh geez, hey thanks for the link, I was "oh geez"-ing at the info there, I understand it all now, purchasing land through a premium account is STUPID. >;P

If i wanted to spend my bloody money on land, and then keep paying the mofos for it, then I might as well just slap a nametag on myself that says "a--hole" xD

thanks a lot for the help, idk why i couldn't find that page earlier, but i do know i will never be a premium kid LOL ;D

There are a few ways to look at land purchases, either on mainland or a private sim. Either way, no matter what, you will always pay a monthly tier unless you stick to mainland with a 512m plot, but even then you only get that with a premium account with it's monthly fee. So if you were looking at a one time deal on a credit card or paypal account then you're pretty much out of luck, although...... if you find a private sim owner with land for sale who's willing to accept monthly tier in $L directly (from your inworld source of income) then the one time transaction deal with your RL payment is possible. With the land market the way it is, currently many sim owners are willing to deal on payment plans....you never know until you ask.

Being a premium kid isn't so bad....you get an allowance

Another place to find info:
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Land_Buying_FAQ

Well, consider this...

All virtual land in Second Life is on a server somewhere. That server requires electricity to run it, people to maintain it, a data center with air conditioning and rack space for the server to exist in, high speed network connections, etc.

Expecting to buy a parcel of land in SL for a one-time fee and never pay *anything* for its use after that, either as monthly maintenance or as a membership fee, is rather like expecting to buy a TV set and never having to pay for electricity to run it on, or cable TV service to deliver programming to you. *Someone* has to pay to keep that server running.

Now, it could certainly be argued that the monthly fees per M2 of land are too high. But if you want access to a server via a network, you're going to have to expect that SOMEONE pays the bills. "Free" websites, for example, are supported by advertising, or by other services sold by the producer of the website. The forums you're posting on here are paid for by the membership fees and land purchase fees and monthly maintenance fees that people pay to Linden Lab.