1/31/2023:

 

Beta⁴ has been uploaded and includes:

Increased mobile home upgrade/reno profitability and increased their rents by 10%.

Reduced property value and upgrade/reno costs on small houses and duplexes.

Going from portfolio to property screen for an upgrade now takes you right back where you were in the portfolio screen.

Fixed bug so you are no longer charged ad costs in the month you close escrow on a business.

Fixed motel renovations bug that caused motel renovations to only take one month.

Reno's and upgrades now show how many months left when on MLS view.

Upgrade construction to increase discount (5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%). Rules have been simplified so there is no monthly cap and no difference between construction in different economies.

Ad company upgrade discounts are based on quality of the business and provide the following discounts: 3%, 4%, 5%, 6% & 7% (Q1-Q5).

Accounting company upgrade discounts are also based on quality of the business and discount fixed business costs by the following amounts: 1%, 1.5%, 2%, 2.5%, 3% (Q1-Q5).

Increased chance that property management company will attract AND retain a tenants are: 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50% (Q1-Q5).

Upgrading realtor firm increases number and quality of offers. Offers won't exceed the maximum of what a given economy would normally produce. The 3% to 1% discount on properties sold hasn't changed.

Fixed bug in dialog stack system.

More tuning of credit rating system.

Even in a cold economy, 5 star coffee shops will now earn a small profit.

Inventory properties (coffee shop, restaurant, gas station and grocery stores) show that Net Profit Table is based upon one property of type being owned when owned by bank to clear up confusion between earnings discrepancies when player owns multiple types of a kind of inventory property.

Reverted back to construction costs being charged entirely at start of upgrade or renovation.

Fixed bug that would miss some bankruptcy cases (game ends on bankruptcy, ie. cash + available LOC <= 0).

Property screen now reports "Upgrading Quality!" as it does on the portfolio screen.

Rents, including apts, motels and hotels, have generally been increased by 10%.

Increased equity for renovating apartments.

Reduced chances that properties will be taken off market thus increasing supply.

Tenants are now twice as likely to leave in a given month if rented property is for sale. They are also 50% less likely to rent a property that is currently for sale.

All apartments now have 20 units.

12/31/2022:

 

Beta³ has been uploaded, more bug fixes, tuning and polishing. Happy 2023 to all!

Mortgage payment is no longer displayed if mortgage has been paid off.

Improving quality or renovating a property will now take it off the market if it is for sale. You may re-list after upgrade/reno completes and new property value is calculated.

Credit ratings/mortgage amounts have been tuned more. Top rating now grants you a mortgage limit of $100 million.

Increased renovation profits.

Fixed spacing issue when there are 4 buttons on the property screen and the Net Profit Table overlaps the top button.

Owning construction company now reduces construction time by 25% for residential properties, apts, motels and hotels.

11/28/2022:

 

Beta² has been uploaded, some bug fixes, some tuning and a bit of polishing as well.

Bug fix: improving quality on a business was taking too many funds.

Bug fix: fixed bug that messed up Net Profit table when quality was being upgraded on a business.

Bug fix: paying off mortgage now works.

Bug fix: sometimes upgrading a property could go into negative months and the upgrade would never complete.

10/31/2022:

 

Beta¹ is released featuring some simplification of some game systems, bug fixes and more tuning.

The biggest change has been that brands have been dropped and advertising is now automatic for all businesses. Buying an Ad Agency still reduces ad costs. Quality and economy now determine sales volume during month.

The economy no longer changes on a game to game basis negating minor advantages some game plays had over other.

Mouse hover on a property owned by the player now shows equity the player has in that property.

All businesses now show an income table on their property screen enabling a player to determine the benefits of investing in quality upgrades.

Quality overhauls for businesses have been dropped, ie. the game has reverted to quality upgrades for businesses being one upgrade level at a time.

9/30/2022:

 

Beta release! Some bugs have been fixed, a few tweaks here and there to the UI but mostly... a whole lot of tuning has happened since last time. Going forward? Lots more tuning.

8/30/2022:

 

Another Business Empire update, the game is now 200 months long and I am calling this version of the software "pre-beta" which means feature complete, some bugs still to be stomped and lots of tuning left to be done.

Businesses can now completely upgrade their quality rating all at once if they have enough cash.

Fixed bug where properties being renovating were still attracting new tenants.

Revamped property values and costs for improvements.

Benefits from owning an accounting firm, a property management company, an ad agency or a construction company now increase as the quality of those businesses go up.

Credit score tables have been further tuned.

Uninhabitable properties are now very hard to sell while properties in perfect condition now receive slightly more offers and properties in poor condition receive slightly less offers.

8/4/2022:

 

Changed credit rating system to increase equity required and in some cases decreased the credit score required to achieve a better rating.

Increase net for fixing up apartments.

Increased number of units in apartments.

Increased apartment rents.

Two trailers and a small house now start the game requiring work before they can be rented.

Trailer renos are now less profitable and small house renos are now more profitable.

Portfolio and property screens now show if quality is being upgraded.

All properties on portfolio and property screens now show condition/quality with star icons.

8/1/2022:

 

Bug fixed where you were sometimes being charged at end of month for unnecessary advertising. Property screen expected revenues should now match what you get at month end.

Intermittent wonky equity on motels & hotels fixed.

Fixed event boxes occasionally hanging off RHS on MLS view.

