Why Mainland?

[Waialae]

Aloha all.

Is there a compelling reason to buy a mainland parcel for my home?

I'm currently renting a quarter of a private homestead region, so get to add 1250 LI worth of objects. Cost is L1850 pw, which compared to other rental parcels seems like a nice balance of area and LI. 

I enjoy exploring places, and see a lot of mainland parcels abandoned, for sale, or for rent. But in my experience mainland parcels are often more expensive (plus the premium membership requirement), have less LI available, and have a bunch of junk next door (tall borders, huge buildings, low skyboxes, blinking advertising, military bases, strip clubs). Maybe I'm just seeing the wrong spots on an otherwise nice mainland. Maybe mainland has a lot to offer. Maybe mainland is more affordable than renting. What am I missing?

[Coffee Pancake]

Owning mainland should work out slightly cheaper than renting depending on how you manage the tier and how long you stay on a parcel. The difference is the upfront cost, you have to buy the land and buy premium .. which is best done yearly.

Keep in mind there are a few places with double prim land - like Horizons, which is nice .. only stupidly expensive to buy in.

In short, you have to work out how long you're going to have the land, how you're going to get the required tier together (you can have more than one premium account and pool the land in a group, the price is offset by the 300L a week stipend) and then spreadsheet it out.

[Rabid Cheetah]

Homestead regions don't have as many prims available as Mainland regions, or regular private estates for that matter.  So if your main concern is having a lot of Prims/Li, you should probably move -- though not necessarily to Mainland as an estate rental might suit your needs.

Or do you most like the idea of area?  You could find a quarter-sim's worth of of abandoned land, with nothing but abandoned land for several hundred meters (or even thousands of meters), if you look hard enough and don't care about location (roads, water access).

Or do you care most about what's around you?  You can deal with that by renting from a private estate (or buying your own), learning how to de-render stuff, or building an enclosed parcel -- and if you do go that route, please please please put it way up in the sky, to avoid adding to the eyesores at ground level.

Or do you want to be down on the ground, next to water or a road?  That's gonna cost more, unless you are lucky enough to find abandoned land in such a sweet spot.

One thing to consider, too, is land rating.  General is, well, generally cheaper, and certainly doesn't have strip clubs.

Finally, maybe your number one desire is to keep your costs as low as possible.  You're just gonna have to do the math, as Cupcake has pointed out.

It really all comes down to you.  Only you know what you want most, and what you're willing to pay for it.  My suggestion would be to think this out a bit more, and keep exploring.  You never know what you might find.  🙂

[Paul Hexem]

Road access and price. I've yet to find a single private region that can beat mainland for those two things.

[MarissaOrloff]

To get around the bizzaroland pricing for mainland right now a good place to try to get a great deal on a mainland parcel is with SL auctions. 

https://places.secondlife.com/auctions

[Yukiko Yeshto]

Why Mainland? As it was pointed out already, and which is the same reason in my case too: access to roads, water, and being able to fly for hours over all continents. Also the freedom of decorating the place the way I want it without restrictions. While there are indeed some terrific downsides to be considered with Mainland as well (like the notorious big walls and similar), there are also many people and communities on Mainland putting quite an effort into making tiny and huge spots looking fabulous. If and what spot you would choose, also depends on what kind of surroundings you would prefer. Foresty, beachy, coastal, snowy, mountainous, etc etc, you can find all of that on Mainland. 

If I were you, I would visit a few of the popular communities on Mainland so you can get an idea. My personal recommendations for that purpose would be (in no particular order): Campbell Coast, Hiraya Town, Mount Campion National Forest, Moorcroft, Bay City, Winter Cove, Santosha Islands. (I know there are many more but it's so much, I am not even aware of all of them)

While Bellisseria is not Mainland but Linden Homes, it is, however, connected to Mainland. Since you need Premium to buy Mainland, you would have 1024 sqm for free which you could either use for Mainland or a Linden Home, and maybe you would enjoy Bellisseria as well. If people choose Bellisseria over Mainland, the main pro reasons I hear are: a strict convenant (so no crazy walls etc.), infrastructure/landscaping is ready and within theme, no hassle with houses since you can choose from prefabs within the theme that don't count against your LI (351 prims on 1024 sqm). 

