List of Properties

Investments give you a special way to make money. You can invest in a community property, like the Diner, the Theater, the Stadium, and so on. There are two types of investments: Become a Partner, and Buy out Property.

If you have enough money to invest in a property, the option will be available when you click that property. When you choose either Become a Partner or Buy out Property, your Sim must go to that location and spend a little time there, after which your Sim has completed the investment.

Becoming a partner means that there are other Sims who own a share of that property, too. Buying out the property, on the other hand, makes you the sole owner of that property; any Sims who previously owned it are no longer owners. It costs much more to buy out a property than to become a partner, and it also gives you more money each week.

Investment Strategies

The purpose of investing in The Sims (as well as in real life) is to use your money to help you earn more money.

The basic strategy is to invest as small an amount of money as possible while earning the biggest weekly payout possible. If you divide your weekly earnings by the cost of the partnership, the resulting number is the Return on Investment, or ROI for short.

Investing wisely is simply a matter of buying the best ROI you can afford given the amount of cash that you have on hand.

Having a partnership in a business always has a better return on investment than owning a business. This simply means that you shouldn't start buying businesses until you have a partnership in all twelve businesses. Once you can't get any more partnerships, you can then consider buying out the other partners to become the full owner of the businesses.

Below is a handy chart that shows you exactly how to maximize your returns given the amount of cash that you have available for investing. Remember, it would be unwise to spend every penny on buying a partnership if you would not be able to pay your bills afterward, so make sure that you will be able to get enough cash to cover your expenses once you invest.

Weekly Earnings

Once you have invested in a property, you will earn money from that investment each week. However, that earned money is not directly deposited into your money; you have to go to the location to pick up your profits each week. The profits become available on Monday at 9AM each week.

The most profitable investment is the Hospital. The least profitable is the Diner. The Stadium and Science Lab are excellent investments, too, but they aren't as profitable as the Hospital. If you buy out the Diner, it is slightly more profitable than buying out the Book Store or the Supermarket. But becoming a partner in the Diner is less profitable than becoming a partner in the Book Store or Supermarket.

Investments affect relationships

A Sim who owns a business will not be able to perform certain romantic actions with a Sim who works at that business, because that Sim will be creeped out, hurting that relationship.

As a business owner, you can fire employees at a business, but it will hurt your relationship with that Sim. If there is only one employee left at a business, you can't fire him or her.

Owning your workplace

Owning your workplace has no effect on your career.

Transferring Deeds

Once you buy or partner in a property, there will be a deed for it in your inventory. You can transfer those deeds to other Sims whenever you want to. If a deed-holding Sim dies, the deed automatically goes to a relative.