Bumped motel room rates by 15%.

Increased price of gas stations by 50%, reduced gas station profits ~ 20%.

Current month cost of COGS now listed instead of always June....

Mortgage amount of properties entering escrow immediately removed from available mortgage amount.

Cash now shown on portfolio screen.

Shrunk event box displayed on MLS view during quality upgrades.

7/27/2022:

 

Fixed crash bugs when toggling "pay all mortgages" and "make all repairs".

Motels now earn more.

7/13/2022:

 

Properties that are either behind in mortgage or bill payments now glow red!

7/12/2022:

 

Increased game length by 30 months to 150 months total.

Bumped up number of properties on the market.

Dropped repairs dialog for apartments.

Increased profitability on gas stations and grocery stores.

Brands now decline at 10% per month when above quality, 5% otherwise.

Medium sized houses now take 6 instead of 8 months to reno.

Player is now told if they have repairs turned on for "Repairs Needed!" dialog.

Reduced fixed expenses on hotels.

7/3/2022:

 

Big delay as I reworked the basic flow of the game. I'm much happier with this version which generally delays all decisions about bills and offers until the following month allowing the player more control over their portfolio and to take advantage of any current opportunities in the real estate market.

This new version of the game has been streamlined, dropping the two extra end-of-month screens allowing the player to control everything about the game from the MLS, portfolio and property screens.

Usually I detail what has changed since the last version of the game but so much is different now that it is more efficient to go and look at the directions for how to play the game in this new form.

More tuning remains to be done but... I'm much happier with the new direction the game has taken and I hope you, the player, will be as well!

5/17/2022:

 

New MLS view, buildings no longer overlap making MLS screen easier to navigate!

Added construction banner to portfolio screen to inform player which properties are in the middle of renovations or upgrades.

Added portfolio button to property screen so you can exit to MLS or portfolio.

5/11/2022:

 

Bug where player was not receiving final month of rent/profits on acceptance of an offer to buy a player property.

fixed motel/hotel crash bug.

Increased ad costs to $4500 and increased benefit of owning ad agency to a discount of $750 (ie. you pay $3750 when owning an agency).

reduced cost to buy and fix a small house making it a viable start of game option to buy a trashed small house and do a complete renovation on it.

removed 2 construction companies, now there is only one of each of the talent based businesses.

for sale properties now properly list their address or business name when hovered over on MLS screen.

changed property values on inventory business to make it worthwhile to fix up distressed properties. Improvements to brand and quality now net 12% on investment.

decreased purchase cost on property management, realtor, advertising and accountancy businesses.

small bump to profitability of coffee shops.

adjust credit ratings so that better credit ratings are available faster and so that you can always get a loan for at least 100K.

credit rating improves faster (less reduction in speed of improvement for high ratings).

offer dialog now reports proper realtor commission when you own a real estate company.

reno prices and profits on medium and large houses have been slashed.

construction upgrade on medium house now takes 2 months instead of 1.

duplex upgrade now takes 2 months (was 1) and a reno takes 4 months (was 12).

5/2/2022:

 

In general talent based businesses have been made more affordable and profitable to own.

Removed salaries from talent based businesses as that wasn't turning out to be a practical game play element during testing.

Bumped up fixed expenses for talent businesses to offset loss of salary costs.

Property mouseover on MLS screen now includes property quality.

Trailer & properties with multiple tenants are now more likely to require repairs.

Rentals can now sustain multiple repairs if earlier repairs are not fixed, multi-unit properties can incur more than one repair job per month.

Repairs in higher quality properties are now more expensive to reflect quality and construction costs associated.

4/27/2022:

 

Changed Perks! button and screen to Portfolio which still details what benefits the player derives from owning various talent based businesses. Additionally the Portfolio screen details credit rating information not previously available to the player as well as a concise list of all properties owned with links to their property screens. This allows the player to quickly look at the state of brand and quality in one place.

Fixed: owning an accounting firm wasn't gaining the player a reduction in fixed expenses for all businesses owned.

Fixed: owning a real estate firm wasn't discounting player closing costs.

Fixed: owning a property management firm wasn't helping you find more tenants for all of your other rental properties.

4/19/2022:

 

Trailer reno now takes 2 months.

Removed staff (hiring, layoffs, profits & expenses).

Can now afford a small house at start of game.

Economy updated to change by month instead of quarter.

Properties for sale drop in price more slowly.

Fixed pricing bug for grocery stores.

Property page now reports if property is mid-upgrade or mid-renovation.

4/12/2022:

 

New map layout, more to come on this front.

Fixed bug preventing folks from buying properties... sorry about that.

A bit more tuning - more to follow soon as I try to increase the tension in the game.

Set play length to 120 months which is the goal length for the game.

4/5/2022:

 

Increased play length from 72 months to 84.

Revamped quality improvement costs including. All talent based businesses have been changed to $50K.

Construction on motels & hotels now get discount if player owns a construction company.

Hovering over a building will now show a thumbnail of quality and brand.

Profits are now earned before close of escrow, no inventory is ever transferred with a sale and property values no longer include a pro-rated value of inventory on hand.

Fixed bug that would tell you that your reno was being completed multiple times during renovations.

Making up missed mtg payments used to count as multiple payments made and now only counts as a single payment made for purposes of calculating credit score.

Dropped restaurant quality upgrade cost from $250K to $50K.

