Residential Letting Agents

Are there any players (with housing) who are thinking about renting them out to other players?

I was thinking that it could be useful if a group of players who were doing this could get together to for a guild of letting agents; renting their properties in different villages, towns and cities.

 

I like your idea, but it'd be a bit tough I think. There's nothing stopping an owner from coming back and taking everything the renter has put into the house, including valuables that they've placed in chests. Remember, the owner will have access to everything in their house.

I see this only as a buy/sell market.

 

They would have to build support for it ingame to prevent unscrupulous people from renegging like previous guy said

 

I would say that there is no reason why people would not operate with trust. If letting is set up as an in-game business it is in the interests of the person who rents out the housing to be honest. I would say the first time that a player is not honest, it will be the last time he/she will be able to rent out a property due to reputation.

It takes me back to the days of the player dice casinos at Brit Bank in UO. There were always players that you would happily hand over large cheques to as you knew they would not rip you off.

 

Land lords would need the ability to evict.

 

It would have to be an in-game feature, when it comes to house plots, the most valuable part of the game, no one is going to make pretend that they are renting unless a renting feature exists. I'm good w/or w/out said feature, I prefer the buy/sell market, accustomed to it thanks to UO.

 

I really want the ability to rent, as it can easily be extended: houses designed as multiple apartments to rent, guild houses with individual player rooms, even a room at an inn for the night. Plus having those systems in place makes it a lot easier to implement guild and player-run town features. Hopefully this can be done for Episode 2.

 

This topic has come up before, Stile Teckel was one of the earliest supporters and had many good comments on it.

I've also discussed this topic, and similar topics where trust is required, on my guild website. I invite you to read and respond.

In short: yes, possible but no it isn't currently a supported feature. We need to collect the rent and sort out trust issues ourselves. This isn't necessarily a problem. Prices can be adapted to the perceived risk / reward. I discuss how to deal with trust on my guild site.

It also isn't necessary to take rent up front, as I explain on my guild site, the renter also requires trust from the landlord not to steal their items. I think it is logical to assume that a renter is kindred and that items placed by either party are at risk. Therefore as a renter places items at risk in the owner's property then payment can be in arrears: putting the landlord at risk of no payment. This roughly balances the risk for both party and assures that both sides are incentivized to be honest. It doesnt eliminate risk in case anyone thinks I'm suggesting that.

What isn't entirely clear yet is the proposed locking mechanisms for doors and how that affects kindred status (there may be no effect, but a locked door requires a master key that only the owner has / can craft).

 

I specifically bought extra lots to place rented homes on. The cost for the tenants will be the New Brittania imposed home-tax plus whatever I set the rent at.

 

High Baron O`Sullivan The Slum Lord? hhaahhaa
Great to hear of your new High Baron status *sighs in envy*

That would seem some harsh rent there O'Sullivan... I haven't heard of any definitive words of final say on growing crops, nor have I heard any Portalarium definitive answer to the running an Inn.

Are "they" (Portalarium) wishing to discourage such? Has anyone here some deep dive knowledge on the subjects?
I think I did hear "something mentioned on the subject", yet whenever I hear Portalarium say, "we're thinking on the subject" does this mean that the thought is as far as it will ever go?
It would seem easy to me for a (Set to Inn) status would be a simple solution, where everything in it goes to each person's bank if a room may be set as being rented by "this or that person"....
Though I'd venture to say, that such an issue would probably fall off of any Portalarium's work to do list.

Am I wrong with these assumptions?
~Time Lord~

 

I will have a spare rent free lot to rent out...This will be good for income I hope.

 

Ya I totally get that there are risks on both sides (owners stealing renter's items secretly/renters not paying owners rent on time or at all). Don't get me wrong, I think renting can be a good roleplaying aspect of the game, but to do it right, I really think the functionality would have to come from the game mechanics. I see a sustainable house renting business through an NPC INN/Apartment that you can lease a room from and the game makes you the temporary OWNER of the room so nobody else can touch your stuff, and takes rent from your bank. If you don't have enough gold, then it gives you a warning and 15 days to pay the rent plus some penalty, or else you get evicted and your items get returned to your bank box.

Something like that would work a lot better than players renting houses in my opinion. However like I said, I can see some people still wanting to RP landlords, which is fine, but it's more risky and complex for both sides.

 

If i remember correctly, in UO if you was a friend of a house you was allowed to place a lock box that was only accessible by you and not movable?

I could see this as a simple way to allow players access to your homes for a fee. The house owner can open up the house option menu of the placed house and set rental rate and duration for placed locked boxes. Next, find a renter and friend them to the house. (friending only allows them basic access to the house) Then they can place a lock box that will ask them if they agree to the rental rate and rental periods before it is placed. As long as the renter has money in the bank, the placed box will subtract moneys from the renters account and place it in the homeowners account based on the set rental periods day/week/month/etc..

