Question about premium

[LilithCancerian]

I just bought premium. I thought I had a choice whether to buy a house OR own that amount of blank land. Is the land owning just an option that you can buy that amount of land in addition to your house?

[Phil Deakins]

With a premium membership, you are entitled to 512sqm of mainland without paying any monthly tier for it. It's tier-free. But you have to buy it in the first place. For instance, you can buy a 1024 parcel of mainland, and you only have to pay the monthy tier for 512 of it.

Alternatively, you can have the 512 as a Linden Home without having to buy the land, complete with a house on it. And the house doesn't take any of the allowed prims (117 on a 512) from you. The Linden Homes are seperated from the mainland, in their own little countries (too small to be called mini-continents). You can abandon a Linden Home at any time, and buy yourself some mainland, when the first 512 will be tier-free.

The second option is a good way to start, to give you time to decided exactly what you want to do concerning land.

Note: those options don't apply to private islands/estates.

[LilithCancerian]

So it's either the house OR the land? Or the land is an additonal option to the house? 

 

Also how do I tell how much teir I'll have to pay for each size land?

[Alwin Alcott]

yes it is OR the land OR the land with Linden Home on it  included in your premium fee.

But you can own as much land as you want, .... but will have to buy it, and pay the tier level.

[Phil Deakins]

It's either buy a piece of mainland, with the first 512 being teir-free, or get a Linden Home, which is 512 of land with a house on it.

There is no option to receive a house on its own. If you buy a piece of mainland, and you want a house, you would need to either buy a house, or find a freebie one, and there are plenty of those around - at least to be going on with.

[Freya Mokusei]

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LilithCancerian wrote:

 

Also how do I tell how much teir I'll have to pay for each size land?

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SL: Land Use Fees (if required, don't forget to add VAT on top!)

[Phil Deakins]

I re-read my first post and saw that it wasn't very clear about the house (Linden Home) part.

Linden Homes are on 512 parcels of land. They are not houses that you can put in your inventory.

So it's buy land (512 of which is tier-free), OR take a Linden Home which is on a 512 parcel of land.

Out of interest... You can see the Linden Homes by TPing to them from the Map. There are several large islands of them, away from the main continents, that look very similar in shape. Look south of the 2 continents to the west. There are 2 down there. And TP to them to have a look around. There are several types of Linden Homes to choose from too. Have a good look round.

[Aethelwine]

Just to be super clear....

You can have a linden home and buy land on mainland... But when you do the 512m2 free tier will be spent on the linden home, so any additional mainland you buy will be coming out of additional tier you will have to agree to pay for.

The Linden home is good value because the house on the land doesn't come out of the allowance for prims that comes with the land and there is no one off payment required to buy the land itself.

 Alot of people have both, because once they have found their ideal mainland spot and are paying at a tier level, they find they have 512 or more tier free they might as well use on a linden home.. which makes for a nice private getaway.. or just somewhere else fun to decorate.

[Prokofy Neva]

The tier and land thing is SO confusing.

The Lindens tell you to think of tier as a "land credit" which you can use to buy land, or get the Linden House which is, after all, on land.

I think it's more useful to think of tier as a mortgage which you can then use to acquire land. That's really the only real-life equivalent. You can't get land without a mortgage in most cases unless you pay outright cash.

You could think of it as a deed, but a deed implies ownership is registered somewhere public -- and it isn't in SL and really should be to make the world work better.

In any event, you got a mortage for 512 meters that enames you to either get a Linden home or a blank piece of land. The Linden home in some sense is a better deal because you get more prims per 512 as they add extra prims. BUT it is a worse deal in that you are stuck with their choice of design in housing. You could buy your own land dirt cheap these days, likely even for L$250 or less, that is half a Linden per meter or less. But you'd have only the 117 prims. So you have to weigh the choices.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

You are confusing things even more.  You can't use the 512sqm of tier to 'buy' land.

Tier is more like property tax.  On the mainland you buy the land using $L's then pay a monthy tier fee for your share of the server and other costs.  If you don't own a Linden Home, the first 512sqm is tier free.

[Phil Deakins]

The mortgage idea is good, but I prefer to think of tier as simply rent for the land that we pay to LL.

Technical correction: They don't add prims to the Linden Home land. The reason that the owner still has 117 prims, even with the house on the parcel, is because the house isn't on the parcel - technically. It's root prim is off the parcel, so all the house's prims are counted against the non-Linden-Home land where the root prim is.

[Persephone Emerald]

"Buying" & "owning" SL land can be confusing, so for most new players with a Premium account, it's better to get a Linden Home, which you can easily abandon if you decide to get land or donate your tier to a group later.

1. You don't have to go premium. The cheapest way to live in SL is to use sandboxes or other places where you can rez stuff for free. Sometimes you can join a group that lets you use buildings & rez stuff temporarily for free.

2. If you get a Premium membership, you get $L 300/ week & the right to either live in a Linden Home or essentially rent 512 m of land from Linden Lab without paying an extra monthly fee. We say we "buy" land, but Linden Lab really owns it, so we're either renting from them or someone else who's renting from them. When you "own" or lease land, you can build on it & terraform it, but you can only use as many prims/ land impact as you're paying for. 512 meters is what you get automatically when you pay for a Premium account, which does not let you use many prims/ land impact.  You can have a small cottage or skybox with that if you're careful to get a low-prim building & furniture, but I think 1024 m works better.

3. "Buying", renting or leasing SL land costs real money that can add up. It's also hard to get your money back from the sale of most land. Remember the cost of "buying" land is insignificant compared to the cost of paying monthly tier for months or years, so tier payments are the real cost of "owning" SL land. Figure out what you can afford & how much space & prims you really need before you "buy" land.

[karlklondike]

Thanks for the info. I have bought premium and am happy with it so far.

[karlklondike]

What is VAT?

[Rhonda Huntress]

Value Added Tax.

If you live in Europe, you will probably be charged a tax on SL subscriptions.