Take your time to explore the various options, and once you took a decision in what kind of surroundings you would want to have your home, take also your time to find the right spot. As it has been mentioned, if you want to buy a spot on Mainland, you can either buy directly from someone who sells (and the prices can vary a lot; e.g. double prim spots at Bay City or Horizon cost a fortune), bid on a parcel in the land auctions, or if you find a suitable abandoned spot, you could also file a ticket direclty to LL and they might sell it directly to you (usually at 1 L$ per sqm). If you want a Linden Home spot, you will not be able to choose the exact location but you can choose from the different house themes, and if the spot doesn't suit you, you could try your luck again until you get assigned to one that you like (I think, it's 5 tries per day or week, I am not 100% firm with Bellisseria Linden Homes procedure).

In regard of cost calculations, others have given the hint already how to do that.

Good luck!

[Qie Niangao]

Let's pretend you do it the simple way, just as an individual landowner, no group bonus, no pooling premium alts etc.

You're currently paying L$1850/wk, which is US$384.80/yr (at the conservative L$250/US$ exchange rate used throughout).

An annual Premium subscription is US$ 99 and pays L$300/wk in stipend which offsets that cost by about $62.40, for a net cost for Premium of $36.60/yr.

Tier for 4096 sq.m. (in addition to the 1024 "Premium Bonus" tier) costs $264/yr; added to the Premium fee that's $300.60, or US$84.20 less than you're paying now.

That annual savings amounts to about L$21,000, which could go pretty far towards buying the land itself.

That 5120 sq.m. amounts 1757 Land Impact, or 502 (or 40%) more than you have now. (Single-prim Mainland regions have 22500 LI.)

[Prokofy Neva]

On 9/5/2021 at 6:57 PM, Waialae said:

Aloha all.

Is there a compelling reason to buy a mainland parcel for my home?

I'm currently renting a quarter of a private homestead region, so get to add 1250 LI worth of objects. Cost is L1850 pw, which compared to other rental parcels seems like a nice balance of area and LI. 

I enjoy exploring places, and see a lot of mainland parcels abandoned, for sale, or for rent. But in my experience mainland parcels are often more expensive (plus the premium membership requirement), have less LI available, and have a bunch of junk next door (tall borders, huge buildings, low skyboxes, blinking advertising, military bases, strip clubs). Maybe I'm just seeing the wrong spots on an otherwise nice mainland. Maybe mainland has a lot to offer. Maybe mainland is more affordable than renting. What am I missing?

I find that Mainland rentals are always cheaper than private island or homestead rentals -- those landlords have to pay $225 versus $175 per region in tier (after one sim) and have to charge more.

A Mainland rental tends to have refunds more often than private island rentals which in some cases have you buy the parcel so you can put your group on it, etc. but then you will have trouble selling it. The trend has been to make such purchases for nominal amounts, however.

With Mainland, you have more flexibility -- if you buy an entire island, you are stuck having to pay for the whole thing or sell the whole thing, but with Mainland, you can tier down more easily.

Yes, look around more, there are even entire sims that are abandoned for only $1/m (I saw one today, Osterhout, which is flat and overlooks the Sutherland dam). Of parcels of abandoned land you could request.

I think Mainland is better because it is cheaper and because it is contiguous and you can sail, drive, fly across sims unlike the sea wall you hit on an island. But that same multi-owner contiguous nature means that yes, you might get something ugly next to you. But then if you have paid a low price for the land, you won't feel bad about abandoning it or selling it for 0.5/m to get out and try elsewhere.

 

[Waialae]

Thanks everybody for the helpful info.

[Exavor Diesel]

Another good thing about mainland is that when you sell it, you may get back what you paid for it or more, if you buy wisely. Land prices fluctuate just like real life properties. Of course there is a risk they could go down in price but conversely, a private estate and/or homestead has very little to no resale value. (typically a month's tier at most)

Private estates/sims can also be very isolated, which is fine if that's what you want. Mainland has a real sense of community whereby you're more likely to meet people. 

The downside of mainland is that you have to put up with potential neighbours with unsightly builds, even the most expensive areas (e.g. Blake Sea) are full of unsightly builds. In that area, many spend thousands of real life money yet "decorate" their parcels with prim buildings from 2007, it makes no sense to me but there you go. That said, there's many areas which are well themed/presented. - Sea of Fables for example.

