Hi,
I had the pleasure of playing Hybrid's Real Estate Game (see http://www.hpc.co.nz/ and https://secure.webenz.co.nz/hpc/board_game.php) for the first time on Sunday with Gazza, Geoffw (& lovely partner), Pedro (& lovely partner) & Jas (as my lovely partner).
Here are my first impressions of the game.
Mechanics
The game is a looping track board game with a property clock (with a plastic hand which can be moved). The clock is broken into three sections, a Slump (1-7), Recovery (7-10) and Boom (10-1). For each section on the clock there are sets of event and opportunity cards, colour coded to make it easy to know which to pick.
Every player gets a job card telling them their profession, income, tax bracket, credit card limit & their goals. The goals always include both equity & passive income targets, for example, Jas & I were a Lawyer & had the goal of amassing $1.2M in equity (not real estate) and a passive income of $108K. The job paid $30K and we had a credit card limit of $18K.
The other players had cards with less income & correspondingly lower targets.
Every player also got a record sheet where you must record every event, buying property, paying or drawing from a mortgage, using/paying a credit card, changes in rental yield (passive income) and so on.
If you use your credit card you are charged 20% interest which immediately comes off your income until the amount is repaid. You can also 'borrow' money from your available equity (up to 90% LVR), increasing your mortgage, and every $10K borrowed reduces your passive income by $1K....if you repay your mortgage for every $10K you get an extra $1K in passive income.
Gameplay
Gameplay is straightforward, roll one die, move that number of squares & pick a card or take an action based on what is written on the square.
There is one payday on the track and one 'passive income day', where you get paid your totals. You must ask for your pay like Cashflow (who would work in a job where you had to request your pay anyway?)
The property clock starts at 11 o'clock (halfway through the boom) and moves clockwise according to Event cards).
Some squares have negative effects, such as the holiday - which cost money (% of income based on your tax bracket) and have you miss a turn (Pedro scored three holidays the 'lucky' bugger), and some possitive, such as seeing a financial advisor & having your rental return (passive income) increase by 10%. Most require you to draw a card from the opportunity, event or wild piles appropriate for the section of the property clock.
The opportunities are all property, and generally you buy properties under their value in Slumps & Recoveries, but at or over value in a Boom. You must pay a deposit, commonly 10 or 20% and legal fees - all detailed on the card. You can pay more deposit if you want to figure out the details. You receive passive income from all properties, sometimes varying based on your tax bracket to reflect the additional benefit of negative gearing if you have a high income.
Events generally move the property clock forwards 1/2 an hour (never backwards!) and Wild cards have random good & bad events affecting everyone - such as having to immediately pay 2% of your mortgages, or getting a tax rebate. We pulled more bad events than good, but 'm not sure of the balance.
The property clock also affects play - at certain 'times' on the clock real estate values and passive income change. In a Slump they decrease, and in a Recovery & Boom they increase. This affects all the property you own. In net I calculated that around the clock once, property prices increase by 6% - however with Slumps reducing property values by 10% then 15% you have to be careful not to go bankrupt.
The game mandates that you must at all times have at least 10% equity in your portfolio or be forced into a mortgagee auction & bankrupcy - a real challenge at the peak of the slump!
During the game you buy property, collect income & passive cashflow & try to reach your goal targets, while the property clock moves. We completed a full cycle of the clock in about 3 hours and Geoffw & partner & Jas & I were about halfway towards our goals with the others further behind (reasons for this later). Jas & I had 10 properties, Geoff about 6 and the others 1-2 a piece (from memory).
General Impressions
Jas commented that playing the game wasn't like playing a game - it was just like really buying real estate!
After playing the game once and not exploring all the possibilities - such as a mortgagee auction or effects of several times round the clock, my general impression is that this is a fairly accurate reflection of the property cycle & learning to play this game would be a huge benefit to people new to property investing.
However, the game is not very forgiving & rules lawyers will have a field day inventing strategies to maximise your return......possibly also like real property investing
The game requires a huge amount of accounting and one of the key reasons Geoffw & partner & Jas & I did better than Pedro & Gazza was because we were playing in teams while Pedro & Gazza were playing individually. You really need two people per team to manage all the accounting and decision-making in the game and it showed!!!
You do need to be good with statistics & I'd recommend a calculator per team (the game doesn't come with calculators).
