Rave about starter homes and 20k? Loan, we need loans!
jjsy:
EDIT: just realised that this could be an in appropriate place to post this... but I don't know exactly where it should go, could somebody point it out for me?
The "Starter Lot".... bleh
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a bunch of related issues which has been bugging me as a person who likes to create lots.
A starter lot is defined to be a lot costing less than 20k. However, in a lot of cases, the lot creator is really faced with tough problems. Quite often we get "starter" lots with no furnishing whatsoever to keep the cost down. Not that big an issue, but still quite irritating to try to starve and sleep in a bedless albeit nice house. imho, a "starter" lot should contain at least the bare minimum for civilized living, some items listed in order of importance.
0) phone (curse all the "starter" lots that doesn't even leave enough $$ to buy a DAMN PHONE!!!!)
1) toilet (before somebody counter this, remember the word "civilized"??)
2) bed
3) bath/shower
optional but highly recommended:
4) kitchen stuff (fridge + at least microwave)
Now I like to create lots myself, I do know the struggle between getting the architecture up in place and putting in furniture (which could be replaced very quickly later). At the bare minimum, I would like the bare architecture in place, even if without paint and stuff.. (prob looks hell ugly). Even so, sometimes, frustration comes in the form of "damn, just exceeded the 20k limit" by a small margin, then proceed to hunt down the whole lot to look for things to delete.... without success....... self... talk... curse and swear at heavens (relation to self --, relation to heaven ----)
And thus, though I agree somewhat with the 20k handout being a little unrealistic at times, sorry if I say that I just CANNOT side with the proponents of that idea given the extreme limitations that I'm having already....
Advanced Financing 101
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In real life, do we really fork out the entire sum at once to buy a house????? Except for the few minority which are the exception (don't talk to me, don't tell me who you are, just go.... go...), most people will go for housing loans. I've seen loans being done in the past (usually involving a computer or a phone hack or an atm), some being quite advanced (add payment to bills which automatically brings in repo man without the loan hack doing anything directly). But what I feel we need is something that starter lot creators can PUT directly into the lot instead of relying on sims.
Solution?
Future money: loans.
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I don't know if this is possible: but here's what I can throw off the top of my head right now, in the whole frustration mood over "20k" issue.
First, create a "Loan" object with a NEGATIVE cost. The negative cost is the negation of the loan that the sim family is supposed to get. So what does this implies? Assuming that the game adds up the cost of all the buy/build items + lot size, the "Loan" object will effective reduce the total price of the lot by its stated amount... E,g, say a house cost 25k, add a 5k loan object (adds -5k to total cost), this will bring down the cost of the house to 20k!! So a starter family with 20k can still afford the house, where basic amenities are assured with an appropriate loan amount. Given that, how about loan payment?
Loan repayment:
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Since the loan object has negative cost, I assume that it will actually REDUCE the household money if sold in buy mode. However, this can only be true if the loan value is not deprecated. assuming that Sims2 deprecation uses multiplication instead of fixed subtraction, we would not want the actual debt to reduce on its own!!! (Although it's probably everybody's dream). What this still doesn't solve, at least without more advanced handling, is the payment period/frequency problem.
For simplicity, let each loan scheme, characterized by the
1. total loan amount,
2. the interest,
3. the number of payments,
4. the delay to first payment
5. the frequency of subsequent payment,
6. penalty to missed payment
Basically, a person takes out a loan amount of X has to pay back total outstanding amount Y = (X + interest rate * X)
Each payment amount P = (outstanding loan amount Y / number of payments left)
First payment starts after a delay (to give sims time to get a job and earn some money) e.g. 3 days to 1 week, and continue at a regular interval.
Should a payment be missed, a fine amount is added into the outstanding total (thus increasing amount of future payments).
After working out the math, how do we actually enforce payment? I think the loan idea I say in a mod is quite good in that it rides on the bills system. If it is possible, simply issue each payment as a separate bill, and then we don't even have to handle missed payments. The inbuilt bills+repo-man will take care of that.
The Ideal Outcome
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Sims family can now buy houses beyond their initial budget, balanced by a harder life in the future serving the loan (did anybody notice how familiar sims 2 has become as reflections of our own lives...). So those people who think 20k is too much can opt to have initial amount of money lowered with no need to build cheap ugly temporary houses. Just open the non-inhabited lot you want to buy, plonk down one/ few appropriate loan objects such that the cost of the lot (should be more aptly named the down payment now) will be within the budget of the family in question. This can also make a lot of houses which misses the "starter" limit of 20k by a hair margin to make it to the category without compromising basic amenities.
The Real Situation?
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How possible is this within the current system?
Maxwell:
Sounds like you're looking for Inge's mortgage shrubs (amongst other, similar objects): http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_MovingHouse.htm
The interest scheme doesn't work quite like you've described, but I imagine you'll find it satisfactory enough.
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EDIT: just realised that this could be an in appropriate place to post this... but I don't know exactly where it should go, could somebody point it out for me?
A thread like this probably belongs in the Podium. Peasantry is really more for posting stuff you've hacked yourself.
bekka:
Could also use Moniques computer, an updated version that is posted in Peasantry.
Zazazu:
That's what I do. I have the Mayor "donate" the amount of the loan into the big simoleon hole in the sky. Then another sim takes out a loan. The interest is a bank fee to me. All households also pay a 10% income tax weekly to fund creation of community lots, given to the mayor but put in a savings account.
Quinctia:
I've started to use the mortgage shrubs as a general rule to get all the available lots in a neighborhood under 20k. That way, I can move in whomever I choose, easy-peasy. If they've got the cash, they can sell some of the shrubs...if they want to furnish more/remodel, they can get a larger mortgage with more shrubs.
However, I've also been trying my hands at building some actual starter homes. And I'm getting better at it. I'm avoiding things that annoy ME in starters I've downloaded in the past. I'm making houses on foundations, with separated spaces (e.g., no open loft bedrooms, actual living and kitchen space, room for a tub in the bathroom). Because not all of my families are going to be living in giant houses filled with expensive everything, nor should they.
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