Can You Sell Houses in Monopoly?
Monopoly is a game of chance, luck, and capitalist skill. Knowing how to set up the game and play by the official rules can help you in loving the game and winning over your family and friends. Owning and trading properties, such as houses, is one way to gain an edge over your opponents.
You can sell a house to the bank by collecting half the price you paid for the house. You can’t sell off more than one house at one property at a time. You have to sell a house in each property of one color group before selling the second house per property within the color group.
The objective of the Monopoly game is to be the wealthiest player and own most of the property on board, while also pushing your opponents into bankruptcy. If you’re keen on knowing the rules behind selling houses in Monopoly, this article is your one true and comprehensive guide.
Buying Houses
According to Wiki Books, you have to buy property before you can buy houses to erect on the property. You can only build houses on your property after you buy all the property in that color group. It is advantageous to you if you purchased property within the same color group. That way, you collect double rent from anyone who lands on your property within the same color group.
When you have a property in a color group, you can start buying and erecting houses. You have to erect houses one per property until each of your properties within the color group has a house. Only then can you start building a second row of houses per property, then a third, and a fourth if you so desire.
Thus, if you buy three houses at the same time for a color group with three properties, you have to erect one house per property. You can’t put up all three houses on one property. You also can’t erect two of the houses on one property and the third one on a second property. The aim is to have all your properties in each color group to be uniformly developed.
The Monopoly game has a limited number of properties and houses. There are 32 houses in total. Each house you buy may have a different price. The price of each house is indicated on its property card.
When more than one player needs more houses than are available, they have to bid. Available houses will go to the highest bidder.
There are different types of houses and each has a different cost. House prices also differ from one Monopoly game edition to another. In the original game, the house prices are:
- Browns, purples, and light blues cost $50
- Pinks and oranges cost $100
- Yellows and reds cost $150
- Dark blues and greens cost $200
The higher the price of the house, the higher the rent it attracts.
Collecting Rent
The more houses you have on a property, the more rent you can collect from opponents who land on your property. When the property owner asks a visitor to pay rent, the visitor has to pay the stipulated rent amount. Houses provide the property owner with higher rent than undeveloped property. A hotel attracts even higher rent amounts than having houses on the property. In the original Monopoly game, rent prices for houses are:
- Browns, purples, and light blues rent for $25
- Pinks and oranges rent for $50
- Yellows and reds cost rent for $75
- Dark blues and greens rent for $100
Selling Houses
When it comes to selling houses, just like when buying, you have to sell off one at a time per property within the same color group. You can’t sell more than one house in one property when you have other houses in the same color group.
Also, your house undergoes some depreciation. You can’t get the full price when selling a house. You can only get half the price you paid for it. You can only sell your house to the bank and not to other players.
When all the houses have been bought and are erected on the board, there are no more houses to be sold. Players have to wait until house owners fail and sell back their house to the bank. A player may also decide to sell houses to either raise cash or buy a hotel. Hotels collect more rent than houses.
Exchanging Houses for Hotels
According to the official Monopoly game rules, you can buy a hotel once you have four houses on each property in any one color group. You have to sell off the houses in that property to the bank in order to erect a hotel.
You can put up only one hotel per property. One of the best ways to get more money in Monopoly is to build hotels on each property you own. Monopoly has only 12 hotels, so from the start of the game, it’s a race for which player will own the most hotels.
Mortgaging Property and Houses
You can mortgage your property to raise cash. When your property is under the mortgage, you can’t collect rent for your houses from other players. Before mortgaging the property, you have to sell back all houses and hotels on the property to the bank at half price. The mortgage value of the property is printed at the back of the property deed.
If you have a property that isn’t bringing you any rent profits, you can mortgage it at any time. However, if the property is yielding profits, you can still mortgage off the property but not at any time.
To mortgage a property that’s bringing you profits, you receive from the bank 50 percent of the price you originally paid. Remember you can’t simply sell all the houses on one property while leaving other houses on other properties within the same color group untouched. You have to sell off the houses evenly across all properties you own of the same color group.
Once you mortgage your property, you have to turn the property deed card upside down. You can’t collect rent from the mortgaged property. You also can’t develop the mortgaged property by building houses or hotels on it. Similarly, you can’t develop the other properties you own in the same color group until you lift the mortgage on all of them. Though you can’t collect rent on the mortgaged house, you can keep collecting rent from other houses in the same property class.
If you want to lift the mortgage, you have to pay the bank the full mortgage amount plus a ten percent interest. You can only start buying back houses after all the properties within a color group are free of mortgage.
A player who mortgages their property retains ownership. No other player can lift the mortgage or lay claim to the property. Nonetheless, the owner of the mortgaged property can still sell the property to another player.
To take ownership of another player’s mortgaged property, you can agree on a price with the owner. You then pay the owner’s price plus pay the bank the mortgage price and 10 percent interest on the mortgage price. Only then can you start buying and erecting houses on the property. If you don’t lift the mortgage at the same time as when you buy the mortgaged property, then you will have to pay an additional ten percent at a later turn.
Can You Move Houses in Monopoly?
When you buy a house, you have to erect it on a particular property. Once the house is set on one property, you can’t relocate it to another property. Instead, you have to sell the house to the bank first, at half the price, of course, then buy the house back at full price to erect it to the new property.
What Happens to Your House When You Go Bankrupt?
When you can’t pay the bank and other players what you owe them, your opponents can take away everything you own. You then have to retire from the game. You’ll have to sell back your houses and properties to the bank for half what you paid for them. You then have to give that cash to the players you owe.
When you’re bankrupt, the bank and your opponents can buy anything you own, including mortgaged property. You have to hand over your property to the player who made you bankrupt. If the bankruptcy was due to owing the bank, then the bank sells your property via auction. Auction automatically lifts the mortgage on your recovered property.