Reduced fixed expenses on gas stations by $75K.

Reduced time for renovations on apartments by 40%.

3/26/2022:

 

Went from 7 credit score rankings to 10 making it easier to get to better loans faster.

Changed market rules so that more properties will be added to the market in a good and hot economy, they will just be priced higher. Properties in a hot market will still sell more quickly than in slower markets.

Doubled the penalty to your brand for not having enough inventory to satisfy customer demand in previous month.

Inventory is now priced at 96% of full value when calculating property value of an inventory business, up from 80%.

Laying off staff now occurs immediately and costs both the productivity of that employee for the month as well as that months salary.

Increased sales for restaurants & gas stations & all talent based companies.

3/21/2022:

 

Play length has been bumped up from 60 months to 72 months.

Minor UI tweaks and text adjustments to clarify game rules.

Inventory buying discount for owning multiple businesses has been reduced.

Improved profitability of talent businesses.

I've added a button to the Pay Bills screen to speed up inventory buy tweaking. Prior to this inventory purchases were made to maximize your purchase to cover all potential sales. In the case of a month where inventory prices are high you may want to buy the minimum that you will need. When the "Buy Max Inv" button is showing you are buying the minimum amount you need to cover sales, click the button to toggle and it will change to read "Buy Min Inv". Toggling inventory to buy will cause inventory purchases to be recalculated accordingly. You can still also change the amount to buy for each business individually.

Credit ratings have been recalibrated so that they allow for larger loans and it is now easier to go from weak to fair credit.

3/15/2022:

  More tuning and tweaking on Business Empire:

Fixed bug causing construction bonus to be applied to upgrades & renos even if player didn't own company.

Adjusted duplex rents, reno and upgrade costs.

Adjusted apt rents, reno and upgrade costs. Max rental ROI on a 15 unit fully rented apt now ranges from 33% (Q1) to 10% (Q5).

Removed restriction that disallowed quality upgrades and advertising on businesses that are for sale. Note that property value increase will not be reflected in price unless property is re-listed.

Advertising can no longer be used to increase brand more than 2 points past quality of a business.

Minor bug was fixed that caused trashed properties upgrade and reno buttons to be greyed out.

3/8/2022:

  More tuning and tweaking on Business Empire, I've bumped the game length to 60 months and have overhauled all of the talent based businesses w/regards to profits and property values so that they are affordable sooner in the game.

I'm also trying out AdInPlay on House Flip and Business Empire, if this works out I will be dropping support for sponsored games and will no longer do region and city location lookups which, in a few cases may make site startup a faster experience.

2/27/2022:

  Fixed a few things...

- on close of escrow overdue bills were not being charged against the property - this has been fixed. Thanks to Colin for reporting this!

- bug fixed where tenant could damage rental in the month they moved in - repairs now only occur during months when unit is occupied.

- decreased frequency of repairs being needed.

2/19/2022:

  Mostly a tuning and minor debug update today. All of the rental properties have been retuned along with the coffee shops. In general the rental properties earn more rent but significantly less profit on renovations and upgrades.

The construction bonus was being applied even if the player didn't own a construction company which has been fixed.

2/15/2022:

  The discount from owning a construction company has been simplified to being a percentage discount based upon the economy, the worse the economy the bigger the discount based upon the notion that a construction company that you own will have more unused capacity to use on personal projects in a down economy.

Buy confirm dialog now includes property icon.

Properties for sale that are player owned now have spinning "For Sale" above them instead of the box that tells how much above or below market they are priced.

Residential address is now also shown on bill pay screen.

Fixed bug causing properties with longer than one month reno or upgrade times to fail to improve.

2/10/2022:

  There was a bit of test code left in the last build that was reseting high scores every new game. This has been fixed, apologies to those affected.

Tenants now sometimes leave their rental properties. Tenants can also abandon a rental in which case the landlord will not receive the last months rent.

Rented properties now sometimes suffer damage that require repairs. Repairs not made within the month will increase the odds that a tenant will leave or abandon a rental. Abandoned rentals will often require repairs.

Reno's and upgrades can now take more than a month depending up on the size of the property being upgraded/renovated. Buttons for "Pay Mtg w/LOC" & "Pay Bills w/LOC" have been removed from Pay Bills screen - the game always defaults to cash first and then uses your line of credit if not enough cash is available.

Having a rental property for sale often annoys tenants and now makes them 20% more likely to move out.

2/3/2022:

 The first playable version of Business Empire is now up on the site! This is really early days, like... way before alpha, but the game is playable and for those of you who are curious what I've been up to and what the successor to the real estate simulator would be like... maybe give it a try!

Note that while the final game is expected to be played over 120 months of game time, this first playable has been capped at 40 months.

1/17/2022:

 As you can see the site has undergone a facelift! Nothing much has changed functionally except that you are one click closer to the games when you first land on the site.

My other news is that Business Mogul has been renamed Business Empire and... has been taking a it longer than initially planned. The very good news is that it is turning out to be the game that I had hoped that Real Estate Simulator would be. More things to buy and sell and many more game play options. I expect to have more news to share about Business Empire shortly!

7/17/2021:

 All of the Real Estate Empire Classic games are up as well now! Everything is running on a smaller, cleaner code base that should just work... please let me know if you find any bugs and hope you enjoy the games!

7/15/2021:

 Deck is back up as well - please report any issues to my Facebook page!

