Buying a house and land?

[Dixie Raynier]

Ok, so i upgraded to premium and got one of the free 512sqm houses with only 117 prims.

I quickly learned 117 prims is hardly enough to furnish the house with what i would like.

So i need to know;

1. Is it possible to go above 117 prims? or should i Just buy land and a different house?

2. If i buy a different house and land can someone explain the cost for prims and land and stuff? (please dumb it down for me too haha im new)

3. Do i pay the costs with Lindens or USD?

Please help!

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Hi Dixie,

First just to be clear.  You cannot get a Linden Home with more than 117 prim.  That is the amount every Linden Home owner gets and you cannot buy or add more.  So your other option is to go out and buy land somewhere else.  You don't buy prim; you buy land.  And you pay a monthly tier on that land depending on how much you buy.  The amount of prim associated with land is 117 prim per 512sqm.  So if you bought a basic 512sqm, you would get 117 prim, just like with a Linden home BUT you would have to build your own home and that would count against your 117 prim.  This is why the Linden Home is actually a bargin.  But if you need more prim, you buy more land and then you pay more monthly land tier.  The land tier table is below.  Land tier is paid monthly in USD directly to Linden.  To calculate how many prim you would get, just divide the SqMeters by 512 and then multiple by 117.    So 2048/512 = 4 & 4*117=468 prim on a 2048sqm land.

Hope that helps a bit

--Cinn

Cost	Sq. Meters	Amount of Land
USD 195.00/ month	65,536	Entire Region
USD 125.00/ month	32,768	1/2 Region
USD 75.00/ month	16,384	1/4 Region
USD 40.00/ month	8,192	1/8 Region
USD 25.00/ month	4,096	1/16 Region
USD 15.00/ month	2,048	1/32 Region
USD 8.00/ month	1,024	1/64 Region
USD 5.00/ month	512	1/128 Region
USD 0.00/ month	0	0/128 Region

[Dixie Raynier]

Ok that makes sense. But lets say i buy land thats 1024sqm and get 234 prims. Since im premium do i get 512sqm and 117 prims free? So instead of paying $8USD a month would i pay less?

[DR Dahlgren]

Land can be a bit tricky unfortunately. The information Cin gives is correct, but the LL chart is a little misleading as the tier kicks in at 1 m2 above the number shown (512 is free, 513 = $5 us) since tier kicks in for premium members after the first 512m2. Also, on many rental properties (not recommending rentals, just explaining) the land owner has some land not used for rentals and so has a surplus of prim which they will allow renters to use by purchasing extra.

Suggestion, figure out what you want to do and how many prim you will need to do it, then look around for land to purchase that will give you enough prim.

You pay tier to LL in USD if you purchase mainland or a full sim. If you rent land it completely depends on what the land owner has setup since you are in a business relationship with another resident, not Linden Lab. Be aware, if you do not buy mainland, you are actually renting the land, no matter how it appears or what anyone says. Your landlord is another resident and LL will not get involved in any dispute you may have.

While the majority of land owners who rent property are honest, there are some real horror stories out there. A simple example: you rent a parcel, put your nice no copy home out, all your furniture, etc. The actual land owner fails to pay their tier. One day you login and attempt to go home, only to find it no longer exists. Your stuff is gone and you have no recourse.

_____________

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Dixie.Raynier wrote:

 

Ok that makes sense. But lets say i buy land thats 1024sqm and get 234 prims. Since im premium do i get 512sqm and 117 prims free? So instead of paying $8USD a month would i pay less?

Yes that is correct.  You get your first 512sqm of tier for free.  So you could do 1024sqm for only $5 per month as an example.  Best to think about the purchase from a land size perspective because that is what effects your tier payment.  And there are some special locations around SL with double prim allotments.  Zindra for example has areas with double prim but they are expensive to buy.

The other thing to remember is that you have to buy the land, either from the resident who currently owns it and is selling it or from the Land Auction where property that Linden has is being auctioned off.

--Cinn

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Dr.D makes a really good point about figuring out what you need in prim and planning from there.  I think there are a lot of different ways people "budget" their SL expenses and all of them are good    Bad is not budgeting and discovering that your monthly costs are more than you expected.  This is just as true for the basic account as it is for the premium ones since many people end up purchasing Linden to meet their inworld expenses even though they don't pay an account fee.

I made the decision 2 years ago to pay one time for a yearly premium account and then not to spend any more RL dollars on SL.  At that time I assumed that meant I would never own more that 512sqm of land.  It took me 3 months to make enough linden inworld to buy my first land parcel and that was a major milestone for me. This was before the Linden Homes were available.  But now with some lucky job choices, building skills and 2 years experience I have 4096sqm of land for my shop and park and another 400 in another sim for a small home, and I pay for everything including my monthly land tier from Linden made inworld.  Plus I've been able to make enough to pay for my next year's account payment as well.  So I stuck to my plan and am happy for that.  Believe me, there were times when I got a little impatient and was tempted to throw some more money in to move things along faster but in the long run I'm glad I stuck to the plan.

So make a plan that works for you and go for it

--Cinn

[Pussycat Catnap]

If you make a group for yourself and one alt (the alt need not be premium), and donate your land allowance to the group. Then buy land with 'buy for group' (an option under about land at the bottom right). you can buy an additional 10% more land.

 

So premium accounts really get 560m of land, not 512.

For $5 more, you get a total 1126m of land, not 1024.

[Czari Zenovka]

This was a great discussion on how people creatively used a 512 sqm parcel of land from the old Resident Answers forum that is now archived but can still be read:  http://forums-archive.secondlife.com/327/69/254601/1.html

With careful prim usage it is amazing what a nice home a 512 sqm can be.  In fact, at one time I owned approximately 5600 sqm of land, but I was stressed at having to try to meet tier each month so now I am back to a 512 parcel on mainland on the same sim I have lived on for about 3 years and love it.

There are many skillful prefab builders of homes who offer really nice homes for very low prims.  (If you ever want to see mine, just send an IM in world and I'll be happy to show you.)  Next is choosing low prim furniture wisely and, again, due to the builder's skillful use of prims, you can find really nice low prim furniture.  I know where a good place to start would be (whistles innocently while blatantly promoting my shop. *grins*) and if you search for "low prim" there are many wonderful stores that specialize in that type of furnishings.