Land Size

[karlklondike]

How do I know how much I can put on 512 sq Meters of land? I need a way to compare land sizes.

Edited February 15, 2018 by karlklondike

[LittleMe Jewell]

If it is 512 sqm that you own on Mainland, you get 175 LI (land impact) - or double that if it is a double-prim lot.  Rental property will vary depending on the rental terms.

Note that LI does not directly equate to prims.  Sometimes multiple prims will take less in LI when they get linked and other times it will take more - all depends on how items are made.  Older items will usually only tell you how many prims they are, but newer items will tell you how much LI. 

Edited February 15, 2018 by LittleMe Jewell

[ChinRey]

If you mean size and not land impact/prim count, It depends on the scale and that can vary a lot in Second Life.

In real life scale 512 m2 is a small but not extremely small plot. This illustration from buildstore.co.uk should give you an idea. It shows a fairly normal four bedroom two story house on a parcel about that size:

 

Second Life houses tend to be built at much larger than real life scale though. There was a time when houses were commonly scaled up to two or even three times real life size and at that scale you wouldn't even be able to fit a family house on a 512 m2 plot. Today I think 1.2-1.5 times real size is the norm (and some have already gone all the way to match real life sizes).

In Second Life it is very common to try to fit the biggest possible house on the smallest possible plot and that will always give a claustrophobic feeling. You want at least as much open space as the house itself (and preferably much more). If you live in an open area with friendly neighbors and/or lots of public space, you get much of that for free, but if it's one of those plots hidden behind privacy screens in unfriendly places, you have to make and pay for that visual space yourself. As a very rough guideline, what you probably want is:

	RL scale Open landscape	1.4x RL scale Open landscape	2x RL scale Open landscape	RL scale Closed area	1.4x RL scale Closed area	2x RL scale Closed area
Small cottage	<100 m2	<100 m2	128 m2	512 m2	512-1024 m2	1024 m2
Cottage	<100 m2	c. 100 m2	256 m2	1024 m2	1536 m2	2048 m2
Family house	512 m2	1024 m2	2048 m2	1024 m2	2048 m2	4096 m2
Mansion	4096 m2	8192 m2	16384 m2	16384 m2	32768 m2	65536 m2

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by ChinRey

[karlklondike]

2 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

If you mean size and not land impact/prim count, It depends on the scale and that can vary a lot in Second Life.

In real life scale 512 m2 is a small but not extremely small plot. This illustration from buildstore.co.uk should give you an idea. It shows a fairly normal four bedroom two story house on a parcel about that size:

 

Second Life houses tend to be built at much larger than real life scale though. There was a time when houses were commonly scaled up to two or even three times real life size and at that scale you wouldn't even be able to fit a family house on a 512 m2 plot. Today I think 1.2-1.5 times real size is the norm (and some have already gone all the way to match real life sizes).

In Second Life it is very common to try to fit the biggest possible house on the smallest possible plot and that will always give a claustrophobic feeling. You want at least as much open space as the house itself (and preferably much more). If you live in an open area with friendly neighbors and/or lots of public space, you get much of that for free, but if it's one of those plots hidden behind privacy screens in unfriendly places, you have to make and pay for that visual space yourself. As a very rough guideline, what you probably want is:

	RL scale Open landscape	1.4x RL scale Open landscape	2x RL scale Open landscape	RL scale Closed area	1.4x RL scale Closed area	2x RL scale Closed area
Small cottage	<100 m2	<100 m2	128 m2	512 m2	512 m2	1024 m2
Cottage	<100 m2	c. 100 m2	256 m2	1024 m2	1536 m2	2048 m2
Family house	512 m2	1024 m2	2048 m2	1024 m2	2048 m2	4096 m2
Mansion	4096 m2	8192 m2	16384 m2	16384 m2	32768 m2	65536 m2

 

I'm talking about the land you buy from Linden Labs. I was thinking I could buy a premade house to put on it.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, karlklondike said:

I'm talking about the land you buy from Linden Labs. I was thinking I could buy a premade house to put on it.

Yes. Every answer so far has answered your question. What part don’t you understand? You get 185 “land impact” (or traditional prims) and the House can be sized as answered above. 

[ChinRey]

9 minutes ago, karlklondike said:

I'm talking about the land you buy from Linden Labs. I was thinking I could buy a premade house to put on it.

Yes, maybe I got a bit carried away with my answer. A standard 512 m2 parcel is 32x16 m. If it's hidden behind privacy screens, any house bigger than 8x12 m will make the space look cramped and even that is a bit too much. In an open landscape - probably not bigger than 16x12 m if you want a country/suburb feel, maybe as much as 24x12 m if you want a denser urban feel.

Then again, some people seem to go for the biggest house that can possibly be fitted onto the parcel, so 512 m2 means a 32x16 m house and if that's what they really want, well, why not?