Bear in mind you will pay a premium for waterfront parcels and to a lesser extent any parcels with road access. Adult mainland parcels also command a premium due to supply and demand. 

Edited September 8, 2021 by Exavor Diesel

[Karl Herber]

For me, renting on a private island is like living in a little prison. I need the feeling of being connected to a wider world, I hate being surrounded by unsailable void in all directions. 

So I am either on regular mainland or Bellisseria, and I tend to switch between them every few months or so. I like mainland for the freedom to use my own houses, I like Bellisseria for the extra land capacity (the house itself doesn't count towards your 351 so you're effectively getting a LI bonus).

When I buy mainland, I buy cheap, then I don't feel bad when I change my mind and abandon (though I did sell my last one for a small profit, which was nice).  I was very lucky a week or so ago to find a nice parcel of mainland for just L$500 (under L$0.5 per sq.m) and aside from one neighbour with a large castle, which I have derendered, it's a pretty nice area. I am tempted to ask for some abandoned land to link my parcel to the road but that's going to raise my tier and I'm not sure it's worth it.

[Nova Convair]

Checking Qie's calculation ...

Premium is 120$ (I don't care what it's for you) per year and my 4096 is cheaper. There is no difference between a 4096 mainland and estate parcel - money wise. Gathering alts to use 4 premiums makes not enough of a difference and I wouldn't like the yearly 480$ upfront.

So it's only the personal preferences.

Never seen something that is more ugly than mainland. There are nice corners but costly and on many of them you can not build what you want - interesting. The covenant is a big advantage by my opinion. The usage of water, roads and airspace - I don't need a piece of land there to use it - I can teleport - usually 😁

So - for me I found my place.

[Karl Herber]

7 hours ago, Nova Convair said:

 There are nice corners but costly and on many of them you can not build what you want - interesting.

The only circumstance in mainland when you can't build what you want is when it doesn't physically fit, either because the parcel is too small or the ground is not flat enough.

You may be thinking of mainland communities like Campbell Coast. If you rent there, then obviously you're subject to the landlord's rules. But if you buy, there is absolutely nothing else  preventing you from building what you want. You may choose to be polite and build in-theme, but there's nothing forcing you to. Which is why I think the owner of Campbell Coast is patently daft for offering parcels for sale instead of rent only.  

[Marianne Little]

I saw an image here on the forum, was it an art community? Where they had sold a parcel. The new owner set up banlines. Ugly and totally against the community idea. Plus they can totally ruin everything the community has worked to create in how it looks.

If they have to sell some land - why not the ones on the border, not in the middle? They can minimize the destruction then.

[Qie Niangao]

11 hours ago, Nova Convair said:

Checking Qie's calculation ...

Premium is 120$ (I don't care what it's for you) per year

I don't doubt you, Nova, but I don't know where to see that. I realized that https://secondlife.com/my/account/membership.php?lang=en-US could be some grandfathered rate specific to my ancient account* so I even opened an incognito window in case it was doing some cookied user-specific thing, but https://go.secondlife.com/premium still shows me this:

so I just can't figure out where to find the US$ 120 per year.

________________________
*It gets the grandfathered L$500/wk stipend, so I knew it could be getting a special Premium subscription rate too, but I'm not finding that.

[Aethelwine]

I think Nova is adding in an exchange rate or tax calculation to come up with the cost to them. 

Nova is also lucky enough to be on a private region with a community type agreement with respect to building and parcel boundaries. It is a great situation and one reason I maintain land at the same place. 

It is not however typical of my experience at other private regions, admittedly dated but most, at least work with defined parcel boundaries and often with large claustrophobic barriers between them. Fine I guess for privacy and living in skyboxes or on sky platforms,  but for me unless you find a good estate that looks to try to provide a community space along with the rentals then to me mainland along with all its flaws what I look for. 

[Marianne Little]

1 hour ago, Aethelwine said:

I think Nova is adding in an exchange rate or tax calculation to come up with the cost to them.

Europe (EU) and Australia has to pay taxes. But! LL say it clearly: Monthly and quarterly, pay up VAT. But not for annually. Maybe LL cover it for us, so they don't loose long term customers. https://secondlife.com/corporate/vat

I have grown to need more than 1024 m because I need the Li! And on tier, I have to pay VAT. I found the cost of several Premium accounts too much, VAT or not.

