Official Discussion: Update11 Developer Notes: Housing Foreclosure and Escrow Changes

[Sapience]

Vacant houses. They take up space and make it hard for folks to find a home close their friends. In preparation for some cool housing updates later this year, it’s time to clean up those old homes and get them back on the market.

Read Matt "HoarseDev" Zimmitti's developer notes and share your thoughts.

[Fredelas]

I look forward to these changes in Update 11. They seem sensible and fair. It will also eventually help servers that have run out of housing neighborhoods.

One change that isn't mentioned in the developer notes is that players will be able to deposit upkeep for their houses up to 6 months in advance. This should help ease the concerns of players who might have to take an extended absence from the game.

[Nakiami]

That was short. The skinny's fine, but was there supposed to be any meat?

[Frisco]

I have to say I was surprised to see 6 months as the cutoff. I thought I was pretty strongly on the "kick the bums out" side of the fence, and I'm not sure I ever suggested anything under a year. I suppose being able to pay rent 6 months in advance will soften that a little, though.

Anyway, glad it's finally being done.

[naliia]

This is good news!

[Thundertrain]

It's a shame that no one who reads this can actually hear the applause and cheering it generates. WELL DONE!!!

[Menelorn]

Thumbs up all the way. Though many people may lose their houses (people that chances are will never come back to the game anyway), the permanent escrow gives them really no opportunity to whine since their hard-to-come-by items will not disappear (unless they delete the toon stuff is bound to). I think it will definitely set the tone for welcoming newer players that fall in love with the game and make it feel less "stale" with dead neighborhoods with no opportunity to acquire a house. I also feel that 6 months is plenty of time, especially with longer advance upkeep.

I can't wait for the other changes coming up!

[Kaynith]

*Roaring applause!!!*

Great, with you 100%.

Now, can we get a little more cake with that frosting?

(More info please!)

[sirwillow]

I have to say I was surprised to see 6 months as the cutoff. I thought I was pretty strongly on the "kick the bums out" side of the fence, and I'm not sure I ever suggested anything under a year. I suppose being able to pay rent 6 months in advance will soften that a little, though.

Anyway, glad it's finally being done.

Keep in mind, those houses getting the warning are ones that have already been locked for over 180 days, or over 6 months already. The reality is that the vast majority of those homes have been locked for a much longer time than that. Many have been locked for a couple of years now.

And they are still getting a 2 month warning on top of that, so a minimum of 8 months that the house has been locked.

Then for those of us playing live, we can pay up to 6 months in advance and, depending on what they settle on, will likely have another 6 months after that to unlock the house. It's easy enough to open up upkeep payments to be able to be made by anyone else (e.g. kinmates, friends, neighbors), so people will still have a year in which to keep their house before it goes into foreclosure. And if it does get foreclosed on, they don't lose any of their items, and it's easy enough to get 7 gold for a new house.

[DarkCrystal]

Horray!!!!!!!!

[Laire]

A very good change. I wish it could have hinted at what we're gonna get later, lol.

I am going to have to record how many neighborhoods and houses of all types are available before and after 60 days after u11 :P

[Whart]

Good change.

On a tangent about the diary itself, that page was very difficult to read because of the translucent background--the text blended into the image behind it.

[Belnavar]

Great change. Very fair.

I'm also looking forward to the housing changes later this year.

-Bel

[Urwendil]

​
Good news! Can't wait to move into a lofty house in my kinship's neighbourhood. As much as I love my cute little Hobbit home it just can't sustain a large family of 8 (soon 9) characters anymore
​

[Aeridas]

I feel like this change has been a long time coming! I currently own a house in a very dead neighborhood on the Brandywine server. I hope that this clearing out of the abandoned houses means I will actually see other folks when traipsing through my neighborhood.

[furtim]

That was short. The skinny's fine, but was there supposed to be any meat?

Eh? Would you have preferred a War & Peace-sized novel about this? Honestly, there's not much to convey, and the Dev Notes conveyed all of it. With exact time frames for Foreclosure and Eviction, so I don't know what else they possibly could have even put in there.

