On renting land in SL

No pictures today.  I get quite a few questions from people about renting land and everything that goes with it, so I thought I would post a sort of guide.

I want to have a cute house!  How do I rent???

1.  Check classifieds and search (stop laughing).
2.  Ask friends.  Honestly the best way to find a rental is word of mouth.
3.  Read Noirran's blog because over on the right she has a link to her land rentals (shameless plug).

What is the difference between renting on the mainland and renting on an estate?

1.  You can not deed land on the mainland to your personal group so your friends can come over and set home and party party party.  Whomever the land is deeded to on the mainland, pays the Lindens tier.  On an estate you can deed to whatever group you want because the estate owner can come and reclaim the land at any time.

2.  On the mainland, you can only terraform + or - 4 meters from the default land setting.  There are no restrictions on an estate.  So yea, your neighbor on an estate can be a dick and terraform his boundary 100 meters in the air because he's a newb who thinks that will give him privacy.

Privacy?

1.  There is no privacy at ground level.  There I said it.  I don't care what sort of security orb or land setting you use, a determined soul will cam in and see your shenanigans.  Also security orbs on ground level can infringe on your neighbor plots and that's not nice.

2.  If you want privacy, put up a skybox or skyplatform.  The maximum height, on either mainland or estate land, is 4000 meters.

I rented this plot but I can't rez anything!

Whoaaa slow down there skippy.  When you rented the land, it should of given you a notecard or maybe a notification in open chat which probably said something like:  IM Mr/Miss BlahBlah for an invitation to the land group after renting this plot.  If it didn't do this, right click the land, choose about land, and open the info for the group that owns the land.  IM the owner of the group leaving a "nice" message about how you rented land in (insert sim name here) and could you please get an invite to the land rental group so you can rez your cute stuff.

What's covenant?

A covenant are the rules a land owner sets.  It is smart to always check this before renting land.  Right click the land, choose about land, and read what is under the covenant tab.  It will say things like: Residential only, skyboxes must be above 500 meters, no giant pink bunnies, etc.

I have a giant pink bunny, I think it's cute but my neighbor thinks it's shit!  He/She rezzed a huge megaprim on the boundary!

Ahhhh, megaprim battles, how I love them.  If you are on the ground, and you don't like your neighbors swank set up and insist on putting up a huge megaprim textured with a scene from bali, it's customary to make the texture on their side transparent.  It's part of being a good neighbor.  Just because they are being a dick doesn't mean you have to be a dick too.  It's good karma.

Look at all these cool land settings!

When you rent land, you probably have control over some of the land settings. Right click the land, choose about land, and browse through that window that pops up. 

General: Set the name of the land and description.
Covenant: Rules for the sim/land.
Objects:  Prim break down.  If your land says it only supports 500 prims but you rented 700, don't panic!  The person you rented from probably owns more land in the sim, so look at how many prims are available in the sim.  If in doubt, ask before renting.
Options:  I like to make sure no pushing and safe are always checked.  Also group only for rezzing objects. You can also set a landing point.  A landing point is where people will tp in.
Media/Sound:  Here you can set the urls for your music and movies.  Also you might want to restrict voice and sounds to your parcel only.  It's one of those good neighbor things.

I bought this cool TV and it doesn't work!

In order for most TV's and radios to work on group land, they have to be deeded to the land group.  YOU CAN NOT DEED NO TRANSFER OBJECTS.  Your landlord has no way of helping you deed a no transfer TV.  To deed the tv/radio: Right click it, push the share box, then press the deed box.  Some landlords might say you need to give to them to deed.  Be careful doing this, in order to get your tv/radio back they have to pick it up and give it back to you.  If you deed it, you get it back.  Bottom line, read the information for your media system BEFORE buying it.  Some landlords have tv and radio included with their rental.   And no, they won't pick it up so you can use yours.  They offer these so they don't have to deal with the hassle of getting your personal tv to work.

That's all I can think of for now.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment.  I'm traveling for the next few days but I will get back to you!