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### Topic

#### Pure speculation about custom houses

So, it's anticipated that we'll be able to customize housing, 'soon'.
What do you suppose this does to real estate prices? If you can customize an existing 50K house, it's really not a 50K house anymore, right? And if the setup is that you build on a new plot somewhere, how do you determine value if you want to sell? Will glitch get appraisers? Real estate agents? (at least they could recycle the lizard NPC for those...) Perhaps housing could be sold at auction?

Posted 13 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink

### Replies

- Wow those are all really good questions!
  Posted 13 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ | Permalink
- This depends largely on the nature of upgrades. If they're handled in the same way a street project is (which would be pretty cool), then it's going to be tough to measure value. Certainly the sum of parts can be evaluated, but perhaps a better way to go about it is to assign value based on upgrade (rather than effort), taking into consideration the physical assets required plus the overall value added to the home.
  So for example, a new floor added to a 50k home could add an additional 20k to the house price, even if the total value of the resources required to create it is 10k.
  Because these will likely be fixed units - furniture, levels, gardens, etc., rather than "I'm adding a statue of myself made entirely out of sparkly to my front lawn, and a fountain filled with the blood of my enemies!" Pricing wouldn't need to be appraised, per se, but could be estimated with simple addition. The baseline cost of the house wouldn't change, and the customizations that are added would have a set value.
  To create another layer of complexity, you could create an algorithm that adjusts the overall price when different customizations are combined.
  For instance, if X is valued at 20k, and Y is valued at 30k, combining them will make the house 60k more valuable.
  This kind of "more than the sum of its parts" math is applied to a lot of the stuff in the game already. For instance, gasses and bubbles, when tuned, equal more than the amount of raw materials that go into them (usually at an increment of 10c more per created unit).
  But, all of this is kind of moot, ultimately. The goal of home ownership in glitch tends to be based around what you want rather than what creates a good value. As it stands now, you cannot sell houses through the game at a profit (you will always take a 20% loss).
  People are selling their houses privately to people in exchange for currants on TOP of that price, but that's at the discretion of the players involved and not affected by TS in any way.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- +1 MILLION to the idea of - "I'm adding a statue of myself made entirely out of sparkly to my front lawn, and a fountain filled with the blood of my enemies!" YES YES I want to be able to do this! XD
  Posted 13 months ago by ♪♥~ Auren ~♥♪ | Permalink
- @Miso: I'm sure Xev could get you a great deal on Glitch blood. <whistles>
  Posted 13 months ago by Groovy Bear | Permalink
- Who can put a price on a fountain filled with the blood of your enemies? Xev can. Because Xev loves your money and wants you to be happy.
  Always Xev. Especially Xev.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- Wait, we're not getting fountains filled with the blood of our enemies? Then I've been wasting my time making all these enemies :(
  Posted 13 months ago by Demyx | Permalink
- A dead enemy is never wasted, Demyx. Not in our hearts.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- Or in our pig feeders, I suppose.
  Posted 13 months ago by Demyx | Permalink
- @Xev: You're my favorite Glitch. You're better than Purple Sno Cones.
  Posted 13 months ago by Groovy Bear | Permalink
- There are countless uses for dead enemies. I'm sure we can think of loads, like coat rack (during rigor mortis), but let's try to stay on subject.
  I thank you for the high praise, groovy bear.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- Simple solution: houses 'reset' back to their original state when sold. 'Upgrades' remain packages that revert back to a player's inventory when they sell a house.
  Glitchies are buying the location plus the stock original house when they shop for real estate.
  Issue resolved.
