Do you have a set rule or any guidelines in your hood that may result with your sims losing their homes? Like lets say if they can't pay the bills for a number of tries, or anything else. And you force them to move out because they can't afford it.

Does anyone do this? I may try and do something like this since I have bigger bills hack, so I want to see what ideas you guys might have already. Do/would you do this with houses, apartments, or both?

I have a family of a single mom and 3 teenagers. The father died and they own a property, but their total cash has always been under 1k after his death. I think to make it more realistic, they may need to move to a smaller home, probably an apartment, since they don't have much money.

Hmm, that's actually a good question. If my sims run out of money, they take loans out and thus get stung with interest rates. I've not had any of my sims need to downsize (and frankly, given one 'hood in which I play with higher bills and lower wages which has two families with eighteen kids between them, it's tricky to downsize), but my sims do tend to start off in tiny apartments that they can afford and try to work their way up from there.

I think I'd do it with apartments -- if you can't pay the rent, it gets added to your bills, and if you can't pay your bills the repo man comes along. Houses are a little tricky because sims can buy them outright; perhaps if a sim has a loan or mortgage on that house and they miss paying their bills x amount of times they get kicked out in to an apartment for a certain amount of time. If they do own the houses, the bills would be representative of electricity/water: no electrical items or toilets/baths/sinks/dishwashers until they can get enough money to pay the bills?

Of course, you can get sims who choose to downsize after looking at their finances and realising they can't afford to live the way they live.

Possibly. The problem is, if they can't pay bills, they definitely can't afford a house. I suppose they could take out a "bank loan" to get a cheaper one and then have to pay it off every time they get x much money. The money system in Stonebridge is really complicated as it is....
There are three places in Stonebridge to live: the rich quarter, the suburbs, and the "apartment" district (for lack of AL these are not real apartments). When a sim moves out of a house they must start one level lower than their parents (or at the same level if their parents are still in an apartment). Then the rest of their lives they are basically trying to climb levels. But here's the crazy spin- sims in an apartment can't move out until there's another family in the building (because they are houses, not real apartments, so moving a family out without another in the building would sell all the furniture and then I would have to go in and refurnish the whole thing). So I guess if sims had to neglect bills long enough (and had nothing left to sell in order to pay them) I could evict them and give them enough of a loan to buy a house one level down.

I guess I have a different way of play. If they get too low on money to pay the bills, I use kaching to give them enough to pay the bills. I like them to have enough room to live, and a lot of time the apartments don't have enough room for families.

I've never done that before, but what a great idea (making up new rules right now!)

Wow I had never considered those types of rules. Losing a house would definitely bring up some financial difficulties (my favorite! Rich sims are so boring!), but I am not sure how I would implement that. If they can't pay the bills the definitely can't buy a new house. Maybe some sort of "group home" thing where you can move sims in?

I often have my graduate sims move back in with their parents and hen work their way up. I also use a combination of loan jars and private loans (with interest) from some of my richer sims, but the idea of collateral is an interesting one.



Just wanted to point out that there are shrubs at simlogical that allow you to retain furnishings when your family moves out! You can also set them to retain "fixtures only" so that you don't have to keep placing the fridge and toilets. I know I don't take my toilet with me when I move

How do you make them take out loans?

Maybe there is a way to make a campground as apartments? Maybe each "apartment" is just a tent surrounded by that room divider fencing...so that you can move your down and out Sims into the lot and they sleep in tent and share a communal bathroom and firepit for cooking...

Or a wayward home, for sims/families who are down and out, with tiny one or two room bed sitting type apartments.

I really like this idea. I think the idea of making some sort of park-like lot that is just a step above homelessness would be a challenging, but very good idea. Hmmm.

Haha, it haven't crossed my mind that if they can't afford bills, they can't afford to move out! Even renting apartments aren't dirt cheap. I'd like to know loan systems too.

Edit: wait, if they own a house and move out, they still get money for selling the house right? Or do they just leave with their household cash? (haven't moved sims out in a while lol)

It just feels weird that my family I mentioned (a mom & 3 teens) are in a pretty spacious house, since their father was suppose to be a pet breeder. But now that hes gone, the place seems too big and they only have a few hundred cash.

They will receive all the money or their house and furnishings when they move out, so it is possible to downsize.

There are a number of loan items out there, the one I use is a loan jar, I forget who made it. I believe it was created by Cj. Before I used the jar, I would just have a sim "take out" a loan from one of the richer sims (via Peacados money order item), and then calculate the interest rate. Would just have the sim send back money every Friday to the rich sim until their debt was paid!

Yes, but you could adjust the money they have with the family funds cheat.

I don't make my Sims move. They either borrow money with the loan jar, or find a side job, or sell some of their things.