As an experienced investor the game didn't really teach me anything, and I lost interest in the gameplay after 3/4 round the property clock. Jas & I had worked out the gameplay and had our strategy mapped out & basically just had to repeat it to achieve our goal. Essentially if you buy property which reduces your LVR (increases your ratio of equity to loans) wherever possible you will not go bankrupt, barring some really bad card draws.
The board itself was a little annoying due to the 'distraction track' where you can basically do nothing & miss out on your passive income......Jas & I got caught on it twice & everyone else got caught once. The track is about 20 squares long, no events or opportunities, and if you kept rolling 1s on the die you could miss out on half the game - not fun or fair I think.
I'd also like to see the property clock starting at 5-6 o'clock (towards the end of the slump) as most experienced property investors begin buying hereish. Knowing what is ahead on the property clock does make it much easier to plan for the Slump & decide the most strategic times to buy property (provided you get the opportunity to do so!).
Finally, the game seems well suited for NZ and AU property markets. I could not speak for it's relative value for people in other markets with different legal, economic & cultural frameworks.
In Brief (in my humble opinion)
Gameplay is too slow & tedious to hold the interest of any but the most anal rules-lawyers for long enough to complete the game.
It is worth playing at least once for 3-4 hours to help internalise your ability to buy property by the numbers, particularly if you are new to property investing. Come mentally prepared. If you are hung over or tired you would probably not cope with the gameplay.
There is limited replay value - this, unlike Cashflow - is not a game you really would want to pick up & play for enjoyment & to try new strategies every few weeks.
However, I would like to play the game again when in the right mindset to spend a day playing to crystalise my strategies....so maybe you'd play the game a few times a year.
I expect that players who have played the game a few times would be able to move through it much faster & enjoyably, however there is still a LOT of accounting to do, which does slow things down.
Overall
overall I felt the game is good if very complex…but the complexity may be needed to really give people a feel for property investing.
I'm happy to answer further questions.
Anyone have their own impressions of the game?
Disclaimer: I did have a brief conversation with Hybrid via email about the prospect of distributing the game in Australia. They are looking for an established distributor of edutainment/investment resources instead.
I don't believe I am biased either for or against the game because of these discussions (the talks were not very detailed & I'd have wanted to review the game anyway before moving to any distribution agreement), but thought everyone should know of these discussions just in case. Draw your own conclusions
I have no financial interest in the company & have told them that I placed this review
Cheers,
Aceyducey
I had the pleasure of playing Hybrid's Real Estate Game (see http://www.hpc.co.nz/ and https://secure.webenz.co.nz/hpc/board_game.php) for the first time on Sunday with Gazza, Geoffw (& lovely partner), Pedro (& lovely partner) & Jas (as my lovely partner).
Here are my first impressions of the game.
Mechanics
The game is a looping track board game with a property clock (with a plastic hand which can be moved). The clock is broken into three sections, a Slump (1-7), Recovery (7-10) and Boom (10-1). For each section on the clock there are sets of event and opportunity cards, colour coded to make it easy to know which to pick.
Every player gets a job card telling them their profession, income, tax bracket, credit card limit & their goals. The goals always include both equity & passive income targets, for example, Jas & I were a Lawyer & had the goal of amassing $1.2M in equity (not real estate) and a passive income of $108K. The job paid $30K and we had a credit card limit of $18K.
The other players had cards with less income & correspondingly lower targets.
Every player also got a record sheet where you must record every event, buying property, paying or drawing from a mortgage, using/paying a credit card, changes in rental yield (passive income) and so on.
If you use your credit card you are charged 20% interest which immediately comes off your income until the amount is repaid. You can also 'borrow' money from your available equity (up to 90% LVR), increasing your mortgage, and every $10K borrowed reduces your passive income by $1K....if you repay your mortgage for every $10K you get an extra $1K in passive income.
Gameplay
Gameplay is straightforward, roll one die, move that number of squares & pick a card or take an action based on what is written on the square.
There is one payday on the track and one 'passive income day', where you get paid your totals. You must ask for your pay like Cashflow (who would work in a job where you had to request your pay anyway?)
The property clock starts at 11 o'clock (halfway through the boom) and moves clockwise according to Event cards).
Some squares have negative effects, such as the holiday - which cost money (% of income based on your tax bracket) and have you miss a turn (Pedro scored three holidays the 'lucky' bugger), and some possitive, such as seeing a financial advisor & having your rental return (passive income) increase by 10%. Most require you to draw a card from the opportunity, event or wild piles appropriate for the section of the property clock.