7/15/2021:

 Hi all, Houseflip is up and running and available for free play! Thanks for your patience, glad you made it over here from RealEstateEmpire.net! More games should be available soon!

7/8/2021:

 Issues have been resolved with Liquid Web, I expect to have games showing up here within a few days. You can see my new Privacy Policy at the bottom of this page.

7/4/2021:

 As I'm sure you've noticed... we've had another hiccup with the server this week. Under the heading of 'Nuff Said, I'm now transitioning the site to run on a Liquid Web server. Also, I'm going to shut down RealEstateEmpire.net and move all of my games back to www.RustyAxe.com.

Thanks to all of you who play my games and I apologize for the interruption - the games will be back soon!

5/26/2021:

 Today I'm happy to announce that I'm working on a new game for this website! Click Play Games or go to my Facebook page to get details about Bu$iness Empire!

4/24/2021:

 I've started working with Buy Me A Coffee to handle ad sales and site sponsorships! Click on the "Promote your brand with Real Estate Empire!" link for more details!

4/9/2021:

 HouseFlip update: more sound effects, I've added an intro tune and the end of game property bonus has gone from 100K per remaining action to 500K per remaining action!

4/8/2021:

 Spiffed up new game logos have been added to the game select screen!

4/6/2021:

 Deck update: more audio work and an audio loop for the intro screen.

3/25/2021:

 Houseflip update: the game now uses the Howler.js sound API which provides way better iPad sound support. Coming soon to Classic and Deck!

3/22/2021:

 I've taken the simulator back down and... I think this time for good (in both senses of the word). I enjoy working on this site and playing the games I've built except when it comes to the simulator.

Taking the simulator down will free up my time to work on the other games and I may, someday, use some of the simulator's concepts in updated versions of Classic or other games I might make.

I know a few of you have been playing the simulator and I appreciate the support I've gotten but it's time for me to let this one go so new and better games can be built.

3/21/2021:

 Deck update: minor bug fixes and tuning. Friday night/Saturday AM saw a few server issues that my server folks assure me have been resolved, sorry for any inconvenience.

3/17/2021:

 Simulator update: the pass time button now starts a continuous time mode. This will be paused if dialogs require input and then will start again after this dialog is done. During continuous time the "pass time" button will change to read "stop time", clicking it again will cause continuous time mode to stop.

3/16/2021:

 The simulator link is working again.

3/15/2021:

 A new version of Houseflip has been uploaded, primarily to fix recent performance issues on iOS but there were also a handful of other tuning and bug fixes made.

3/10/2021:

 I've updated the simulator with some mod's to streamline the program - more to come on this front soon - but for now I've substituted animations for dialogs in the cases of offer's accepted or denied, escrow closing and tenants moving in. I've also removed the pass year button and expect to do some more redesign on that UI in the coming weeks.

3/6/2021:

 There's a new update to Houseflip this morning, some big changes along with a few bug fixes. The big stuff is... more houses in the bottom three neighborhoods, less bonus for remaining properties at the end of the game and the "actions for cash" button now offers increasing cash bonuses - the longer you wait the more you get!

3/5/2021:

 The SSL issue that some folks experienced earlier today has been resolved - please let me know if you still see a Chrome warning when visiting the site.

3/4/2021:

 The Facebook page for Real Estate Empire now includes a roadmap that describes how I expect the simulator will evolve to beta 1.0.

2/20/2021:

 I've just made the simulator available again. A few issues have been resolved but this is still pre-beta with plenty of work left to be done, I'm making it available again because I know that a few people were using it. I expect to release more simulator updates soon.

2/10/2021:

 Happy new years to all! I've re-released House Flip running on the new code base with slightly modified rules.

Buying and selling are now only one action, upgrades are one action and full renovations are two actions. Should be a little smoother experience, hope you like it!

12/18/2020:

 I've uploaded a new version of the 15 year version of Classic and taken down the repairs sign!

12/03/2020:

 Another small update to fix a few bugs and to move the contractor construction bonus from 20% to 15% in my ongoing efforts to get all three character classes balanced.

11/26/2020:

 Another small update. Realtors now get a 75% rent bonus (was 20%) and hot markets should have a few more properties for sale.

11/25/2020:

 Some minor bug fixes to report today as well as a little tuning for the Property Manager and Realtor player classes. PM's now earn 85% more rent and gain a 10% construction discount, Realtor's gain a 20% rent bonus.

11/03/2020:

 New upload today. All versions of Classic now start with the Southside and ALR properties in poor condition and I've added a little bling to the high score board.

10/27/2020:

 I've just uploaded the 15 year version of Classic. In this version of the game rents are very low and apartments and the hotel earn significantly better. More tuning to come, hope you like it.

10/20/2020:

 I've just uploaded and unlocked a five year version of Classic.

10/16/2020:

 A name and high score board issues have been addressed, sorry about blowing intermittently blowing away the high scores recently...

I have also made some more balancing tweaks. Playing as the realtor now gets you $200K in starting cash (was $100K). The property manager now receives a 50% rent bonus (was 45%). The contractor has had their discount on construction reduced from 25% to 20%. All upgrade costs have been reduced 5% and all rents have received a ~5% bump.

10/14/2020:

 Hi folks, a beta copy of a brand new ten-year version of Classic (Classic 10) is now available to play on this site! Classic 10 has been built on a new code base which should be more responsive.

