I think we can agree, that almost every Second Life resident sooner or later does consider having a home in Second Life.

Right?

Do you want to call a place in Second Life your home but you have very limited financial ressources?

In that case, get a cup of tea, I will show you how to do house squatting in Second Life.

Some of you might think: “Come on, it’s cheap to rent a place in SL, everybody can afford a few bucks.”

No.

Not everybody can. 

Bear in mind that Second Life is populated with people from all over the world. In some countries on our planet people work for the equivalent of 2 US$ per day. Others do simply not have access to US currency or do not have a credit card.

And of course, some people do not want to spend any real money in Second Life. It is their choice and not for us to judge.

Back to the topic, free housing in Second Life.

Step 1: Know The Basics About Land in Second Life

You do not have to become an expert in virtual real estate. You only need to know a few basic things:

• The difference between private estates and mainland property
• The difference between renting and owning land in Second Life
• How to obtain information about specific parcels

I will quickly run you through this. For more in-depth information, have a look at the Second Life wiki.

Private Estates and Mainland Property

Private estates are entire stand-alone regions sold to a Second Life resident. 

Those are typically regions somewhere on the grid not connected to any other regions unless the owner runs several regions which he decided to attach together.

The owner of a private estate manages the estate himself. He is the owner, governor, king all in one person. He makes the rules, he calls the shots.

The mainland of Second Life is a very big surface divided into regions and parcels attached forming huge continents. The continents are managed and governed by Linden Lab.

Renting Versus Owning a Property in Second Life.

This seems to be an obvious one, but worth mentioning. If you rent a property you are paying rent to another resident who owns the property. If you own a property you pay a tier fee (hosting fee) to Linden Lab directly.

You can own an entire region (such as an entire private estate) or a smaller parcel on the mainland. 

This is an important one, take note: 

You can only own a smaller parcel on the mainland. On private estates, you can only have a smaller parcel if you rent one from the owner of the estate.

The options are:

• owning an entire private estate
• renting a parcel on a private estate
• owning a region OR a parcel on the mainland
• renting a parcel on the mainland

Where to get a ree one then, you might wonder. 

There are parcels which used to be owned by somebody. The original owner for some reason abandoned the parcel or is simply not using it anymore.

The owner simply right clicks on the ground and chooses “abandon” in the menu. From that moment on, the land is classified as abandoned and the owner does not have to pay for it anymore.

Those are the ones we are looking for.

But where do you find that information?

How to Obtain Information about a Specific Parcel

Easy. You simply right click the ground of a parcel and chose “land-info”. There you get a lot of information about the parcel.

You need to know three things::

• The name of the owner. If the parcel is abandoned it states it right there
• Rezzing rights, who is allowed to rez prims on the parcel (all, group, owner)
• How many prims are unused

Resume: 

You are trying to find a parcel  on the mainland which:

• Is either abandoned or not used
• Is set to create objects (rez) for all
• Has not used all of its prim allowances

Step 2: How To Find Abandoned Properties in Second Life

This requires effort. Those parcels are not easy to find.

Your best starting point is the map. Teleport to the mainland, open the map and look for regions with little or no buildings on it.

Go there and walks from one parcel to the next. Every time you cross a parcels border check the land info to see if the parcel qualifies (see list above).

You will have to walk through a lot of parcels until you find one like that.

I am lazy. 

And I have a car.

You might remember, I bought this BMW-like SUV with the money Larry gave me for decorating his home. This car is the best vehicle I have ever driven in Second Life.

It is very realistic and smooth and easy to drive, even at region crossings,

That made things a lot easier. I went to Bay City on the Sanasar continent and started my tour. 

I like Sansara, especially the mountain ranges in the middle and towards the south of the continent. 

I did quite some driving until I found a parcel that seemed to qualify. Even got a ticket for speeding. Can you believe that? They fined me 25 L$.

But here comes the next potential obstacle.

The parcel might be set to all under “create objects, but might have an auto-return enabled. What you do is this: Rez just one prim on the parcel and leave it overnight. If it does not get returned to you, you have a winner.

This one had auto-return on. Shit. It would have been a nice lakefront and roadside parcel.

Next try.

I finally found a suitable parcel. 

It was not officially abundant, but apparently, the owner does not use it anymore. Rezzing set to all, no auto-return and a whopping 1000 prims left.

I moved in.

Step 3: Get A Skybox

On the parcel I found, the owner had some stuff rezzed on the ground. I decided to occupy the sky. 

This is also a lot less dangerous. If the owner one day comes back and he sees stuff rezzed on the ground he might simply return it to you.

This risk you always take with parcels like that. If detected you get kicked out. Similar to abandoned parcels. The Lindens might sell that parcel and the new owner kicks you out.

No risk no fun, right?

On marketplace, you can find some nice and inexpensive skybox-apartments. I found a pretty urban style one for as little as 1 L$.

Important: 

Before you start building in the sky, rez a prim on the ground and make it the same size of the parcel. Then send it up into the sky at the highest level possible (typically 4096 meters).

The reason is, you can not see the property borders in the sky.

Step 4: Move in and Start Decorating

So I did.

I have a lot of furniture in my inventory. I got that when I went shopping for Larry’s house. If you don’t have that luxury, don’t worry.

Go to marketplace, select the category furniture and choose  0 to 10 L$ in the left navigation. You will be amazed how many items you find for very little money.

I am thrilled now every time I log in to see if I got kicked out of my new home or not.

Let’s see how long I last.

Just in case, I will try to find a few more parcels for land squatting.  Maybe I give the landmark to poor residents dreaming of a home on the grid.

Are you one of them?

Cool, come and see me at Bar No.5 and we do some house hunting together.