I have one Premium now, and I rent Mainland, because it is so cheap. I picked up a place in Iris, maybe the prettiest region on Mainland, 450 L for 450 Li. I am using it as a "vacation place" and when I am tired of it, I pack up and leave. No need to pay for land, no need to pay for several Premium alts.

If LL decide to give Premium more land and Li, I may invest in more Premiums. But 1024 is simply not enough for me to spend the Premium on.

 

[Asadora Summers]

 

Just like in the physical world,  on Mainland there will always be people that will have something on their property that will upset the neighbours or go against a theme of a neighbourhood or block.

In the physical world, one can't just derender whatever is causing them to be upset. In the physical world, one can not return whatever is encroaching on their parcel if it even just barely goes over the boundary line. However, it can be done in SL!
Some people enjoy the variety that Mainland offers and others don't. Some people can afford to have their own private region and others can't. Just like in the physical world, people will live where their tastes and/or finances affords them.
Unlike the physical world, in SL, you can change your environment with just a click. You can mute/ignore an offending person without having to go to court for an injunction order, hard to do in the physical world.

Whether in the physical world or in SL one can't be 100% sure when one neighbour will move out and a new one moves in. And understandably that can cause some anxiety.
If one is anxious about the above, then personally I wouldn't suggest Mainland living. If one is the anxious type and can't afford to live off Mainland, then just be sure to have your draw distance turned down when you log in.

Just as in the physical world, we all have to either adapt or make sacrifices about where we live.
We each make SL how we want it to be.


 

[Nova Convair]

I checked old transfers and got the matching USD/EUR exchange rates of that time. There is VAT added but an incorrect value - close enough but a bit too low - so no need to complain. LL was the receiver. Premium is dropped since then so I can't say if things changed or not - has no meaning for me at the moment.
On newer transfers for buying L$ - Tilia is the receiver and the VAT is calculated correctly.

However, I can't save any money by using mainland that's what I stated.

[Waialae]

I understand from Linden Homes discussions that some of the original home styles are being phased out (e.g. Japanese style homes or the fantasy mushroom ones). They are no longer an option for new premium members, and the old mainland parcels with those Linden Homes are / will be eliminated. This makes me wonder if LL has plans to eventually build new blank-slate mainland continents and phase out the old ones, one abandoned parcel at a time.

[Ardy Lay]

44 minutes ago, Waialae said:

phased out

I wanna stand around and watch them dissipate.

(Making fun of "management speak" is one of my hobbies.)

Edited September 10, 2021 by Ardy Lay

[Lewis Luminos]

2 hours ago, Waialae said:

I understand from Linden Homes discussions that some of the original home styles are being phased out (e.g. Japanese style homes or the fantasy mushroom ones). They are no longer an option for new premium members, 

This has not happened yet. I made one of my alts premium just a few days ago and all four of the old styles, including the Japanese and Fantasy homes, are still available.

[Coffee Pancake]

it might not be practical to phase them out .. there will be people with active accounts and old style linden homes (with stuff rezzed in them) that aren't active in SL.

LL are unlikely to evict anyone and there only needs to be one person left on a region to keep it in circulation.

Personally, I think they should be phased out and following a grace period, items returned and regions dropped & repurposed to new Linden Homes.

[Karl Herber]

I think they would probably end up with the old homes continuing to exist in smaller numbers by deleting unoccupied regions and consolidating existing and new residents into fewer regions. They could probably manage with just one of those continents instead of four. But I don't think they will ever be removed completely. Bellisseria alone would never be enough.

[Waialae]

23 hours ago, Lewis Luminos said:

This has not happened yet. I made one of my alts premium just a few days ago and all four of the old styles, including the Japanese and Fantasy homes, are still available.

Thanks! These weren't available a year or so ago, so new ownership may have shifted policy. Plus, the huge number of new and returning residents during a year and a half of quarantine made the need for homes acute. 

 

23 hours ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Personally, I think they should be phased out and following a grace period, items returned and regions dropped & repurposed to new Linden Homes.

Yes, this sounds like a good path forward. On the other hand, the residents who love these places and have supported them for years would be sorely disappointed. Over the years I've lived in both a Japanese home and some of the boxy modern ones and would miss being able to occasionally visit and reminisce. I suppose these places don't truly need to be replaced, because (with enough server space) in theory new continents could be built endlessly.