Variations in House Cost for the same file

[Silverdrake]

I'm a builder, and I have to take note of the cost of my houses, furnished and unfurnished, so that I can share them. However, the same house/lot will have a different cost in edit town view than in Build/Buy mode. My theory is that this occurs because I double up on the landscaping with Moveobjects, and perhaps the cost is determined by objects per grid in one view, but not in the other. However, I don't really know why this occurs, and I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue.

[hatsuniza]

I've had that happen a few times.  Yesterday I was making a starter(ish) home priced just shy of 16k.  In the Edit Town view it was around $1200 cheaper.  I don't know why, but since it was cheaper I didn't really care.

[J. M. Pescado]

The game does some weird stuff at times, plus you frequently see inaccurate cached values.

[brownlustgirl]

I have wondered this since playing the game, but I really don't want it changed. Helps my starter sims out.

[blackcat]

I think that's because in build/buy mode it calculates all the gardening and outdoor stuff, and when your sim moves in he doesn't pay for this, so it shows lower price.

[Silverdrake]

Tch! I have no idea what to put on my uploads to MTS. Seems like putting "somewhere in the range of 130K" isn't acceptable, so I've taken to jotting down every number I can find in the hopes it will be satisfactory.

I considered removing every shrubbery, but I'm not that bored yet.

[Emma]

You should know exactly what it costs if you take time to test it first before uploading.

[Silverdrake]

Gee, why do you assume I didn't? I use every house I build, tyvm.

[KAuss]

When you build a house, the price of the house does not adjust if you move any counters around.  The initial placement of it will make it go up the cost of the counter, when you move it, it doubles.  So if buy a $250 counter, then move that same counter 3 times after, you'll have incurred $1,000 in costs.

Once I finish building the house, when I exit, then enter the lot again, the price adjusts to what it should be.

[Scroll]

I think that's because in build/buy mode it calculates all the gardening and outdoor stuff, and when your sim moves in he doesn't pay for this, so it shows lower price.

I am also a builder and specialize in starters (under 16k). The costs are therefore crucial for me. Right now I can't get to my game until next weekend, but I would love to get this theory confirmed. Will the cost of the gardening (flowers, trees, bushes, stones etc) be deducted from the total cost of the house when moving in a Sim?

Also does anyone have any tips on how to decrease total cost (and make that decrease stick for sharing) so it's possible to add more stuff? I got the tip of moving in and living for one week. Also heard of exiting and re-entering a couple of times, but looking for a faster way. (Would the magic wand work for this?) Not really sure that the price tag on my lots will be the same when other players download the lots.

[blackcat]

I think that's because in build/buy mode it calculates all the gardening and outdoor stuff, and when your sim moves in he doesn't pay for this, so it shows lower price.

I am also a builder and specialize in starters (under 16k). The costs are therefore crucial for me. Right now I can’t get to my game until next weekend, but I would love to get this theory confirmed. Will the cost of the gardening (flowers, trees, bushes, stones etc) be deducted from the total cost of the house when moving in a Sim?

Also does anyone have any tips on how to decrease total cost (and make that decrease stick for sharing) so it’s possible to add more stuff? I got the tip of moving in and living for one week. Also heard of exiting and re-entering a couple of times, but looking for a faster way. (Would the magic wand work for this?) Not really sure that the price tag on my lots will be the same when other players download the lots.

Nope, double checked and I was wrong, sorry. I guess the reason is really what Kauss suggested.

[Scroll]

Ok thanks blackcat!

Silverdrake - Don't know if I misunderstood you, do you mean the lots in the bin have different prices than when placed? Could it be the difference of prices in edit town view (if you see them in the bin before placing) and in Build/Buy mode be due to the actual "lot" cost? I mean they all have different "empty lot" prices depending on how big they are but also where they are located? So if placing the same "house lot "on two different lots would make the price change depending on if one is rated as more desirable (ex. beach front) and other less?

I might have been imagining the different empty lot prices though? So irritating not being able to load and check right now.

[brownlustgirl]

Krauss may have something there, although I never noticed it.

I did a test last night on a lot I was building, no garden items was placed. The cost of the lot was a little over 11,000 simoleons in build/buy mode. When I went to "Edit Town" mode, the price was still the same. I went back to build/buy mode and placed some trees and bushes, then back to "Edit Town" and the price went up about 100 simoleons. Thought that was odd.

Maybe both of you have a good theory going.  I have to test the counter thing.

[blackcat]

When I did the test I placed one plant and went into Edit Town screen. The price of the house raised by the plant's depreciated cost. Don’t know if same goes for furniture.

[Silverdrake]

Eureka! It must be the depreciation (which seems much, much faster than in TS2). I furnish my houses. It does seem strange that they'd depreciate before being occupied, but it seems likely.

Here is where I found the different costs: I build the house. When done, I take note of the costs in Build/Buy mode. Then, in edit town mode, without moving the lot, I click on it, and it has a different cost.