Edit:

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Every answer so far has answered your question. What part don’t you understand?

Maybe we got a bit too technical. It's easy to get carried away when answering here.

Speaking of the prim limit:

The prim count used to be a big limitation but it shouldn't be today. Essentially: if you furnish your house with old prim furniture, you will run out of prims fast. If you furnish your home with not-that-old sculpts and/or gacha stuff and other hig lag mesh, the lag will make the house uninhabitable long before you run out of prims. If you furnish it with quality mesh and maybe some carefully chosen quality prim and sculpt builds, you will run out of space long before you run out of prims and before lag becomes a serious issue. TYhe only exception is if you want to have ltos of pets and/or prim babies. With those, the prim limit can become an essential factor.

Edited February 16, 2018 by ChinRey

[Love Zhaoying]

21 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

Maybe we got a bit too technical. It's easy to get carried away when answering here.

I think I saw some cosines and tangents in your ‘splaining!

[ChinRey]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

I think I saw some cosines and tangents in your ‘splaining!

Nothing wrong with coziness when we're talking houses but yes, I may have gone off on a tangent too

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, ChinRey said:

Nothing wrong with coziness when we're talking houses but yes, I may have gone off on a tangent too

I’m reminded of the guy who posted the link to LL’s patent to explain how sim crossings should work.

[MoiraKathleen]

Sometimes houses for sale will mention the minimum size parcel that they will fit on.  If they don't they may give the dimensions of the house.   The description for the house should also tell you how much LI the house will use.  So for a standard 512 sqm parcel, look for a house whose dimensions are less than 32 x 16, and whose LI value is low enough to leave adequate LI for furnishings.  

Edited February 16, 2018 by moirakathleen

[LittleMe Jewell]

And even better is if the house has a demo available, since that will give you a better feel for the overall size on the land you want to put it on. 

Walking through a rezzed demo at the store can at least help with how your avatar view will be in the house.

[Chic Aeon]

Note also that the house can't be TOO "primmy" even if it will fit or you won't have any prims for furniture or even to rez boxes with. I have seen plots of land for sale with a super good looking house on it BUT 

BUT BUT BUT 

they were 175 prims.  Woo hoo. Not very fair "advertising". 

You can also get a skybox which is 16 x 32  or less if you don't care much about view and yard.  if you go the skybox route then buy the cheapest land you can buy. 

Note that mainland had NO RULES which has worked for me for many years. Currently though we have the neighbor from hell or maybe a griefer -- hard to say.  So REALIZE that the neighbors you have when you buy (or rent in my case) will not be the neighbors in the future. 

Since my gal is busy buying up all the reseller and commission items items she can I figure her time is pretty short. Still a pain LOL.

 

 

 

[ChinRey]

5 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

Note that mainland had NO RULES which has worked for me for many years. Currently though we have the neighbor from hell or maybe a griefer -- hard to say.  So REALIZE that the neighbors you have when you buy (or rent in my case) will not be the neighbors in the future.

Oh yes, it's that too. I should have thought of it earlier - we all should.

 

9 hours ago, karlklondike said:

I'm talking about the land you buy from Linden Labs. I was thinking I could buy a premade house to put on it.

You can't change the house on a Linden Homes sim and you can't use the land tier included in the premium package to buy/rent on private estates.

What you are talking about, is buying a 512 m2 plot on mainland to build a nice little home on. Don't do that!

Some of the best parts of Second Life are on mainland but those parts are all owned and controlled by persons or groups who are passionate enough about the mainland idea they are wiling to spend considerable time and effort fighting to protect their land and its inhabitants and also control enough land to have a little bit of infuence and even be noticed by Linden Lab.

If you only own a 512 m2 plot there, you're at the mercy of your neighbors with nobody to help when there is trouble. Of course, you can derender eyesores to the left and right or hide them behind privacy screens but once you have to do that, there's no point in mainland anymore and your'e far better off in a skybox on a private estate sim far, far away.

Edited February 16, 2018 by ChinRey

[Chic Aeon]

4 hours ago, ChinRey said:

Oh yes, it's that too. I should have thought of it earlier - we all should.

 

You can't change the house on a Linden Homes sim and you can't use the land tier included in the premium package to buy/rent on private estates.

What you are talking about, is buying a 512 m2 plot on mainland to build a nice little home on. Don't do that!

Some of the best parts of Second Life are on mainland but those parts are all owned and controlled by persons or groups who are passionate enough about the mainland idea they are wiling to spend considerable time and effort fighting to protect their land and its inhabitants and also control enough land to have a little bit of infuence and even be noticed by Linden Lab.

If you only own a 512 m2 plot there, you're at the mercy of your neighbors with nobody to help when there is trouble. Of course, you can derender eyesores to the left and right or hide them behind privacy screens but once you have to do that, there's no point in mainland anymore and your'e far better off in a skybox on a private estate sim far, far away.