Classic 10 features longer escrow periods (20 days instead of 10) and has been tuned to require a lot more wheeling and dealing to be able to progress into the more expensive/profitable properties. All three professions are available but I've only tested the contractor so far. Please let me know if you encounter any bugs or issues!

10/6/2020:

 I have had some temporary server issues, the site should be back up soon, thanks for your patience!

6/27/2020:

I took a break from working on the simulator and added a 15 year version of Classic. I like the direction this version is heading and expect that, after tuning, I will add a 10 year version as well. For the next couple of weeks I'll be focused on tuning all of the software on the site including working on getting the simulator to a beta state.

6/16/2020:

 I have just updated the simulator with new features that support refinancing loans (available from the property screen - a button will become available if your current loan on that property has a higher rate than currently available). Refinancing costs 1% of your outstanding mortgage principal.

The other feature I have added with this update gives you control over property taxes, insurance and repair bills being auto-paid. Go to the portfolio screen to control whether auto-pay is on or off. If on and you don't have the funds available then you are still presented with a dialog box.

6/10/2020:

 Hi all, I recently received a very comprehensive simulator bug list - this update addresses those issues.

Mtg rate was being set when house went on market, not on entering escrow as it now is.

The sim was blocking owners from evicting a tenant unless it was for renovation purposes - you can now evict without cause.

When selling a property the value is now reset to current market value.

Line of credit is not fully implemented yet, have removed it from the display.

Tenants now pay rent on moving in - I am thinking about how to handle security deposits.

6/8/2020:

 I've tweaked the simulator in two ways:

Renter history distribution used to be evenly distributed 50/50 between unknown history (50%), and 50% one of the following poor, fair and good. Now 25% have an unknown history, of the remaining 75% they are distributed as 20% excellent history, 60% fair history and 20% poor history.

Renters now leave significantly less often from rentals that are in good repair.

I've also added the ability to pass a quarter of a year and a whole year. In all cases time passage will stop if you need to deal with a dialog. This provides an easier way to get through those times when you need to collect rent for a few years before you can make any more investments.

6/3/2020:

 I've just updated the simulator. There is now a portfolio button which takes you to a scrolling list of all properties you own as well as including more information about your finances.

You now have a credit score which is affected by paying your bills, your financial history, debts not fulfilled on time and your debt to equity ratio. Your credit score gives you a rating which now affects the amount of down payment you will be required to make on future loans and what mortgage rate you will qualify for.

The last couple of additions are that days to renovate or upgrade now properly account for condition and size of property and when in house view any property that you own requiring repairs will display a hammer icon superimposed on that house's icon.

5/19/2020:

 I've just updated the simulator to add a listings view of the market. This features gives you a sorted, scrollable list of the market with the ability to sort by price, rent and flip profitability.

You can access listings from the control panel in the upper left hand corner of the main game screen by clicking on the the "Listings" button.

5/15/2020:

 Simulator update this afternoon, more tweaking and debugging and the addition of rental repairs! As requested I've also bumped to fifteen years with the long term goal of bumping again to twenty or twenty-five when the software is closer to done.

Next update will include more tuning and debugging as well as a new listings view that will allow sorting by cost, affordability, rental profitability and flip potential.

5/4/2020:

 Small update to the simulator to fix some bugs and improve the usability of the town screen map. Also I have added good faith deposits to the escrow process.

4/26/2020:

 It looks like Friday's upload has caused the games to fail for some players. I was not able to replicate the bug here but a fix I applied late yesterday has resolved the problem for somebody who was experiencing the bug. Thanks to everybody who reported the problem, it's helpful in cases like this where the games work fine when I test them. As a one man band I don't have testing resources other than myself so bug reports are much appreciated!

4/24/2020:

 Two bugs have been dealt with in the past 12 hours or so. The crash bug that some people were seeing when starting Classic should be resolved (I was never able to reproduce it but I'm pretty sure I know what was going on there) and a minor between levels score board issue, also in Classic, has been fixed.

4/23/2020:

 A big update today, mostly to the simulator.

In general news I've streamlined the start up sequence so you never enter an email address. I've removed Loot Reward Coins which have been more trouble than the lost productivity from supporting them is worth. Also, I've reduced the on screen ad space for all titles by 50% leaving more room in all the games for game play.

The simulator is now alpha - there are bugs and more features are still coming but it's getting there. I will be trying to finish up the remaining features in the coming weeks before I settle into a period of tuning the simulator as well as all of the other games. I've also added a top ten high score baord for the simulator like the other games have.

3/6/2020:

 Sorry about the recently created high scores bug. It should be fixed now, more to come soon!

2/5/2020:

 The simulator has been updated - some front end work to make the town screen easier to 'read' and mortgage rates now update every three months.

Player properties are displayed as green houses, a red surrounding circle is added if the property is rented. All other properties on the market are represented by pins with the same color coding as before, ie. red for a property being offered below market value, blue for above and grey if the player can't afford the down payment.

1/23/2020:

 Another simulator update. Just a reminder that the simulator is pre-alpha, feature incomplete software! I'm making updates publicly available for those folks who are following progress and may want to talk about how the software is being shaped.

As of this update renters now apply to rent after the player takes occupancy and come in four flavors, poor, fair, good and unknown rental history. Tenants will leave - sometimes without paying rent and will also now occassionally do damage to their rental properties.