I'm trying to remember which cost comes up when I move a sim in - I'll have to go back and see what that is. One odd thing about that is that I don't get a choice of furnished/unfurnished.

[KAuss]

I forgot to mention too that when you reenter a house you built, it does depreciate...  I did a bit more testing with the counters and it seems the game does not do this every time, but if you just did what I suggested by placing then moving counters, you'll see the difference. On an empty lot worth 1,800, you can place then move some counters, destroy everything, and see a lot price above 1,800 on the empty lot...

The game seems to double the price just once. So once that counter triggers the bug, it's safe to move around afterward. Now I'm not sure if anything else in the house does this, but from what I recall it shouldn't.

Still, you can easily fix the price by exiting to town, then reenter the house.  That adjusts the price for depreciation AND fix the added price to a single item problem.

I have not see this happen with landscape however, I haven't tested it.

Edit:

I actually got it to act the way I remembered it.  I used the shoppe counter island piece, place two connected to each other.  Now pick up either one of those counters, then reconnect them on the other side. If you keep doing this, the price keeps going up.  IIRC this should be not limited to just shoppe counters (as I don't even use them in my houses) so I really can't explain what the issue is.  Stand alone counters will trigger it once in a while, but connected counters seem to be more often, and in some cases 100%.

[Silverdrake]

I did a little test, too: I had just finished building a house, but not done any landscaping. The price was the same in both build/buy and edit town: 68,542

I went back in and added some shrubbery. The price then changed to 68,742 in Build/Buy, and 68,585 in Edit Town.

[KAuss]

I did a little test, too: I had just finished building a house, but not done any landscaping. The price was the same in both build/buy and edit town: 68,542

I went back in and added some shrubbery. The price then changed to 68,742 in Build/Buy, and 68,585 in Edit Town.

I found the culprit to this too, when you place a duplicate of a shrub, the shrubs in build / buy mode does not depreciate when you enter the lot again.  However the lot in edit town mode shows the depreciated prices.

If you just put one of every kind of shrub, the build / buy mode will match.

This is different than counters since the counters will adjust itself with a reenter, the shrub issue won't.

[Scroll]

Can I ask you guys for a little test please? 
(As I mentioned before I cant get to my game until next weekend or I would muck about myself.)

So there are three "views":
1. Build/buy mode
2. Edit town (where house is placed on lot)
3. The lot bin

Where are the differences? Would the price change in Edit town due to depreciation, but not in the lot bin? I have made the mistake of uploading from the edit town view, but now been told to use the lot bin instead for sharing. 

[brownlustgirl]

Tested the counters and yes, they do add cost every time you fiddle with the corner cabinet. Same with the upper cabinet. If I delete the cabinet, the cost of the lot stay the same in buy/build mode. There is an adjustment when you go to "Edit Town", lot cost is lower.

After furnishing the lot, I added trees and bushes to the landscape. Finishing cost was 22,575 simoleons, but from "Edit Town" the lot cost was 18,250 simoleons. I did use 2 of the expensive trees, and some flower bushes, but the adjustment confused me. I wonder what else depreciate when I got that cost, cause I know the garden didn't cost 4,325 simoleons.

@ Scroll:
I usually click share from "Edit Town" cause it saves a copy in the library and I won't have 2 copies. From what I can tell, the saved copy is the same price as the lot placed in the hood. Sites I have shared don't have posts that the cost was a problem or different than what I advertised. I believe they would if my starter lots came out too expensive. I did download a lot I lost cause while trying to delete the extra copy, both copies deleted. The cost was the same as before, a little over 14,000 simoleons.

[KAuss]

If you moved the cabinets and stayed in the game without going to edit town, you'll accumulate that cost until you exit.  You do get money back from deleting them, but only 1x the cost of the item, all the moving price additions stay until you exit to town...

So, if you messed with the cabinets, didn't exit, then you placed your lawn / trees...  You're accumulating a ton of extra cost that way.

If you exit to town, the town price WILL be correct regardless what took place before it.  However, if you have multiples of any plant / tree / shrub etc. in your design, your build / buy mode will NOT adjust.  So you have to literally keep exiting to see how your budget is going to be if you want to keep starter status.  Any doubles of landscape plants will not show depreciation like furniture.  An example would be to place a single plant on an empty lot, exit it, then reenter...  You'll see when you sell it, it's lower priced than the original...  However, if you add the same plant (2 planets and empty lot) then exit, the lot will lower to the correct price, but when you reenter the lot price jumps up again.  Not only that, but your plants are now back to original price.  Both of them...

That basically solves it, just note that when you see the price in town edit mode, that IS the correct one...  This game is full of holes...

[brownlustgirl]

Okay. I did exit to town before landscaping to see the price adjustment. I was testing the landscaping theory when I started decorating the outdoors. Still confused on the big adjustment though.

[Scroll]

brownlustgirl - Thank you for the information!

Will keep checking back here to see if any of you find out anything else about this issue.