On February 7, 2021, at 18:37 I minted my first property it was in San Francisco - 786 Athens ST and minted this property on my own, in other words, I had discovered a new plot of land that no one else had brought in the game and I used my avatar or explorer to locate it. My explorer would wander aimlessly around the map discovering new areas for me to buy! it was exciting on where it led me, and of course I am no idea what was good or not and a couple of days later I minted 2 more properties BUT this time my initial free 5000 UPX that the game gives you (USE a referral code to get 50% more on your first deposit over $10) ran out so I got out my debit card paid $30.34 and then 1 hour later found another plot of land for $18.29.
Again I still had no real ideas on what I doing, but thank god so far I did not lose any money so to speak on a new build, but then I discovered these collections that the games offer and you need a certain collection of houses to make the rent per month multiple from the base rate, and this can REALLY make a difference to your overall income stream.
All I saw was the rent multiplier, how much extra UPX I could generate, and I wanted to active my collection of City Pro quickly to get that extra 1.4 rate ontop of the base rate so I just went ahead and purchased 1883 Oakdale Ave for only $5 which I thought was cheap but it had a markup of 202% which means I could have minted or discovered the property for half that amount I paid for!.
https://upx.world/ Is your resource people! use it to find out the history of the property just as you would do in Zoopla in buying a real house to see house prices around your area and indeed past sales.
Ok for the next few houses it was a bit of a blur and I just thought to buy some cheap houses or plots of land to help build up my portfolio that was my strategy at the time, though there were some 195% markups on some properties but mostly in the 100-120% range which I was happy about.
And then on February 11 all sense went out the window, I then saw collection SEA CLIFF, you needed to own 3 properties in the area to active this 2.15X multiplier on your rent/income to your property. Word of advice DON'T purchase properties in well-established high-cost areas. especially without doing research on that area, at this time I still was not aware of the original cost of the house, and all I was doing was looking for the cheapest houses on the market and players will enter the MAX limit possible 99,999,999 WHY comes to mind just don't offer it but another tool or resource that you MUST have is uplanddata.com here you will see current Sale prices offered by players and it VERY useful to help zone in on your house of choice.
So at this stage, I was not aware of this great resource site to do filters on anything you want quickly but I took to pencil and A4 paper and went around the map noted down the different sale prices of the houses, and noted their addresses and from a list of 13 addresses can to the conclusion that I would need to spend some "real" money (money that was more than $5 at a pop!) to obtain the properties I REALLY wanted to make this SEA CLIFF collection to have a whooping 2.15X multiplier on my rent.
And in my head, I REALLY REALLY wanted a house next to the sea and from google earth and maps I got to see the neighborhood and I could really picture myself living here! For reference, I have videos and photos of the place here, could you have missed out on this?! The cheapest property was $75, then $86, and finally, $100 but these transactions were different from the previous sales I had, these were in US Dollars ($) and NOT in UPX currency so my debit card details went through Tilia Pay a legit payment system that Upland has partnered up. These players are early adopters/players of Upland and around 100 players have the ability to sell their house in real $ (Property-to-USD beta program) and get the funds, so this is where things got real, actual money transaction made to another player and not into the game as UPX currency, let just say these three players had already cashed in on their investments and MADE a profit!
And how do I know this? simple all transactions made in the game are in a blockchain and therefore everything is there to see (if you know where to go!) I give you a hint it's here! https://upx.world/ and ONLY later did I realized the profit margins these guys made on the properties in Sea Cliff, for the first property markup was 279%, the second was 271%, and third was 200% do I feel gutted! Talk about a newbie error! I now vow to promise to myself I will NEVER buy over the odds for a property, but wait it's not all that simple cause there are always supply and demand thus in some cases it isn't too bad if you pay over the odds, just don't make a habit of it and for this story, I am happy since I DID get my SEA CLIFF collection and a whooping 2.15X multiplier on my rent that I am getting.
Then as a drug, I needed to get my next Collection set but the highest purchase was only $40 this time, but as my wife keeps saying $40 times X times is how much? so yeah buy properties bit by bit doesn't seem too bad but when you check your bank statement it's another matter! plus I also did not account for the $ transactions fee from my UK GBP sterling bank account to USD to buys things which also adds up!
So in my first week alone, I had purchased 22 new properties and god knows how much I spent ( I live my life in denial!) ... well tell a lie I do.
5670 07-Feb 30340 09-Feb 18290 09-Feb 4999 09-Feb 5000 09-Feb 1090 09-Feb 1090 09-Feb 1094 09-Feb 1149 10-Feb 1799 10-Feb 1125 10-Feb 1350 10-Feb 1300 10-Feb 75000 11-Feb 86000 11-Feb 100000 11-Feb 8750 11-Feb 35000 12-Feb 39000 12-Feb 40000 12-Feb 4299 14-Feb Total UPX 462345 Total $ $462.35
I am not a rich person, hell I am married and have not told my wife about this game REAL currency cost involved, and I have a small Cryptocurrency portfolio I could dip into (the game also accept that on player selling their properties in USD) but I want to hold that investment in a separate bag so to speak and not have ALL my eggs in one basket!
What will week two hold for me?
