New City Real Estate Market
New City Real Estate Market is set up for selling and buying real property in the New City region of the E-land SparkQuest STF map in Shelter the Flame. Real Estate for sale is featured on the SparkQuest Economy forum. All real estate sales require the help of licensed New City Realtors on the part of the seller and the buyer.
Real Estate Buying Process
- Research the Area (Optional): Take a look around at what property is available on the New City Economy Forum. You might also take a look at the maps and information published about New City to familiarize yourself with the areas of the city.
- Find a Realtor: View the New City Realtors page to find a licensed realtor to help you locate and purchase your property. The government of New City (sys op) will not transfer ownership of any property (by setting the WorldGuard region owner) unless a licensed realtor indicates a valid sale has been made.
- Search Properties: Work with your realtor to find a property that fits your needs and budget. Note: sales of large amounts of land or adjacent lots may require the approval of the New City Planning Commission.
- Make An Offer: When you find a property that you would like to purchase, make an offer through your realtor to the seller’s realtor.
- Acceptance of Offer & Contract: The seller will accept, reject, or negotiate the your offer. Once an offer is accepted, the sale is under contract and the property cannot be sold to another party while under contract. You may be required by the seller to pay a deposit or ernest money at this time.
- WorldGuard Region Validation: At this point, your realtor will contact the NC government (sys op) to validate the WorldGuard region to be sold and to ensure no administrative hold is present on the land (for example for failure to pay rent or mortgage.) If a new region is going to be created by the sale, it will be created now.
- Find a Mortgage: If you have the cash in hand for the property, fine. If not, your realtor will help you apply for a mortgage from the New City Bank. You may seek a mortgage from an independent source, but it will not be backed by the New City government, the guarantor of all New City Bank loans. Mortgage approval is based on your new worth and past earnings.
- Close on the Property: Once you have the money, your Real Estate agent will help you pay the seller and the property will become yours. The seller’s real estate agent will contact the NC government (sys op) to have the ownership of the property moved to you.
NOTE: Players who do not wish to go through this process may opt to claim and build land in the Outlands beyond the New City Barrier Wall. However, any structures outside the wall will not be in a WorldGuard region and will not be protected from griefing by mobs or players and will be subject to all the things that usually happen in Minecraft survival gamemode (normal difficulty). Settlements, towns, and large complexes can apply to become a Protected Map Region with the sysops (read the wiki page for requirements).
Meta
When creating the NC RE buying process, we interviewed people about their house buying experience as part of the How You Buy a Crib activity and then simplified and adapted that process for our purposes. The chart below compares a In-Real-Life (IRL) process with the New City Process along with justifications for why or why not steps were included:
| # | NC Process | IRL Process | Why / Why Not |
|---|---|---|---|
| (1) | Research Area (Optional) | Research Area (Sometimes) | People may want to know pros/cons of areas. |
| 2 | Find Realtor | Find Realtor | Keep IRL, jobs for players, help new users. |
| 3 | Search Properties (Forum) | Search Properties | Essential |
| 4 | Make Offer (DM selling realtor) | Make Offer | Essential |
| 5 | Accept Offer (DM buying realtor) | Accept Offer / Contract | Essentail |
| Pay Urnest $/Deposit | Not much risk | ||
| 6 | Make/ID WG Region | Title Search | |
| 7 | Find Mortgage (Single source) | Find Mortgage | To allow earlier, non-cash purchasing |
| Survey Plot | Because part of WG Region (step 5) | ||
| Building Inspection | Not much risk | ||
| Assess Value | Set by formula, low risk | ||
| Buy Insurance | Covered by NC Gov. | ||
| 8 | Closing (Set WG owner) | Closing | Essential |