I've also added a floating dialog that will pop-up and give you a thumbnail sketch of details about the property, more details provided if you click on the property and go to the property details screen. On the property details screen you can buy the property or, if you already own it, sell or renovate the property. Soon you will have to evict tenants before you can make renovations (eviction will take two months during which time the player will not collect rent). The simulator time length has been set to ten years and starting cash is $40K.

1/7/2020:

 Simulator update today! Buying, selling, upgrading and renovating properties are all now timed events. When a property is being worked on or is in escrow then a small sign will appear below the property on the city screen.

The end month button has been replaced with pass day and pass time buttons. Pass day does what you would expect it to, ie. moves forward to the next day in the calendar. Pass time will move forward in the calendar until something interesting happens (currently closing escrow on the buying or selling of a property). Pass time will also stop when reaching the first day of a new month. You now start with $100K in initial funds and time has been extended from 5 to 10 years.

12/18/2019:

 I've just uploaded some updates to Houseflip. The game is snappier on the iPad now and switches to a simplified info bar at the top of the main game screen when on mobile.

The score formatting bug has been fixed as has the incorrect profit value on houses that are getting set to row rotate. Lastly the end of game bonus for left over actions has been bumped up to 100K per left-over action at game end.

12/17/2019:

 Earlier this year I pulled down the first playable version of the simular because it presented a wall of indecipherable data. I've figured out a new approach and today I'm releasing a very early new version. Most of you should not play this version!

If you are very interested in the simulator then please give it a look and give me feedback on the FB page. There's a ton of work still to be done, right now I'm interested in UI feedback as I code up and roll out more features. Thanks to all of you for coming to my site and playing my games.

11/14/2019:

 Houseflip has been updated with cleaned up sound effects, score starts at 0 (instead of 200K) and a mouse-over bug has been fixed so that sale actions are properly reported.

11/11/2019:

 I've just updated Deck to play better on mobile along with some cosmetic and audio tuning mods.

11/6/2019:

 A small update tonight to Classic to fix a display issue with foreclosure signs and to ensure that they always get a sound effect (darn browsers!).

11/3/2019:

 I've updated Houseflip tonight.

"Get Cash" only works once per neighborhood. You can think of this game element as a short-term, expensive business loan.

Clicking on a house image on the main screen now works the same as clicking on the buy button, mainly to improve mobile/tablet play.

Some cosmetic issues were cleaned up. As always, if you see any bugs please let me know!

10/30/2019:

 Happy Halloween all!

This update include changes to Classic to make the contractor and property manager classes more competitive and some display issues have also been fixed.

10/19/2019:

 A few updates to Classic today.

Fixed minor display issues.

All professions now start with $500K.

Fixed end of month bug.

Added buy & sell amounts to their respective buttons.

10/12/2019:

 There was a bug that prevented some folks from logging on this week which has been fixed.

Houseflip: At the end of a month any row that has an empty house in the right hand side column will be rotated before any others are considered (starting from the top row).

Houseflip: Trailer rents have been bumped by 2K per month.

Houseflip: Minor display issues for some browser sizes have been fixed.

10/8/2019:

 A few updates to Houseflip today:

End of game bonus has been boosted to 250K per remaining action.

I'm finding the "actions for cash" mechanic to be too powerful so I've toned it down a bit. Actions cost has been doubled from 5 to 10. Bonus cash payouts are now $20K, $50K, $100K and the escalating bonus for the final neighborhood has been boosted 20% (remember it now costs 10 instead of 5 actions).

When multiple neighborhoods are unlocked and have houses remaining then the lowest priced neighborhoods are now more likely to be the one that has a house rotated off the market - this is important if you are hoping that a higher priced house on the market might remain available just one more turn!

10/6/2019:

 A few small display updates to Deck today. The ochre and orange cards are now higher contrast, small hand size maxes out at 5 instead of 7 so that you don't get a nearly hidden card on the LHS of your hand on some display sizes and scroll bars will no longer obscure display after window resize.

9/30/2019:

 I've uploaded new versions of Classic and Houseflip today. Mostly back end stuff that will cause the game to be easier to maintain and to load faster but you will notice a little bit of cleaning up here and there!

If you find bugs please let me know via the FB page. For the next few weeks I expect to be playing the games quite a bit to further tune them and to clean up any bugs I can find.

8/21/2019:

 Been a bit of a breather between updates - what can I say, it's summer time and the golf course has been calling...

Anyhow, new changes to Houseflip today are that I've dropped Adsense because it was creating graphic and sound effect timing issues. I fixed the end of game score bug and lastly made a big update to the main game screen display putting the portfolio at the top of the main game screen.

7/25/2019:

 I've just uploaded some more tuning changes to Houseflip:

Trading actions for cash has been tuned so that it now only costs 5 actions instead of 10, the 3rd neighborhood open unlocks a flat bonus of 75K and the high end action bonus has been tuned down so your end score bonus isn't penalized as much for having spent actions for cash earlier in the game.

The large house (purple) now pays more rent.

Hotels are more expensive to buy and go up more in value when renovated.

More "easter egg" action bonuses have been added!

Added a 20 action bonus for score of 35M.

Neighborhoods now unlock on 200K, 900K and 4.5M.

Trailers never appear in the second neighborhood anymore.

