land cost

[Cinde Fate]

I'm wanting to buy a full sim whats the total cost i need to pay up front to get a sim of my own?

[Rolig Loon]

It all depends on who you buy it from.  If you buy a brand new region from Linden Lab, the answer is in the table at 

That gives you a benchmark of sorts, but the purchase price of a specific region can be wildly different from that. I bought my own private estate from a good friend years ago for very little indeed.  In any case, the purchase price is less important to your bottom line than the ongoing cost of monthly land fees.

[Lindal Kidd]

The current cost to purchase a new region from LL is $349 USD, and after that you'll pay a monthly fee of $229 USD.  (There are some caveats to that...for example, a region normally has a land capacity of 20,000 prims.  By paying a higher monthly fee, you can increase that to 30,000.  Read the Private Regions sections of the Knowledge base carefully.  Twice.)

As Rolig says, you may be able to buy an existing region from its current owner.  The forum where these are advertised is:  https://community.secondlife.com/forums/forum/284-regions-for-sale-full-private-island/

This has two potential advantages.

1. As Rolig notes, you may be able to buy it at a lower price than the cost of buying it from LL.
2. If it is a "grandfathered" region, you can have that grandfathered status transferred to you for an additional one-time payment of $600 USD.  Why should you do this?  Because grandfathered regions are only charged a monthly fee of $179 USD.  You get back the cost of the transfer in about a year.

Never pay a seller directly!  There is a specific process you follow in order to transfer a region.  Read about it here: https://community.secondlife.com/knowledgebase/english/managing-private-regions-r50/#Section_5  Basically, LL serves as a middleman.  You pay them, and they hold the money in escrow until the seller transfers the region to you.  Then they pay the seller.