Homestead vs buying land with premium plus

[Sukii Allure]

So I saw something about homesteads and premium plus...  What is it I didn't understand on the post. What does it cost as a premium plus member and what are the benefits over buying 2048sqm of land.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi @Jaenapool! That's actually three questions, and I'll take the middle one first.

2. How much does Premium Plus cost?  On the monthly plan, it costs $29.99 USD per month. If you pay for a year in advance (the annual plan), it's $249.00

One of the main benefits of Premium+ is the ability to own up to 2048 square meters of Mainland without paying a monthly land fee. This is worth $13.00 per month. Note that you have to BUY the land first. This one time sales price is set by the current owner and may vary a lot. Another option is to get a Linden Home. These are free, but the largest ones at present are only on 1024 sq. m. parcels. LL has told us that 2048 Linden Homes are in the works, but no one knows when they will be offered.

3. What are the benefits? Besides the Mainland benefit, you also get a stipend of L$ 650 per week. This has an annual value of approximately $130.00 USD. And you get a one-time L$ 3,000 bonus after you have been Premium+ for 45 days.

You also get free texture uploads, eliminating that L$ 10 per texture fee. And you can change your user name for a much lower fee than other members, just $14.99.

1. What's up with Premium+ and Homesteads? What if you don't like Mainland and have bigger dreams? Dreams the size of a whole region, or more? There are two main classes of private regions, "Full" regions and "Homestead" regions. They are both the same size physically, 256x256 meters, but the Homestead region can only support about 1/4 the concurrent avatars and objects of a Full region. (20 avatars and 5,000 prims, to be precise.) They also cost much less. A Full region costs $349 USD to purchase and $229 per month. A Homestead costs only $149 to purchase and $109 per month. Lots of people would like to get a Homestead region, but there's a catch...you have to own at least one Full private region before LL will sell you a Homestead region.

There used to be only one way around this: rent your Homestead region from another resident. The rental prices vary, but are around $110 - $125 USD per month.

Linden Lab added another benefit to Premium+, giving you a second way to own a Homestead region. You still have to pay the one-time purchase (set-up) fee and the monthly fee, but you don't have to own a Full region if you are a P+ member.

[Gabriele Graves]

14 hours ago, Persephone Emerald said:

Can one ask for a homestead to be next to another region?

Just to revisit this now that my new region has been delivered, I can say yes you are allowed to have neighbours with your region by mutual agreement just in the same way you can with a full region.

[Persephone Emerald]

If you want to go Premium Plus, Linden Lab is basically offering you 3 kinds of home experience:

1.  2 Linden Homes for now, then the possibility of 1 Linden Home on a double sized lot with twice as much land impact for decorating. Nice neighborhoods, but rules about what you can do. Some decent roads and boating routes. (Or 1 Linden Home and some amount of mainland.)

2. 2048 meters of mainland (or 2240 meters if you buy your land for a group). Very few rules, but potentially annoying neighbors who also don't have to follow many rules. Possible roads or boating routes if you know how to shop for land.

3. Your own island with limited land impact for decorating and very few rules you need to follow. You "*can* be an island, but you probably won't have boating routes. (Can one ask for a homestead to be next to another region?)

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Gabriele Graves]

10 minutes ago, Persephone Emerald said:

(Can one ask for a homestead to be next to another region?)

I know that with full islands you can do it if both owners agree to it.  Homesteads were originally meant to be satellites to a full island and so it's possible LL will not allow it unless you own both.  Conversely they may treat all islands the same in this regard and allow it.  I think we are in uncharted territory for now with Homesteads.

Edited November 2, 2022 by Gabriele Graves