How do I buy a home I want?

[HollyCarruthers]

I've been wandering around this fairie area on my first day playing the game and I  found a place I want to have a home. I also found this Gypsy Builder group that sells homes. I can buy one BUT  I have no idea how to go about placing it on land that I would like to have or if the home comes on land already. I'm really completely in the dark and no one is in the area to answer questions. I don't even know how to leave someone a message.

Oh, and as part of my premiere membership I am supposed to get a home but I doubt it will be in the area where I want to live. So, not sure what to do with that if I buy a home elsewhere.

Can anyone offer some answers? Thanks!

[Alwin Alcott]

to start, you are premium, that gives right to get a Linden Home, ór buy a 512 sqm mainland parcel without additional tier fee.

You can buy a larger parcel, but in that case the tier fees will increase.

 

If you buy a house of your own at MP or inworld, you will need a parcel of your own, mainland, or rent at a privat estate.

Houses you buy are not including land. but some land rentals do include houses.

The parcel has to be large enough to have enough prims/land impact so your house can stand there. House can vary from 10 to several hundreds of prims/LI depending on size and complexity.

For the prims/LI you also need to think about the furniture and additional components you want to rezz... plants... vehicles, animals..trees... and so on, will use the prims/LI from your parcel

a little example:

if you have a 512 sqm parcel, it has 117 prims/LI available

if you put there a house with 117 prims/LI you will need to sleep on the floor... no prims available for other things.

So if you want a less basic set up you'll need ór a very low impact house, ór larger parcel so you can use more prims.

[ChinRey]

Wow, that's a lot of good questions in one post!

As a premium member you can choose either a ready made Linden Home in a ready made Linden Homes sim or you can choose to have free tier for a 512 m2 parcel of your own on a mainland sim.

If you go for a ready-made Linden Home, you can not choose where to live. You can select which type of house you want but after that, you are assigned one at random. If you're not happy with the location, you can abandon the land you're given and try again up to five times a day. But really, apart from some bad cases with really hopeless neighbors, they're pretty much the same anyway.

You probably want one of the Meadowbrook or Tahoe houses btw. They're a bit boring and outated but still perfectly good homes. The Elderglen series is nice too but only if you're specially interested in the fairy tale theme and those Japanese houses (can't remember the name of that series right now) are pure garbage.

If you choose to have your own land, you should note that you still have to buy the land from somebody, the free tier covers the monthly fee but not the initial purchase price. These plots don't usually come with a house already on them. If they do, make absolutely sure the house actually is transferable. If it isn't the system won't assign the house to you no matter what the sales description says.

When you buy land, take the time to look around first, not only at the parcel you're interested in but also the surroundings. The most important things to look for:

• Do you like the scene and the buildings your future neighbors have there? If not: don't buy
• Are there lots of parcels with ban lines in the same sim or neighbor sims? If yes, don't buy
• Lots of privacy screens? Don't buy
• Click ctrl-M and look at the sim and the neighbor sims on the big map. Big sky screens or other clutter hiding a lot of the ground? Don't buy
• Does the place feel laggy? Don't buy
• Any big collections of breedable animals? Think at least twice before buying

To choose a house:

• Do you like it?
• Does it fit with what's already in the area? (Remember you chose the place because of the lovely buildings your neighbor have, you don't want to be the one to ruin it for everybody)
• Is it the right size? A regular shaped 512 m2 parcel is 32x16 m. You really don't want a house bigger than 24x12 on that size of land and even that may be a bit too much.
• What is the land impact (aka prim count)? Alwin's already explained that in his reply.
• Does it have good LOD? Ummm... that means how does it look at a bit of distance? Look at the house from about 50-100 m away. You have to expect some details to be missing but if major details like walls and roofs have collapsed at that distance, you don't want the house.
• Does it have proper physics? Do you walk on the floor or sink into it or hover above it? Can you walk through the doorways? Can you walk through the walls? You'd be amazed how much sloppy work there is in that field.
• Is it laggy? Usually a house small enough to fit a 512 plot isn't but there are exceptions.
• Is it copyable? You definitely want to keep a backup copy of your house in your inventory so stay well away from no-copy ones.

 

Too place the house on the parcel:

• Select the house in your inventory and drag it onto the middle of your parcel
• Type ctrl-3 to bring up the edit window
• Click on the house
• Use the red, blue and green arrows to drag the house into the right position
• Remember to place the house a little bit away from the parcel borders, at least 2 m on all sides.

Some houses come in rez boxes. They are never necessary for 512 m2 parcel houses but some makers use them anyway. If your house does, just rez that box and move it rather than the house itself.

Oh, and don't expect to do this only once. You want to redecorate your home, probably even replace the house every now and then. Even with all the precautions I listed above, there's a good chance the first parcel you buy turns out not to be the right one for you. If so, you abandon or sell it and find a new one somewhere else. But don't worry about all that, it's part of the fun!

(Edit: just fixed a few typos, hope I got them all)

[Lindal Kidd]

Chin Rey and Alwin have given you great answers!

I will add a couple of points.

First, one of the Linden Home types is a "fairy tale" type house.  If you like living in fairyland, this may be an option for you.  But as Chin says, you can't pick the actual location of the house.

Second, if what you love is that particular location you found, you'll need to find out if the land owner sells or rents parcels there.  Many parks and roleplay areas do NOT, and if that one doesn't, then you can't put your house there...but of course, you can GO there and visit any time, with a single mouse click.

To contact the land owner, right click bare ground and choose About Land from the context menu, or go to the World menu and select Parcel Details.  Look in the General tab to find the owner.  If the land is group owned, click the i button to get information about the group, including its founder/owner.

I teach a class on land basics on Fridays at 5 pm SL time, at Caledon Oxbridge University.  It's free to attend!