How do homes work?

[SamminNikki]

Hi I'm still moderately new to this site, and I have a question about the homes on here. I picked up a free gift house, but I don't know what to do next... Do I have to buy land to use it, and if so where can I find some for cheap?

[beethros Karas]

Yes! You got it right!

In order to use a house or anything else in SL you have to find a free for the public place ( a sandbox) or to rent some land ( a parcel) to place it there. To "rez" it as we say in SL. Sandboxes gives you a free limited time of a few hours and then your object ( house) will return into your inventory. Renting a skybox is a bit better, they give you rights to have permanent the object on land (a platform deck) but  usually you cannot use all the abilities / powers provided for the parcel where the skybox is rented. ( like change the name of the parcel, change the music, cannot ban unpleasant guests, etc etc) By renting a parcel, you can get full rights on the parcel and enjoy it to its maximum!

To find sandboxes, skyboxes, private parcels you need to check out the Land Forum where you post this. There are several sub categories for Regions and Mainland where lots of landlords advertise their properties.

Now, as for the cheap part... Nothing is expensive in secondlife.

The best way is to pay the premium membership for a year (or just 1 month) and you will get the rent for a parcel of 512m already payed with it. A 512m parcel has a footprint of 32x16 meters and supports 117 prims, just enough to fit a small house! That way you will own the parcel with full rights and you will have all the options/abilities available to use it and have fun with it!

There are no cheap lands... As we say, you get what you pay for. So be really careful from who you rent lands from. It has been noticed by the years some people who trying to abuse others by renting out "cheap" lands but they don't pay Secondlife fees or fees and so their properties goes back to secondlife and the tenants loosing their money.

You can find lots more about rentals in secondlife help pages here and here and here

Also here are some useful information about managing a parcel

And here (select land) for more information...

P.S. Maybe there are a lot to read about lands and rentals in secondlife, but its worthy. It will save your money and it will make you enjoy what you pay for at its maximum

Wish you to have a lot of fun!

Welcome to secondlife!

Cheers,

beethros Karas

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Just to add to Beethros' excellent answer,

You need to find out how many prims you house uses and the size it is.  Rez it out in a sandbox and see if you didn't get that information with the house.

Once you find out, you will need to find land with the number of prims you need for the house and a lot big enough for it.  Add more prims for furniture if it came unfurnished, and landscaping such as trees and flowers if the lot doesn't have them.

 

SquareMeters      Std. Lot Dimensions*    Number of Prims

512                          32x16                                117

1024                        32x32                                234

2048                        64x32                                468

4096                        64x64                                937

8192                       128x64                               1875

Quarter of Sim        128x128                             3750

Half Sim                  256x128                             7500

Full Sim                   256x256                            15000

*In Meters.  Note that not all lots of any particular size measure exactly as shown, but most will.

[SamminNikki]

Thank you so much, this is really helpful!

[SamminNikki]

Thanks! I'm still new to this so I'm slowly learning but this helps a lot