"I" have to say that while all that is true (that no rules bit), I have for a decade lived and had shops mostly on mainland with very good luck and the OP spending a US dollar or two to have "a mainland experience" isn't a bad plan in my estimation. And a 512 on the mainland IS FREE once you purchase the land. These days there are tons of places that are surrounded by abandoned land so there ARE no neighbors. You can also buy protected view lots (I have lived on those too with very good long term results). 

So people really aren't losing much by trying the My House On The Mainland thing.

It should be noted, and I missed it and others seem to have also that you are NOT buying mainland from Linden Lab. They are the ones you pay tier to if you have over a 512, but you typically BUY from another SL resident -- unless you purchase at auction.

 

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Chic Aeon said:

And a 512 on the mainland IS FREE once you purchase the land.

You mean the tier fees, I assume.

Did anyone remind the OP that they can put a house on their land AND skybox(es) above it?

[Chic Aeon]

1 minute ago, Love Zhaoying said:

You mean the tier fees, I assume.

Did anyone remind the OP that they can put a house on their land AND skybox(es) above it?

Yep, free to use forever with no more costs weekly as in renting or leasing - hence the once you have purchased the land part  

[karlklondike]

I'm interested in having a good sized home, and breeding animals and growing things. Like a farm. Maybe put some skyboxes up to rent to people.

Edited February 17, 2018 by karlklondike

[Bebe Bunny]

5 minutes ago, karlklondike said:

I'm interested in having a good sized home, and breeding animals and growing things. Like a farm. Maybe put some skyboxes up to rent to people.

I don't think you'll be able to do all of that on your land. Even if you create very simple skyboxes and make the breedables 1 prim each. I'd tell you to buy a land bigger than that one, there are several real estate agencies around SL offering that kind of service.

[ChinRey]

12 minutes ago, karlklondike said:

I'm interested in having a good sized home, and breeding animals and growing things. Like a farm.

Oh kay. In that case, the 512 m2 that comes with the premium membership is peanuts. If I were you, I'd go for at least a quarter sim for that - that's 16,384 m2. On mainland that means 75 dollars a month in tier on top of your premium fee.

Perhaps the best option though, would be a homestead sim, that would give you the space of a whole sim with the prim quota similar to a quarter of a full sim. Homesteads are only available on private estates, not on mainand, and you shold be able to get one for about 100-120 dollars a month.

Edited February 17, 2018 by ChinRey

[karlklondike]

Would it be better to rent from an actual estate agent rather than Linden Labs? My budget is like 15 US dollars max. What all could I do with that?

Edited February 17, 2018 by karlklondike

[ChinRey]

44 minutes ago, karlklondike said:

Would it be better to rent from an actual estate agent rather than Linden Labs? My budget is like 15 US dollars max.

Is that 15 dollars a week or 15 dollars a month?

In any case, land owners who have a whole sim or more will get some quantity discounts which means we can sometimes offer better prices than if you rent direcetly from Linden Lab. For 15 dollars a month you'd get 2048 m2 and 700 prims from Linden Lab (in addition to the 512 /175 included in the premium package). I could give you twice as much for that price and I think that's about what you should expect renting from somebody else on mainland.

Edited February 17, 2018 by ChinRey
Adding more info

[karlklondike]

1 hour ago, ChinRey said:

Is that 15 dollars a week or 15 dollars a month?

In any case, land owners who have a whole sim or more will get some quantity discounts which means we can sometimes offer better prices than if you rent direcetly from Linden Lab. For 15 dollars a month you'd get 2048 m2 and 700 prims from Linden Lab (in addition to the 512 /175 included in the premium package). I could give you twice as much for that price and I think that's about what you should expect renting from somebody else on mainland.

Thanks, but I'm still shopping around. I'll think about it. I may not need as much as I thought.

[Chic Aeon]

2 hours ago, karlklondike said:

I'm interested in having a good sized home, and breeding animals and growing things. Like a farm. Maybe put some skyboxes up to rent to people.

EVEN if that is your end goal, I think it would be good to get your 512 to 

LEARN ABOUT LAND IN SL.

So many folks come in knowing nothing, spend a ton of money then abandon their land and lose all the money. 

ALSO, many private sims will not let you have breedables OR rent out to others on the land "purchased" from them (you never actually own private land so think of it more like a lease AND there are RULES and COVENANTS on private land so be sure and READ those before buying).  

[Bebe Bunny]

11 hours ago, karlklondike said:

Would it be better to rent from an actual estate agent rather than Linden Labs? My budget is like 15 US dollars max. What all could I do with that?

Contact me in world, I used to rent in a place where you can have breedables and a fair amount of prims for an affordable price. I'd still have a place there if I wasn't living in a community.