7/18/2019:

 Hi all, I've just uploaded a big set of changes to Classic. Why? Primarily to increase the number of moment to moment game play choices that are on offer at any given point in the game. Also, with this update, I believe the contractor and realtor professions are now more or less competitive with property manager.

What has changed?

1. Bank owned properties decay/reduce condition faster.

2. Gentrification bonuses have been bumped up.

3. Less rent on all properties to make you have to think more about flipping properties.

4. Transactions are now faster - buying now takes 20 days and selling takes 10 days (10 & 5 if you are a realtor/own a realty).

5. Contractor reno discount is now 15%.

6. Realtor now starts with $400K.

7. Downtown business's are more expensive to buy but have reduced upgrade costs.

8. Bank bug has been fixed (face red over here...), owning the bank, in top condition, now pays 5% per turn on any cash on hand.

9. Reno project times are now based upon house type. trailer = 15 days, small house = 20, medium house = 25, large house = 30, apartments and hotels = 60 and all others take 30. 45% less for an upgrade and contractors reduce their time by 20%.

10. Pumped up hotel earnings and probably a half dozen other properties got nudged in the fray.

That's it - hope you enjoy the new version!

7/16/2019:

 Hi all, the server folks have informed me that the server will go down for 5-10 minutes somewhere between 4 AM CST and 9:00 AM CST.

My apologies if this affects a game in progress. If this does affect you then you should be able to get back into your game by refreshing your browser as soon as the server comes back online.

7/10/2019:

 I've updated Deck with new sound effects!

7/8/2019:

 A small update tonight to Houseflip to deal with an iOS browser display issue, the game should work better on those devices now.

7/1/2019:

 The high score board reset issue has been fixed. I've just uploaded the following changes to Houseflip:

Fixed rounding error that would occasionally result in displayed house price matching cash on hand and not allowing purchase.

Changed starting cash from 150K to 200K.

Bumped 1st hood bonus from 10K to 15K, 2nd hood bonus from 25 to 35K.

Decreased trailer renovation costs.

Increased medium sized house property values and rents.

Increased large house reno costs.

Decreased apartment rents.

Increased hotel property values and reno costs.

6/29/2019:

 Something is triggering a high score board reset a few hours into the day. Seems like it should be a simple issue but it's more complicated - I'm working on it with my dedicated server supplier and hope to have it resolved soon.

My apologies to all of the early birds who have had high scores wiped out in the wee hours of the day.

6/25/2019:

Today Houseflip's update includes:

Reduced cash bonus from turning in actions when neighborhoods 3&4 are open.

End game accumulates all left over actions and awards a score bonus for them.

Renovation profit calculation has been fixed to reflect current market. Note, all property profitibility calculations are based upon current market.

6/21/2019:

 Another Houseflip update today:

You can now cash in 10 actions for an escalating amount of cash as follows, neighborhood one unlocked, 10K, neighborhood two unlocked, 25K, thereafter the cash reward escalates every month with another boost when neighborhood four is unlocked!

Fixed minor graphic and sound effect bugs.

Game no longer removes a house in a month when a new neighborhood is unlocked.

6/20/2019:

 I have made a number of game play tweaks to Houseflip over the past two weeks and, more importantly, fixed the show-stopper bugs which had crept into the code base. In the near term I'll be concentrating on polishing Houseflip and a bigger update to Classic which will dramatically increase the number of game play decision points through out the game.

6/6/2019:

 Today's update adds trailers to Classic as well as a boost to contractors and realtors to make those professions more competitive with property managers.

The signin sequence has been streamlined a little - if you are returning the game takes you from the landing page directly to the game selection page. The game selection page now also includes a daily achievements list so you can check your standings after every game.

Speaking of the daily achievements, I've tuned up your achievements received from Classic and Houseflip so that they are both now based upon your high score ranking.

6/1/2019:

 After a lot of thought I've taken down the simulator. The current incarnation of that piece of software isn't any fun at all and I think I can do better. Never fear! The simulator will return when I have settled on a new design.

A few of you have sent in bug reports this past week which I appreciate. Over the next few days I'll be addressing bugs and working on a smallish update to Classic that will, among other tweaks, give the contractor and real estate player classes a boost so they compete better with property managers.

5/27/2019:

 A new version of Houseflip has been uploaded that now includes trailers!

A list of all of the updates can be found on the Facebook page.

5/20/2019:

 A small Houseflip update this morning to tighten up animation and sound effects timings to make the game a bit snappier.

5/17/2019:

 Houseflip has been updated with animations and sound effects that help clarify game play including notifications when properties are reduced in price!

5/1/2019:

 The games are back online.

5/1/2019:

 I've taken the games down for a day while I resolve a security bug that might expose a players email to another player. I take your security and trust seriously and will resolve the problem ASAP.

Sorry for the inconvenience, the games will be back soon!

4/27/2019:

 A new version of HouseFlip is now on the site!

The big, big change is that you now only have one stated goal at a time. I was finding that even as the author of the game I couldn't remember what all of my goals were so I wanted a single, on-screen, stated goal at all times.

Neighborhood unlocks are now handled by hitting rent collection goals. These are cumulative and you can check them at any time by mousing over a lock. Many of the old action goals have been left in the game and are now hidden bonuses!

The New Rules!

You now start with 50 actions and get more by hitting the on screen stated goal, unlocking new neighborhoods and finding bonus actions!

Sounds easy hunh... you'll see!

Buying now takes 5 actions.