[HunterGreen]

I'm happy to hear this. Though part of me always felt that this was how it was supposed to be working all along; I thought that's what escrow vendors were for in the first place. So it's almost more like a bug fix (but a very good one) than a new feature.

[Mormirel]

A good change that will solve a problem that would have affected all servers sooner or later.

[iuytewtruwer]

Just one word: finally!

[chasingwhiteshadows]

Update 11 Preliminary Notes:
Houses without upkeep paid for the past six months will go into Foreclosure and all items inside will be put into Escrow.
Note: A 2 month grace period will be allowed for homes which are already more than 6 months overdue when Update 11 goes Live.

and

Developer Notes:
With Update 11, if you own a home that has been locked for more than 180 days you will be issued a final foreclosure warning. At that point you’ll have 60 days to get your finances in order and pay down the upkeep or your home will be foreclosed and put back on the market.

Hmm...does this mean that NONE of the long-locked houses will be foreclosed and actually put back on the market when Update 11 goes live? In other words, servers like Brandywine won't see any available housing for at least another 2 months from Update 11?!

[sirwillow]

Hmm...does this mean that NONE of the long-locked houses will be foreclosed and actually put back on the market when Update 11 goes live? In other words, servers like Brandywine won't see any available housing for at least another 2 months from Update 11?!

That's exactly what it means. The clock starts ticking as soon as update 11 goes live, but homes won't actually be foreclosed/ lost/ freed up until 2 months afterwards. It gives those who have just left their homes a chance to go back and get them unlocked and freed up. Once that 2 month mark hits though, there's going to be a lot of homes for sale on the market again.

[HunterGreen]

So on the day U11 goes live we need to make a note on our calendars for the day when a lot of houses will suddenly open up, so we can encourage our friends to take advantage of the opportunity before all the other people doing the same thing manage it.

[Aeridas]

So on the day U11 goes live we need to make a note on our calendars for the day when a lot of houses will suddenly open up, so we can encourage our friends to take advantage of the opportunity before all the other people doing the same thing manage it.

Remember though, the day Update 11 goes live all houses that are currently locked because no upkeep has been paid on them in 180+ days will receive a notice that they have 2 months to unlock and start paying their upkeep. If they fail to do so, then after 2 months the house will go into foreclosure and then be made available for new buyers. So start looking at houses you like and after update 11 has been live for 2 months, see if any of them have gone back on the market.

[Boskone08]

So on the day U11 goes live we need to make a note on our calendars for the day when a lot of houses will suddenly open up, so we can encourage our friends to take advantage of the opportunity before all the other people doing the same thing manage it.

I do wish that there could be some way that players who have houses that are current in maintenance had an opportunity to buy another house (in a more preferred location) or upgrade their existing Standard House to a Deluxe before the full server population has a shot. My current main server is Brandywine, and I know from Kin Chat that there is a substantial appetite for Deluxe Houses on Brandy within my Kinship, and I expect others are the same. Comments about a shortage of deluxe houses on Brandy go back to at least December 2010.

Perhaps those characters (few in some neighborhoods) with houses (nominal house owner only, not their alts) that are current in maintenance could be issued a 'Token of Good Housekeeping' that would allow them to purchase one house in that neighborhood only during a period (say 2 days) after the 60 days, with only token-holders eligible to buy during that period. After that, let the Turbine House Rush of 2013* be unleashed!

*Assumes U11 is released before October 29, 2013 - I _think_ and hope that is a Safe Assumption...

[chasingwhiteshadows]

That's exactly what it means. The clock starts ticking as soon as update 11 goes live, but homes won't actually be foreclosed/ lost/ freed up until 2 months afterwards. It gives those who have just left their homes a chance to go back and get them unlocked and freed up. Once that 2 month mark hits though, there's going to be a lot of homes for sale on the market again.

Haha..that all sounds real nice on Turbine's part..but I honestly doubt that homes that have been locked for years will actually see their owners come back all of a sudden. Hopefully we'll get more news on proposed changes to the housing system within the next two months.