  Unless Tiny Speck wants to add a complex new secondary Real Estate market to the game. If that happens I can forsee people buying 'starter up' houses to upgrade and resell. A 'housing rehab' class of player. Quickly there would be no affordable housing for new players, unless new 'stock' housing was regularly added. Maybe that would be the case, of course.
  Posted 13 months ago by Parrow Gnolle | Permalink
- So perhaps like piggies and trees, what you add to your house carries along to the next person who buys it, unless you take the time to disassemble it all before you sell. That's easiest and makes the most sense.
  Posted 13 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink
- Not to throw a wrench in a few posts, buuuuuuut :P Stoot has said in an interview with Massively Speaking, here, that it is likely that house customization will make it so empty lots are bought and built on, instead of the buy a prefabricated cookie-cutter house deal we have going on now.
  With that in mind, resume your discussions of housing value :P
  PS: The interview starts around 43 minutes in. Info on houses and group halls comes around the one hour mark.
  Posted 13 months ago by Liza Throttlebottom | Permalink
- Clearly this is leading to a Glitch Housing Bubble. The Lizard Bureaucrats will be busy bailing out the Glitch Banks..... Foreclosures FTW!!
  Posted 13 months ago by Tribunal | Permalink
- No. No wrenches. I'm so excited about house customizations, in any capacity.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- Well you shouldn't be worried in the first place. I've never heard of an empty lot without an 'Add fountain filled with the blood of your enemies' option listed first.
  Posted 13 months ago by Liza Throttlebottom | Permalink
- Who's worried? I'm gettin' an ISLAND!
  All seriousness, the podcast is awesome. Please listen to it. Stoot is insane, but coming from me, that's high praise.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- It's a very positive insanity. Xev is totally right there :)
  Posted 13 months ago by Liza Throttlebottom | Permalink
- An island, as Xev requests, would be wonderful.
  So would a rocky retreat far at the top of a mountain.
  Since this is pure speculations, here is what I expect:
  * A stream running through my house (diverted with my engineering skills and rocks I have mined)
  * Furniture of different styles and uses built with Glitchy hands - either built by myself or bought at auction from craftsglitches.
  * Art, drawn by TS artists or by other Glitchen
  * A kitchen with all of my kitchen tools built in,
  * A storage room with shelves galore
  * A barn for grain, vegetables and fruit.
  * A bedroom where I can rest my weary Glitch bones and not lose energy and maybe gain extra when I meditate.
  * A lounge where I can entertain my Glitchy friends with a self-serve bar and snack tray (one at a time dispensing). This room would have separate security from the rest of my house.
  * The oft-requested jukebox to play my Music blocks
  * A temple room to hold my shrines, so they do not get shoved behins the bales of grain and cubimals.
  * Trophy room with shelves not just for my trophies, but for my walloping big diamonds and rare cubimals.
  * A closet to hold all of my wonderful wardrobe items in-game
  That should do for now.
  Posted 13 months ago by Kookaburra | Permalink
- What! You mean, no more hobo cooking, Kookaburra?! Madness.
  A kitchen with built in tools would be amazing.
  Posted 13 months ago by Xev | Permalink
- ignore this post. apparently you can't delete posts.
  [edit] this MESSAGE, not the thread. Okay, shutting up now.
  Posted 13 months ago by Glenn Coco | Permalink
- I have no idea and must guess along with everybody else but I don't think that upgrading a house doesn't give more room to the house (there's plenty of room already). See here and here, those are two houses owned by developers (who should be testing stuff before the release it to the public). Inside their house they have stuff like mortar barnacles, rocks, extra tree slots- even shrines and vendors. Note that the second house shown is a 50,000 one (with only normal patches) yet an egg plant (which only grows in dark patches) is growing. If this is what is going to be released, then I cannot wait.
  Posted 13 months ago by < This is me > | Permalink
- I thought housing customization was going to mean vanity items to put in our houses as decoration. But I love the idea of getting a sparkly rock or two out in my back yard!
  Posted 13 months ago by Vocable | Permalink
- Xev, I want to be prepared when the time comes. Can i commission you to collect the blood of my enemies? Shall I mail you the list?
  Posted 13 months ago by Billy McBinky | Permalink