does the original 512 meters square count toward a total if someone buys more land?

[Abigail Longmeadow]

Linden homes are mainland, and count as 512m of land held just like any other mainland. However, each Premium account comes with 512m of free tier each month. You don't pay directly for this, it is included with the premium membership. You may use the 512m of free tier for a Linden house, or if you don't have a Linden house, you can hold 512m more than you would think you could. So if you are paying for the 1024m tier level, but you do NOT have a linden house, you can actually hold 1536m on the mainland.

[Abigail Longmeadow]

Linden homes are mainland, and count as 512m of land held just like any other mainland. However, each Premium account comes with 512m of free tier each month. You don't pay directly for this, it is included with the premium membership. You may use the 512m of free tier for a Linden house, or if you don't have a Linden house, you can hold 512m more than you would think you could. So if you are paying for the 1024m tier level, but you do NOT have a linden house, you can actually hold 1536m on the mainland.

[Lindal Kidd]

Abigail is correct.

Your friend is willing to pay $40 per month for mainland.  That means she can own up to 8192 m2, BESIDES her Linden Home.  She can keep the home, and buy an 8192 m2 mainland parcel, and her monthly payment will be $40.  Or, she could Abandon the Linden Home, and buy up to 8192+512 = 8704 m2, for the same $40 per month.

There is another trick that people use to increase their land holdings without increasing tier:  group owned land.  Groups get a 10% tier discount.  So, your friend could do the following:

• Create a group
• Invite her own alt to the group, to keep the group from collapsing after 48 hours (groups need at least two members, but they can both be you!)
• Wear the group tag
• Buy the land for the group, and check the "owner makes contribution with deed" box.
• Buy as much as (8192+512) x 1.10 = 9574 m2 of Mainland for the group, and pay only the same $40 per month