Renting Properties

We had a short discussion in Discord yesterday about leasing businesses. In this thread, I'll cover renting/leasing properties, from apartments/flats to businesses.

We'll begin with businesses:

Leasing/letting a business gives capable roleplayers a chance to run their own business in-character, without needing hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars of in-game cash. The best way to filter out the incapable from the capable is simply by putting an application process in place. This would serve as a primarily in-character application, with room for any out-of-character questions to ensure the player(s) fit the criteria. A number of the staff, or all of the staff, could be allocated to manage and accept these applications.

But how would this work? Easily. You give the players a chance to choose between a number of default interiors, dependant on the type of business that they wish to lease/let. The player chooses a location and management will decide whether the location (and interior) is suitable. After that, if the player was successful in their application, a flat fee (deposit) and monthly payment fee is agreed on between management and the player. Failure to pay would/could result in the temporary or permanent termination of the leasing/letting agreement. Whilst parts of the process will be handled out-of-character by management/staff, follow-ups, routine checks, etc. could be carried out in-character. 

For example: John_Smith wants to lease a restaurant but doesn't have enough in-game cash to outright purchase one; he makes an application and it is accepted. Rehasher and John_Smith agree on a deposit of $5,000 and a monthly fee of $1,000 (or a percentage). This is just an example, prices would probably be a bit higher. 

It goes without saying that John_Smith would have to adhere to rules and guidelines put in place by management.

Now, let's move onto houses/apartments: 

Not only would renting/letting houses and apartments (bedsits, flats, etc.) benefit players who don't have enough in-game cash to outright buy a property, but it would also benefit the realism of roleplay. Renting/letting properties is a popular option for people in real life, so why not on BARP too? 

How would this work? You decide which properties are for sale, or for rent (some may be available as both), and create "complexes" for flats & apartments (like high-rise towers, etc.). Again, just like with businesses, a deposit/down-payment is agreed on after a short application process, and then monthly fees are determined. I don't think I need to explain this one that much, as I'm sure the majority of us are already aware of how renting/letting works in the real world.

For example: Jane_Smith wants to live in a house but doesn't have enough in-game cash; she applies to rent/let a property and is successful. She and the landlord agree on a deposit, which equals the same amount as one monthly payment, and puts the first month's payment down. She moves in and lives happily ever after.

Jane_Smith stops paying her rent after 6 months. The landlord tries to make contact several times but is unsuccessful. The locks are changed and Jane's tenancy agreement is terminated.

The apartment renting is a must, I was in a faction that was very focused about the money cycle. Sell drugs > Pay bills > buy more drugs > pay more bills and the cycle continues, the problem was there was no actual place to pay the bills at, having a rent to keep up with on the server would create so many RP for every player.

I am not even talking about the fact it'd give players the ability to build communities inside an apartment building and the interactions with the landlord, this would benefit the economy so much by getting money out of the server and making character development something you actually need to put effort into. Great suggestion Sombra, really well done.

I'm surprised that I didn't mention the benefits to the economy too, so good shout, Exodus. It's an all-round beneficial system, and would most likely be used by players/characters from different areas of roleplay, whether illegal or legal. Landlords could be staff members on alternative characters, or players could even purchase properties to then rent/let out. The possibilities are endless.

I'd much prefer if this was kept IC rather than it being admin related. 

There could possibly be a command / option for property owners (house, biz, apt) to lease it to someone themselves.

/let [propertyid] [playerid] [fee (hourly)] 

It will give the tenant ownership of the property, the landlord should be able to evict the tenant at any moment though.

Yes, I would like it to be IC, too. However, I would also want there to be realistic roleplay involved. A fair, but realistic experience that will help shape the economy, add to immersion and help communities thrive IC. There needs to be some sort of management put in place in order to make sure it's being handled correctly.

2 hours ago, Whiskey said:

I'd much prefer if this was kept IC rather than it being admin related. 

 

There could possibly be a command / option for property owners (house, biz, apt) to lease it to someone themselves.

 

/let [propertyid] [playerid] [fee (hourly)] 

It will give the tenant ownership of the property, the landlord should be able to evict the tenant at any moment though.

While yes, of course, we'd like to keep everything IC and less OOC like Sombra said, there has to be some sort of OOC medium involved to supervise the well being of a system like this. The command you suggested is in place at another community (which we all know) and is basically being abused to create spawn points for people, so that isn't what we are aiming for. What Sombra meant is a whole ownership over an apartment, but a lease, like buying the house off a server, paying for it monthly (or weekly?) and if the person who rents fails to pay, he gets evicted. Having actual owners to these apartments defeats the whole idea of the renting, as the owner can abuse the system and just give it to a lot of people with no RP involved.

What you can do is have some sort of lease managment team, with an admin supervising the team, that way admins don't have to focus on it and the members of said team will focus on it.

2 minutes ago, Exodus said:

What you can do is have some sort of lease managment team, with an admin supervising the team, that way admins don't have to focus on it and the members of said team will focus on it.

Bingo.

You don't need a middle man (team) if you can only lease it to one person.

I didn't suggest a /setrentpriceforall command. /lease = you "give" an individual / selective players your property, with a command to terminate the lease of course. 

However, not allowing multiple players to spawn at a single house wouldn't be a positive suggestion.

We could possibly give GOV a bunch of properties (not businesses) to lease out for a start though tbh. 

Multiple people could rent/spawn a single house, if it was a house share/bedsit/HMO. Without actual management and roleplay, anything either I or Exodus mentioned, in regards to the economy, communities (etc.) wouldn't work out.

It'd be nice to buy out a complex and then lease/rent it to potential customers. On a side note, this could also work hand-in-hand with a Hotel/Motel system.

It'd be nice to buy out a complex and then lease/rent it to potential customers. On a side note, this could also work hand-in-hand with a Hotel/Motel system.

Something that I've always found annoying with the property renting systems on other servers is that the player that rents out the property still lives there, so it's always felt like somewhat of an OOC arrangement where the whole system is just used to make extra money on the side and involves no roleplay. I've found myself in awkward situations a number of times where I'd go into the apartment/house that I'm renting and the owner is there with his friends and proceeds to act like he doesn't know me and just kicks me out on the spot. 

I realize that letting only one person rent a property at a single time wouldn't work, so what if everyone that rented at a house/apartment had their own virtual world, I don't know if something like that would be possible.

View my post above; 

Instead of "renting", your friends can "spawn" at your property without any fees and the owner must give mentioned friends the permissions to spawn, lock doors etc.

If you rent out your property, then the player who you manually rented out the property too has all the management permissions and gets to chose who spawns there etc.

I like that, Whiskey. 

It'd be nice if we could have multiple property types. By this, I don't mean houses and apartments, I also mean emergency housing/bedsits. If you've ever heard about or seen a hostel/bedsit, you'll know what I'm talking about (no, not a hostel like the Hostel films!). This isn't something that needs prioritising, but it'd be a nice feature for low-income characters, as well as homeless characters (not necessarily the stereotypical "dirty" homeless).

Yes to both.

I agree to this. All the ideas is good.

I agree to this. All the ideas is good.