The opportunities are all property, and generally you buy properties under their value in Slumps & Recoveries, but at or over value in a Boom. You must pay a deposit, commonly 10 or 20% and legal fees - all detailed on the card. You can pay more deposit if you want to figure out the details. You receive passive income from all properties, sometimes varying based on your tax bracket to reflect the additional benefit of negative gearing if you have a high income.
Events generally move the property clock forwards 1/2 an hour (never backwards!) and Wild cards have random good & bad events affecting everyone - such as having to immediately pay 2% of your mortgages, or getting a tax rebate. We pulled more bad events than good, but 'm not sure of the balance.
The property clock also affects play - at certain 'times' on the clock real estate values and passive income change. In a Slump they decrease, and in a Recovery & Boom they increase. This affects all the property you own. In net I calculated that around the clock once, property prices increase by 6% - however with Slumps reducing property values by 10% then 15% you have to be careful not to go bankrupt.
The game mandates that you must at all times have at least 10% equity in your portfolio or be forced into a mortgagee auction & bankrupcy - a real challenge at the peak of the slump!
During the game you buy property, collect income & passive cashflow & try to reach your goal targets, while the property clock moves. We completed a full cycle of the clock in about 3 hours and Geoffw & partner & Jas & I were about halfway towards our goals with the others further behind (reasons for this later). Jas & I had 10 properties, Geoff about 6 and the others 1-2 a piece (from memory).
General Impressions
Jas commented that playing the game wasn't like playing a game - it was just like really buying real estate!
After playing the game once and not exploring all the possibilities - such as a mortgagee auction or effects of several times round the clock, my general impression is that this is a fairly accurate reflection of the property cycle & learning to play this game would be a huge benefit to people new to property investing.
However, the game is not very forgiving & rules lawyers will have a field day inventing strategies to maximise your return......possibly also like real property investing
The game requires a huge amount of accounting and one of the key reasons Geoffw & partner & Jas & I did better than Pedro & Gazza was because we were playing in teams while Pedro & Gazza were playing individually. You really need two people per team to manage all the accounting and decision-making in the game and it showed!!!
You do need to be good with statistics & I'd recommend a calculator per team (the game doesn't come with calculators).
As an experienced investor the game didn't really teach me anything, and I lost interest in the gameplay after 3/4 round the property clock. Jas & I had worked out the gameplay and had our strategy mapped out & basically just had to repeat it to achieve our goal. Essentially if you buy property which reduces your LVR (increases your ratio of equity to loans) wherever possible you will not go bankrupt, barring some really bad card draws.
The board itself was a little annoying due to the 'distraction track' where you can basically do nothing & miss out on your passive income......Jas & I got caught on it twice & everyone else got caught once. The track is about 20 squares long, no events or opportunities, and if you kept rolling 1s on the die you could miss out on half the game - not fun or fair I think.
I'd also like to see the property clock starting at 5-6 o'clock (towards the end of the slump) as most experienced property investors begin buying hereish. Knowing what is ahead on the property clock does make it much easier to plan for the Slump & decide the most strategic times to buy property (provided you get the opportunity to do so!).
Finally, the game seems well suited for NZ and AU property markets. I could not speak for it's relative value for people in other markets with different legal, economic & cultural frameworks.
In Brief (in my humble opinion)
Gameplay is too slow & tedious to hold the interest of any but the most anal rules-lawyers for long enough to complete the game.
It is worth playing at least once for 3-4 hours to help internalise your ability to buy property by the numbers, particularly if you are new to property investing. Come mentally prepared. If you are hung over or tired you would probably not cope with the gameplay.
There is limited replay value - this, unlike Cashflow - is not a game you really would want to pick up & play for enjoyment & to try new strategies every few weeks.
However, I would like to play the game again when in the right mindset to spend a day playing to crystalise my strategies....so maybe you'd play the game a few times a year.
I expect that players who have played the game a few times would be able to move through it much faster & enjoyably, however there is still a LOT of accounting to do, which does slow things down.
Overall
overall I felt the game is good if very complex…but the complexity may be needed to really give people a feel for property investing.
I'm happy to answer further questions.
Anyone have their own impressions of the game?
Disclaimer: I did have a brief conversation with Hybrid via email about the prospect of distributing the game in Australia. They are looking for an established distributor of edutainment/investment resources instead.
I don't believe I am biased either for or against the game because of these discussions (the talks were not very detailed & I'd have wanted to review the game anyway before moving to any distribution agreement), but thought everyone should know of these discussions just in case. Draw your own conclusions
I have no financial interest in the company & have told them that I placed this review
Cheers,
Aceyducey
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