If they move out of a house, they get the cash for it; if they move out of an apartment, everything they've put into it is a dead loss - I believe they get funds for the furniture, and that's it. So if you evict someone from an apartment for inability to pay bills, there's probably nowhere to go except to move in with friends/family.

You could, of course, make a poorhouse for those sims to go live in. You'd have a caretaker, probably a communal kitchen, and dormitories, maybe small rooms with lockable doors for married couples. All the family's remaining funds would be added to the family funds, so the poorhouse itself could stay pretty affluent, with the understanding that the sims within it are living on charity, have limited control of their lives, and should be highly motivated to get jobs and move out. You'd have to make rules suitable to your hood about when they move out, how they move out, how to determine what monies they have when they move out, what their responsibilities are when they live there, whether families get split up, etc.

I made a family home once, it was for low income families and single parents, it worked out quite well for my poor families and workaholic parents although I do think i made it a bit more spacious than I probably should have. It had three levels the bottom floor was the kitchen dining and living room, the 2nd floor was a nursery and study and the top floor was living quarters. It even had a fenced in backyard and a pet area. (animals where only allowed in the designated areas)

I really like the poorhouse idea and I'm starting to try and brainstorm ideas to make this feasible. I think Penny has the right idea with making a small low income household with a caretaker of some sort (someone to handle the cleaning and finances). The sims could pay a low weekly rent, maybe 500, to contribute to household upkeep. The biggest problem is keeping funds separate for each family, since the point is to save money and eventually move into their own place. I suppose you could just take handwritten notes but that seems like an awful lot of work especially if you have numerous families.

No 20k handouts only gets rid of the automatic 20k when a sim graduates and enters the sim bin, or when a sim "finds own place" and moves out. If the entire family moves out and leaves the lot altogether, they receive the money for the sale of the house/furnishings.

You can use their inventory as a sort of savings account: if their salary's $525, stick a $500 shrub in inventory and call the rest grocery money. Then, after they've moved out, drop them on an empty 1x3 lot for a moment to sell it all back. That's how I usually manage grant money for uni students sharing lots.

Magic Wand from Pescado has a feature of reducing the value of property and of all objects that are placed on it. When I create a poor part of hood, I use this object to cut down the lot value. These lots are furnished with the cheapest of furniture in the first place so that the total price is really low. This may be a method for moving Sims into a cheaper residence, should you need one.
Also, the poor lots can be built on the tiny lots (1x1, 2x1, etc.).

Mine have bank loans which they have to pay every Tuesday and Friday. If they can't afford that, they might end up living in someone's garage or get sent to Sirencester Jail.

In answer to loans: I use Monique's computer, but may also be adding in Cyjon's Loan Jars (along with the bigger bills mod). Loans are done in multiples of $100 on Monique's computer and interest seems to be about 5%, calculated three times a week.

Just out of curiosity, I've built myself the smallest, least functional apartments I can: little 6x2 rectangles with slightly larger 6x4 rooms for double beds, leaves enough room for up to two beds (if using bunk beds) in the small ones and up to two singles + one double (if using bunk beds) in the large ones and some personal one- or two-tile items. Communal bathroom, living room and kitchen (although the only option I have is make/make many, and making food comes out of my sim's funds -- guess my sims will be largely eating at school/work); to rent a furnished single room with one bed is $290 + $106 a week; to rent a furnished double room with a double bed is $480 + $212 a week. A sim in the lowest-paying job I have available ($50/day, five days a week) would be able to cover rent.

Hmm, I think this would be enough to turn me off of using an apartment as a 'poorhouse'. I wonder if I would be happier having a residential lot acting as a apartment/group home. I think I will try it tonight, give me something to do! :D

Do give it a go: it is actually surprising how little sims can really need in a house -- better too if you can use community lots and have a community skilling hack (because then your chess boards can be in a local park and easels can be at a community centre art 'class'). I can get away with apartments having a bed, bookcase, TV, kitchenette, and a 2x2 bathroom with a toilet and shower.

I think, if you have no20khandouts and moneyorder (both from MATY), if you give a sim a money order with a specific amount they will take that amount rather than a proportion of the family funds.

I love this! A chessboard has always been standard on all my lots, but having most sims max Logic without even trying is getting really old. I'm beginning to realize how many of my Apocalypse Challenge strategies have been standard for non-challenge play, and how unnecessary a lot of it is.

"Minimalist" is about to become the norm for most of my sims' lots, and community lot visits more frequent!

I get away with this on regular basis! Once tried and got hooked. Small lots, minimalist furnishings, almost non-existant decor (except some paintings and small sculptures that fit into any deco-slot) - this is the way of life for my Sims.
Anything else, starting with chess borads and ending with bowling alleys, is on com lots. Many OFB business opportunities for my enterprising fortune Sims and a lot of reason to go out.
I love it