More Awesome Than You!

I think the sims buying a home method is stupid. Some sims have insignificant, low paying jobs that wouldn't allow them to own a home outright. But thanks to Maxis' 20k handouts (no pay back required) they can. Then there are sims I have mercilessly worked so they can afford to move from a one room shack to an overpriced two bedroom home. Almost all of their money is spent leaving little to furnish the new place. I know Maxis added the inventory to fix the buy home-no furniture problem; still, it's not satisfactory.

I wish the buy home method was more realistic. I want my sims to pay a down payment on a house and have a mortgage. I want them to have to work for their dream home. Not every sim is meant to be as rich as the Goths; some don't deserve to.

So here's what I was thinking: Let's say that a sim has maybe $10,000 or $15,000 to spare without going broke. In order to buy the home they would have to secure a loan. The loan would be repaid from the sim's paycheck. A fixed payment should be required daily or every couple of days. If the sim fails to pay then no payment/late fees would be added to their debt. If a sim dies, then the sim who inherits the house will be responsible for payments. I also think the fixed payment amount should be determined by the size of the loan.

This is an idea I've been mulling over for a few days now. What do you guys think?

Inge had a mortgage shrub, but she no longer operates her site. The Laden Swallow has a lot of her mods, try this link:

http://www.nectere.net/smf/index.php

Other than that, Monique over at MTS2 has a computer that lets you take out a loan, and you have to pay it back whenever your regular bills come. It's added on to them. It also charges you interest, by the way.

It is rather more Real Lifeish to have to pay back a huge debt, isn't it? :D

 I use these http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=122224 (http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=122224)

They are a series of buyable paintings that look like loan certificates.  You pay 1% per day interest and repay the loan by selling the painting in buy mode.  I think they work more or less the same as Inge's shrubs.

Cute, although I, personally, do not believe in loans, so sims that have no money simply suffer in poverty on their empty lot until they can afford a better lot or find someone rich to marry.

Thanks for the references. I'll try the shrubs, but they don't seem harsh enough. I think the sims should feel the burden of an obese mortgage versus their thin paychecks. And as such, they will accumulate debt and more debt. They should want to buy a big screen tv and a car,  but never quite be able to afford them. They should experience what it's like to work from 8 to 4 and still be dead ass broke. Some sims may actually work their way out of debt, while others will wallow in it and die. Not every sim should be destined for platinum old age retirement. Some are just meant to live, work, and die.

At least that's the way I see it.

I'm not really sure I comprehend the logic which even gets people to that state. You seem to be asking for a set of contradictory things. On one hand, you want to be able to reenact your poor financial management in real life in the sims....but on the other hand, you want this to happen despite NOT engaging in poor financial management in the sims. I don't get it. This shouldn't happen to anyone in REAL LIFE, either, provided they are not STUPID. However, most people are stupid. Correspondingly, most people actually need the motherlode cheat.

1% interest per shrub PER DAY is a heck of a lot of money actually.   So if they have a nice house fully mortgaged they could be paying 2300 a day for it - they'd both need to be chiefs of staff and not go out or buy clothes.

I'm going to try the mortgage shrub with the Lawerence family. I've been planning to move them for a while. ::claps:: Will enjoy this new edition to the game.

Don't get me wrong. I don't want all my sims to suffer--- except for a certain select few. :D I just feel that Maxis made everything too simple. Granted, some people like things simple. I have friend who's sims are happy and rich. I find that boring. I like to mix things up for interesting storylines. My neighborhood is divided by class i.e. wealthy, moderately wealthy, upper middleclass, lower middleclass, just above poor, and flatout poor.

For the record, my finances are fine. I wish I could say the same for my cousin and brother. Believe it or not there are people who do the dumbest things with their money. For instance my cousin managed quite nicely to put together the money to throw herself an $800 party and to buy herself a stereo system that cost over a thousand dollars. But when it came to buying her kids clothes and needed supplies for school, she came begging for a handout. I find sims, particularly wannabe rich fortune sims, have a knack for the same clueless indulgence--- and sometimes I let them go straight into the poorhouse for it.   ;D

Well, sure. You can give them no additional money and on top of that, give them dead end shit-pay jobs working for a local ownable business. That'll keep them in the poorhouse just fine. I just don't see how "loan shrubs" fit into this at all.

I think they mean, a sort of  No20khandout thing for cas sims. Like maybe sims could start off with say 5k (just enough to buy a lot) and then have to take out a mortgage to build a house .

CAS sims haven't run any BHAVs, so don't seem terribly hackable. If you want them to start with however much you want, just use the familyfunds cheat to set them to however much you want them to start. Not that 20K buys very much anyway.

JadeElliott talked about this in her Isle of Thyme posts; you might try doing a search and reading through them as she has a unique method for handling loans.  Plus, her neighborhood is eye candy.

I have someone like that at home. Most of the time I call him "my son", but ever so often I call him "the changeling".


That they are, indeed. Every once in a while I go to her page just to get very envious about her neighborhoods. ;)

Me, too.  I visit when my sense of inadequacy needs to be heightened.  Always does the trick.

 ;D ::dying laughing:: Mom told me my cousin was canned from another job. For now on whenever I see her I'll be calling her " the changeling" in my mind.

Oh my gawd, you guys made my day.

I had the shittiest day from holy hell...and then I read these nice words...

Thanks!

I am so happy I can make you all feel so inadequate. That's so sweet.

*huggles everyone*

Also, I recommend Monique's computer for loans, rather than Inge's bush. (I always feel sorta dirty saying that.) I never really understood the concept of them and Monique's computer charges interest in a simple way that I understand.

I was using Monique's Landlord & Tenant mod for this exact purpose.  It's a bit tricky insofar as it's meant to be used to pay rent, not mortgages, but I just made a note of how much they'd paid and when they'd reached the total I transferred ownership to them (which meant I had to familyfund them the money as they'd already paid it and then delete it from the original owner, who had already received it).  I stopped using it in the end because the mod wasn't working properly, it kept reverting to weekly payments instead of daily and I got terribly confused about who had paid what & when.

I would say probably the best way would be to remove their 20K via familyfunds (or however much of it you want to remove) and then use Inge's mortgage shrubs, which will enable you to move them into a house that costs more than they have as long as it's set-up in advance.  I think it would be great if the game reflected real life more and there was a choice of buying or renting houses, but Maxis couldn't possibly be that sophisticated.

Glad to be of service, JadeElliott!

I just make sure I have a bottle of antidepressants handy when visiting Thyme.   ;D

Same here, Jade. Anything for the person who provided so many great links, especially my new all-time favorite house :D

Ancient, do you mean that the Landlord-Tenant mod doesn't work generally, or just the way you tried it? I downloaded it because I'm getting ready to graduate a boatload of YA's from college, and I want them to rent. I use the noHandout mod -- well, who gets out of college rich anyways--- so that seemed like a good thing.

Oh well, I still have Inge's apartment stuff, I just don't know whether it works with OFB. I guess I have to trundle over to TLS and see if there's some info on that. Nectere will know, because....all Necteres rock.