Giving away (or selling for 1$) a business.

[Inge]

I thought I had already asked this here but I can't find the thread in my subscription list now...

My sim wants to give the family business to his son, who has now moved into his own home.   Giving him the deed didn't seem to do the trick - the son owns the deed now, but not the business.  I'd also be happy to sell it to him cheaply if needs be, but I can't find how to do that either.

[jsalemi]

How did you give him the deed?  Did you just move it from inventory to inventory?  Or did you click on it and 'transfer business to...'?

I seem to recall some discussion here not long ago about wonkiness caused by moving a business to an off-lot owner, but I'm not sure thats the case here.

[Berg]

I faced the same dilemma when a family in this 'hood wanted to give their owned lots to the mayor.

If my memory serves correctly, I think I did it like this:

I had the owner of the community lot start a home business. Closed it with the open/close sign. Put the deed for the community lot somewhere and marked it for sale for §1. I then invited the sim I wanted to give the lot to over on the phone. When the sim had arrived, the home business opened and and the sales transaction took place in a great hurry before any other customer could come and spoil the whole thing

No, it's not a very smooth method and I hope there's a better one available, but if not...

[Inge]

Well I did try starting a home business and selling the business but it was still only the deed as far as I could tell.  So if I get the deed out, in the owner's home (I will have to get the son to give it back as a gift first) and put it on the floor, it will have an option for transferring the business?

[Berg]

You can also order a new deed on the phone; it will show up in the owner's inventory.

Hmm, I thought you could only transfer the business (by clicking on the deed and "Transfer..." ) to someone living on the same lot, but I guess I never tried it that way.... Maybe it was that easy all along?

[Inge]

Yep, it was get the deed out, and click on it and choose transfer.  But it only offered household members to transfer to.  I had to move him back in temporarily!  Thanks that's easier than setting up a fake home business.

[Berg]

Well, yes, I can see that now...

[Zazazu]

I wonder if just using your statue to summon him would work, Inge, since he does become selectable? I'm off to try. I totally forgot to transfer Dance! over to Derek. Poor kid. It's the place he met his sweetie, and his grandfather's business that his aunt and uncle were holding in trust.

Yeah. No worky. Had to move in.

[J. M. Pescado]

There are also bugs associated with transferring businesses out of the household, or even with moving a business owner to a new household. Before you destroy the old household (if you intend to), you need to use "Transfer Business Data" from the Lot Debugger on the new household. Otherwise the business information will not move and you will not be able to check in with your new business. And dangling crap will be left behind.

[Inge]

The way round I did it was:
I had already moved the adult son into his own home.
I played the son's home
Summoned the father and made him selectable
Tried the transfer but it was only on offer to members of the father's remaining household
Used teleporter to move father into son's house
Made the transfer
Made father "get own place" (might as well take advantage of the free $20000)

The father will be moving back to his own home next time I am at the family bin.

[sloppyhousewife]

There are also bugs associated with transferring businesses out of the household, or even with moving a business owner to a new household. Before you destroy the old household (if you intend to), you need to use "Transfer Business Data" from the Lot Debugger on the new household. Otherwise the business information will not move and you will not be able to check in with your new business. And dangling crap will be left behind.

So "Transfer Business Data" has to be used every time a business owner moves to a new lot?

[notovny]

I had the owner of the community lot start a home business. Closed it with the open/close sign. Put the deed for the community lot somewhere and marked it for sale for §1. I then invited the sim I wanted to give the lot to over on the phone. When the sim had arrived, the home business opened and and the sales transaction took place in a great hurry before any other customer could come and spoil the whole thing

You don't need to start a home business for this. When on the lot, set the sign to "Closed", then place the deed of the lot on the lot itself. Mark it for sale at the price you want it, and send the owner home.  (You don't even need a cash register.)

Load the household of the person you want to buy the lot, send him to the lot, and purchase the deed.

There's no need to worry if a townie gets there first; You'll have the option to veto any sale. I use this method a lot to  transfer the factories in my neighborhood between the business owners who need them.

[cwykes]

Berg's method looks good to me if the sim is at home as it saves a special trip to the business lot.  Having the house registered as a business always helps get crafted items into the right inventory anyway.

I guess Novotny's idea is that the sale goes smoother if you are controlling the buyer rather than the seller, but it means the owner has to go to the lot to put the deed up for sale and then the son has to visit to buy it.  That's a lot of loading time.  If the owner is going to the lot anyway, you might as well sell it normally while he is their.  Use the phone and invite the 'heir' over, price the deed, show it to the heir and clinch the deal.  When it's sold, your sim will have to clear off in a hurry packing last minute items into inventory on the way.  If it's a pain in the neck, revert to Novotny's plan!   NB when you mark the deed for sale, double check the price. I find it's buggy - when you take the deed from inventory and price it straight away, your price doesn't stick.

[Inge]

I think it's a bit disappointing it can't be done by giving the deed as a gift.  When I tried that first, I was hoping for a huge show of delight from the son and a relationship bonded forever.  Instead I just got a "meh".

[cwykes]

I find all the gift giving is like that - disappointing.  Same reaction for a fish as for something expensive! Still real gift giving can be the same.  This one probably goes like this "Geez Dad, you want me to take over the business that turned you into an absentee zombie father?  And you expect me to be thrilled by the idea?"

Just for completeness, there are actually have 3 methods of transferring businesses..
1. propose transfer to a family member living on the lot
2. sell to a business customer
3. die and let someone inherit

The first isn't buggy, but you have to clean up data after the second.  DK about the inheritence code.

[J. M. Pescado]

So "Transfer Business Data" has to be used every time a business owner moves to a new lot?

No, only every time the owner moves to a new family. If the entire family is evicted from the lot, the information is part of the family inventory, not part of the lot inventory.