Real estate development is very different in real life. Zoning regulations usually prohibit hotels being built in the same neighborhood as single family homes. Governmental review boards (planning and zoning, design review, wetlands and flood plain, need I go on) don't guarantee that the project you plan to build will be at all, or maybe not the way you planned. There may be a sewer moratorium that stops the project, or a councilman that causes the developer to spend millions on unexpected of-site improvements. And let's not forget impact fees - water, sewer, open space, traffic, school, ...

I would add another deck of cards to be pulled when you want to develop a property. The card could impose restrictions, or even denials for developing your property. Restrictions my include the extent or type of development, and costs for development.

After approval, there is the problem of financing and construction overruns. The cost of these uncertainties could be added to the deck.

Once constructed, there are carrying costs. In the game you make money when someone lands on your property, but there are no costs if you have no customers. There should be payments made during each completion rounding the board to represent taxes and mortgage payments. This will add risk to the ownership.

Why does the game need to be limited to houses and hotels, besides the utilities? Why not factories and retail centers. Maybe even medical facilities? There could be tax benefits for creating jobs.

That brings up another development obstacle: affordable housing! Here in NJ, developers have been required to make contributions to affordable housing based on the number of jobs they create. Isn't that counter productive? But there is always the risk of unreasonable regulations that could make a project uneconomical. So why not a card that requires a payment for the developing process without the reward of being able to build the project.

The cards:
*Pay an impact fee of $10,000 for each house or $50,000 for a hotel.
*Council changes zoning code, project is denied. Pay $20,000 for design and legal fees.
*Unexpected cost overruns of $100,000
*Code changes cause replacement of the elevators. Pay $50,000.
*Worker strike delays opening for 6 months. No rent can be collected.
*Air conditioning fails. Pay $5,000 for repairs.

Not all cards should be bad news:
*Large convention in town. Hotel if filled, collect $50,000 in unexpected profits.

The board is fine. But I prefer the board for the The Game of Life.

I like the pieces.

I like the paper money.

Calisto (Ka-lee-sto)