Upgrades take 1 action per condition of upgrade, ie. upgrade a property from 1 star to 5 stars takes 4 actions.

Selling takes 1 action.

There have been some other tweaks to rent and upgrade values as well as some cosmetic updates to play the game better but I'll let you find those for yourselves!

4/19/2019:

 The new update is up!

The daily achievements board now resets at noon PST of each day instead of midnight.

All of the updates were to Classic this time around and are as follows:

I have dropped property manager and realtor score bonuses and am working towards all of the professions being equally capable of posting high scores. Scores are now equal to equity.

Realtors now receive a 6% increase in sale price when selling, close escrow in 10 days instead of 30 and get a 5% rent bonus.

Contractors reduce their upgrade and reno costs by 30% and drop 2 days off upgrade and renovation projects.

Property managers get a 25% rental income increase.

Upgrading property takes 18 not 20 days while a full reno still takes 30.

A full reno is now a little more expensive relative to an upgrade costing 92% of the cost of an upgrade rather than the old 85%.

4/18/2019:

 Just a quick heads up that I will be updating the game tomorrow morning and resetting the daily high score board at that point, sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Lots of fun new changes to Classic on the way!

4/12/2019:

 New versions of all of the games have just been uploaded.

A lot of this update is back end work to make the games more reliable but... here's the fun stuff!

A cleaner startup sequence that skips the high score screens in lieu of putting them directly in the game selection screen.

HouseFlip! fixed high scores bug along with more game tuning. I hope you all enjoy the direction that game is heading in!

Classic, upgraded the WIP version to be the only version of the game and upgraded construction and realtor professions to be more competitive with the property manager which had been taking a lot of the high score board honors!

Deck displays back of card in confirmation dialog when taking top of deck card, added a high score board along with LRC rewards for high score board placement!

2/28/2019:

 I've just uploaded a new version of Houseflip! with a big, big update! The game has the same basic premise - gain equity to score higher and actions to play longer - but it's played almost entirely on a single screen and there is no longer a game timer. I think you'll find the game to be much more streamlined and easier to understand at a glance.

Houses now move from left to right through each neighborhood, one unlocked neighborhood randomly losing a house from the RHS column at the end of each month. Cold and fair markets are more likely to have houses drop in value as they remain on the market. The game ends when all houses are gone or when you run out of actions. I hope you like the new version of the game as much as I do!

1/23/2019:

 A first playable demo of the simulator is now available! There is also a road map that shows new features I have planned. The current version only lasts for twelve months but I expect to release a new version with more features soon that will last the full 30 years that the simulator is planned to take place over.

The demo is based, very roughly, on the Waco real estate market. Neighborhood names have been used but not actual street names or properties. I plan to support more North American real estate markets in the future.

I make no warranty or guarantees about the fitness of this software to predict real world investment outcomes!

11/19/2018:

 Quick update about the simulator which I'm hoping to release in a first playable format by month end!

Currently I've been looking for a market to locate the first version of the simulator in. My ideal has affordable housing, good rental demand and price points that make well considered fixing and re-selling a viable option for a real estate investor.

Currently I'm considering Waco, Texas because it's an affordable market with upside and plenty of houses that can be fixed and flipped. If you are thinking that I would not have chosen Waco before Chip and Joanna Gaines started fixing houses there... you'd be correct!

Other markets I looked at and passed over? Santa Cruz, CA. A beautiful beach town, a bedroom community for Silicon Valley and... rents that are far below mortgages. Santa Cruz may continue to offer investment opportunities but it doesn't cover all the bases that I'm looking for in terms of investor options.

Also in consideration has been Nashville, TN where it appears that every single house has already been bought and renovated! While I'm sure that's not entirely true I looked at twenty houses between Hope Gardens and Sylvan Park and... they were all newly renovated!

10/30/2018:

 I've just updated Houseflip and Classic (WIP), some bug fixes, lots of tuning, especially to Houseflip. Classic WIP should now yield higher scores than the original version.

10/26/2018:

 Houseflip is back online.

10/24/2018:

 Another tuning update to Classic (WIP).

10/22/2018:

 I've just uploaded a new Work In Progress (WIP) version of Classic, lots of changes to hopefully give you more to think about over the course of the 60 months of game play!

10/16/2018:

 Classic is back online.

10/15/2018:

 A sizeable technology update which should be followed by faster game polishing and improvement through the end of October. The site no longer stores cookies!

House Flip! has had some minor tuning for tension. You can no longer have more than 5 actions at a time, yellow neighborhood stops adding listings after 12 months and red after 24.

9/25/2018:

 Loot Reward will go down for a little while in the next 24 hours as we migrate to the new server. All coins have already been moved!.

9/18/2018:

 Small update to House Flip tonight which adds unlockable neighborhoods based upon scoring goals and some additional tweaking and polishing.

9/9/2018:

 Things have been quiet here on the news front but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!

The Start button link will now take you (temporarily) to the Rusty Axe site as this site is migrated to a new and hopefully more stable dedicated server!

Also, there's a new game! House Flip! is available to try as a first playable and features a fun new board gamey kind of play mechanic where you have limited actions. Play well, get more actions and build an equity based high score!

The simulator will be released later this Fall!

5/4/2018:

 Real Estate Empire Simulator announced!

4/24/2018:

 Updated Real Estate Empire Deck, now officially the beta version!