Purchasing Land in Second Life

I joined Second Life (SL) early this year and proceeded to purchase land by doing a search under land sales. Needless to say, with no real idea about the cost of land, or the concept of what a good deal was, I was quickly schistered into purchasing a useless piece of property on a very steep side of a hill that had absolutely no value at all! The land was stuck in the middle of what people from Second Life call an Ad Farm (this is when people chop up the land into tiny 16 sqm pieces and proceed to sell them as advertising space at outrageous prices). The Ads (usually revolving boxes) take up a lot of memory resulting in serious lag and causing everything in-world to move very slowly. There are great places in SL to purchase land that has great neighborhoods but you will need to know what to look for.

1. Make sure that the avatar that you have set up has a premium account. Free, basic accounts cannot own land.

2. Once set up, go to the orientation station and you will get several notecards that will help you along the way. You will also be able to fill your inventory with household goods, and other basic items you will need to get you started with developing your land.

3. At the bottom of the screen you will see several buttons. Click on the SEARCH button and a screen will pop up.

4. The top of the screen has tabs. Select Land Sales.

5. Search for land, on the Mainland (best deals to be found there and put in the size of land (minimum 512) and the highest price you want to pay. I always start with L$5000. This will some)times bring up the best deals, but always teleport to the land to take a look around. Some people say that they have flat land and then when you get to the land it is on a steep hill and would require a lot of work to make useful (not much fun for a newbie trying to learn the ropes).

6. Click on the TELEPORT land once you get to it, so that you can go to the land itself. I always look around at the land around me to see if it is being offered for a cheaper price.

7. Right click with your mouse pointed to the land and pick the ABOUT LAND option. This gives you information about how much the land is. ALWAYS look at the covenants to find out if you have to pay a tier fee to the owner, or if you will own the land outright. I prefer to own the land. Much less of a hassle.

8. After you are satisfied that this is the land you want to purchase, right click on the land, and click on the BUY LAND option to purchase your land.

Congratulations. You are now a Second Life Landowner. Happy shopping and purchasing.