Some of you may be wondering, "OK, so where and how do I get my 1024 or 2048 square meter bonus land?" First, let's address a couple of common questions!
- Do I have 512, 1024, or 2048 square meters?
This will depend on your membership! Plus members are allotted 512 square meters, Premium members are allotted 1024 square meters, and Premium Plus members are allotted 2048 square meters. This means that you can have up to that amount of mainland in one form or another without seeing monthly tier payments. You can always get more for a monthly fee!
It is also worth noting that if you downgrade from Premium Plus to Premium or Plus (or from Premium to Plus) and you hold 2048 (or 1024 if downgrading from Premium) square meters at that time, you will see a monthly tier fee after your downgrade. - Is the price of my land included with my Premium Membership?
Yes and no. Monthly land maintenance fees are included with your membership subscription, but you'll need to purchase your land with a one-time purchase in Linden Dollars (unless you choose a free Linden Home). Mainland parcels are typically purchased from other Residents or at our land auction site. Land prices vary in-world depending on location, but auction prices typically start at less than L$1 per meter for parcels listed by Linden Lab. You can think of land maintenance fees as similar to property taxes which help to maintain the servers hosting the land. In short, once you purchase your land, your membership subscription includes a bonus to cover the monthly maintenance fees depending on how much you use and the level of your membership. - Do I get bonus meters in addition to my Linden Home?
Not exactly! A Linden Home does count towards using your land maintenance allowance, and the parcel sizes for Linden Homes match the land allowances for different levels of membership -- 512m, 1024m, and 2048m. So, if you have a standard Premium membership and choose a Linden Home on a 1024m parcel, that Linden Home is using your bonus maintenance allowance. However, if you have a larger bonus maintenance allowance (such as the 2048m allowance that comes with a Premium Plus membership), you're free to choose a smaller Linden Home and to use the rest of your allowance towards a parcel elsewhere on the mainland continent. (At this time, accounts may only have one Linden Home per membership subscription, sorry!) You can also choose to use your bonus land maintenance allowance entirely on mainland parcels without a Linden Home, or to not use it at all -- it's entirely up to you.
Now for the exciting part - choosing your parcel!
There are a few ways that you may choose a parcel of mainland.
- Second Life Auction
You can bid on mainland parcels in the Second Life auction! You may find the auction here: https://usd.auctions.secondlife.com/. For more detailed information, please see our Auction FAQ! - Abandoned Land
If you find an abandoned parcel of land that you would like to purchase directly, and is not already listed as For Sale, please submit a support ticket under the type Land & Region > Land/Parcel Issues. Be sure to include the SLurl for the parcel that you would like to purchase. You may see a delay of a few days in response time for the time being - this is normal!
Please note: If you do not have a solid claim to the parcel (see this Knowledge Base article), we will try to make the land available via auction or abandoned land sale. There are some cases where we may not be able to make abandoned land available for direct sale. - In-world Listings
You may wish to purchase a parcel directly from another resident. These can be found in the Search function of your viewer. Select the Land & Rentals tab, and then View All Land & Rentals. Here you can filter your results to find exactly what you'd like! For more detailed picto-tutorial, please see below.
Using In-world listings to find and purchase a parcel
For anyone who is a first time buyer and has no exposure to finding a parcel and purchasing it, we are here for you! This step-by-step guide should help to guide you through the process!
- In the viewer, bring up the Search function (Ctrl+F, or the magnifying glass). Once this page has been brought up, feel free to enter a search term. Alternately you may just wish to select the Land & Rentals tab, and then select View All Land & Rentals.
- Once the search results come up, to the left of the page you will have the option to filter your results. You want to be sure to specify For Sale and the type Mainland, as well as optionally an area/size or price. For this example, as the Premium Membership bonus is 1024sqm, we have chosen an an area of 1024. Click Go (or press enter on your keyboard) to apply your changes.
When your search results pop up, click one that you are interested in. This will show the details of the sale, such as the location, price, size, and maturity rating. I also recommend checking out the location to see how you like it!
Once you have decided upon a parcel, teleport to the location. You may then purchase the parcel by right clicking and selecting Buy This Land:
Alternatively you may go to World > About Land and in the General tab, select Buy Land.
Selecting to buy the land will bring up a confirmation page. This will provide all of the information about the parcel itself, as well it will inform you if the purchase will change the "tier," or land use bracket, that you are currently in, as well as if it will change any monthly maintenance fees that you will incur! Once you have reviewed this page and would like to confirm your purchase, select Purchase at the very bottom.
Happy Hunting!