Play Style / Rules, by request: Tuesday Island + Baskerville

[Zazazu]

I don't really do the house buying/renting, but what I do for community lots is slightly similar. The mayor "builds" them from their tax fund by donating the amount the lot build cost, less raw land cost (since sims pay property tax but no initial fee for land in Teardrop Isle). Then, if someone later buys the community lot to use as a biz lot, they pay the mayor half the lot cost into his savings account, which is the tax fund. I family fund the rest of the needed cost to the buyer (small business incentive, if you will).

So, the mayor could pay to build the lot by donating the cost into nowhere. Then you have someone move in, and transfer X amount to the mayor every rotation.

[Lion]

I do something similar. When a rich sim wants to be landlord, and also poor sims can have a better place to live but do not have the money, what I do is, build a lot, note down the value of the lot, play the landlord family, reduce the fund by the value of the lot (money spent in building the rental property), play the tenant family, put all the furnitures that they can use in the new house in their inventory, note down the fund, that will be the cash they have. Set up automatic payment for the rent. I usually set the rent to be 2% of the lot value per day (if multiple families rent the same lot, like an apartment building, each family pays a portion based on the size of each apartment), familyfunds the family large enough to buy the new lot (the rental property). Then exit to the neighborhood, moveout the family to the family bin. Move in the tenant family to the new lot. Adjust the family fund to be exact as the cash they had before.  End of procedure.