If the renter can not afford rent or the owner wants to evict the renter, the lock box is removed and the contents get deposited into the renters inventory.

This would work great for guilds by providing secure storage for guild mates and a good way to pay/collect guild dues for expenses.

 

That came later. Quite awhile later. Housing has been constantly developed in UO, but player-specific securables weren't added for quite a time, mainly because houses had limits on how many containers could be secured. There *was* a rule introduced fairly early on that objects that were locked down could only be released by that player, but letting others secure thing as added when "tiered" friends were--when you could add a house co-owner. Even so, there was nothing for a time after that preventing the house owner from removing the co-owner. Many a profiteering exploit revolved around that mess.

 

Yeah that's an idea, but it doesn't change the risk for the renter right? I mean the owner can just remove the renter as an owner, and dig into their boxes. There's literally nothing we can do about that, since renters cannot be granted rights to have a perma box in the house (since that would be very bad for the owner). If I were a renter of somebody's house, I certainly wouldn't be sure that my items would be 100% safe. Perhaps it's not likely that the owner might steal, but the possibility would prevent me from putting my ultra rare "Dragon Slayer" sword in the house chest. That to me defeats a large portion of the purpose of living in a house.

 

The chest is secure and only the renter who placed it would have access. Would not make much sense to allow the house owner access to the contents of the chest. If the owner decides to evict the renter then the renter would find all his/her belongings in trier backpack.

This could be extended much further, and instead of a chest it could be a set of furniture. A bed, secure chest, a large rug and night stand. The bed would act like the control and can be placed by the renter and the renter would be able place whatever they wanted on the rug and no one could move it, even the house owner. It would give the renter a little square footage to call there own. The large chest would be automatically placed at the foot of the bed and the night stand next to it. Any items placed on the rug or night stand or items placed into the chest would be accessible to anyone but the renter.

You would then effectively be able to rent a small room or a section of a main room quite effectively. The renter has a little more storage, item security and the house owner gets a little coin.

 

I like the idea that Gracekain has mentioned, it would work very well in a guild house. However in terms of renting it does not give the player the full experience of decoration etc.

The real solution is for renting contracts to be created (similar to vendor contracts on UO). The renter sets the price and the period and sets it to auto-renew. The person who rents the house accepts the contract and also sets to auto-renew. At that point the renter will no longer have 'owner' rights to the house, those are granted to the person who rents. If the owner wants the house back he/she can turn off the auto renew (likewise the person who rents can do the same).

If there was a house that was custom built as an inn, you could perhaps apply this on a room basis as well.

All this is too much to ask for on release 1...... I keep my fingers crossed for release 2. In the meantime I shall intend to rent my houses out on a 'trust' basis. I trust that I am paid, the player trusts that I don't scam.

 

Suggested rewording:

I'd consider the renter to be the borrower rather than the lender. Hmmm the dictionary is slightly contradictory.....

British Dictionary definitions for renter
renter (ˈrɛntə)

—n
1. a person who lets his property in return for rent, esp a landlord
2. a person who rents property from another; tenant


Opted for landlord and tenant instead since they are clearer terms, and also appear on contracts (at least in the UK).

I'd mulling over the secure chest and protection of items. In principle good mechanisms of safety for the renter but that would then reduce their risk greatly, if they can't be kicked out until term end then they have (almost) no risk. Therefore payment would need to be upfront and for the full duration in order to balance the risks. Payment in arrears was to balance the risks but that changes with guaranteed item safety.

Alternatively, the right to evict could be set to the periodicity of choice (assuming the game supports this mechanism ofc): e.g. a year-long contract payed with a periodicity of monthly. Therefore rent would only be due up to the end of the current period (payment in advance).


Additionally, I'd possibly be interested in renting under the right circumstance. Let me through out a scenario:
My main house is in Kingsport but I fancy collecting some rare resources near Town ABC. While there are global banks it might be the case that some frontier towns don't have banks or perhaps there is some other reason I'd want to rent (for some reason convenience that's TBD). I might not want to have it for a full month but perhaps only a day. The rental market could allow me to have access to a house in Town ABC for any time period. Which I think is great.

For this 24 hour period I might be charged (say) $1. While the monthly rate might be $2.50. The premium for one day's rental is like it would be in a hotel. Renting out for three separate days would be a greater pain and hence greater charge. These are obviously suggested numbers but I do think they are of the correct order. It is hard to imagine paying $10 a day for a property, and $0.1 is too cheap for a one day charge. It would only make sense (imo) if that is the daily rate ($0.1) of a longer term agreement.

 

With the Kindred system, you could put a tenant on your deed. They'd be able to interact with everything in the house.