Architect Archive
Thread: Going rate for Homes
Dayln wrote:I understand that most people sell for 3cr per unit which is over 500% profit margin. That does not mean I have too. Just because someone else gouges customers does not force me too
I know for a fact that some of my units are re-sold, that does not bother me in the least. because I am still building a customer base even as a wholeseller, and I still sell to customers direct.
For me, customer base is the key. You have other goals and I am not putting you down at all. You arent wrong, but niether am I. Long term, I believe my business will hold, even when the market drops.
Actually by running your business as you are you end up doing far more than build up your own customer base and I for one appreciate it. I can't tell you the number of customers I've filled orders for who told me they are more than willing to pay my price for immediate delivery after waiting days or weeks for a discount architect to deliver. We are at opposite ends of the market spectrum and just as price driven customers migrate towards your end of the spectrum, service driven customers migrate towards my end. Each of us helps to define the options for the customer to choose from and each of us can satisfy a portion of the market while the customer has the option to seek out a proper balance to satisfy their needs.
Your insistence on calling full service architects names like "gougers" cracks me up though. I won't call you the names that might as easily be applied to discount architects out of respect for the benefit you provide my business, but I really think you should stop to consider that just as no one can tell you that you need to raise your prices, you are not in a position to tell others that theirs are too high. I'm pretty sure you aren't trying to be offensive, you are just pleased with yourself for what you consider to be a brilliant marketing strategy. Still, if you expect others to respect your right to set your own business practices you might want to consider returning the favor.
Tued the Master Builder
Dalyn,
I'm glad you're able to provide your own resources and charge lower prices. As others have said, we'd do the same if we could. For some of us, that's just not a viable option. I can't speak for everyone, but my own playtime is limited and I don't have the time to maintain all of my own harvesters. This leaves me dependent on friends, PA mates and dealers for ore. At the prices raw resources go for on the market, I cannot afford to sell at 2 cr per unit. That would essentially mean my labor devalues the product.
As long as that continues to be true, I willfavor changes to our profession and products that make it easier for us to subsist in a backwards economy. It's difficult to build a reliable customer base if our products never degrade. The bottom line is people want to be greedy at our expense. They want to buy a product that will pay for itself in a day or 2 and then when they want to tell us that we charge too much for what will likely become a one-time purchase. Apparently, they're allowed to profit from my skills and labor, but it's "greedy" for me to want this for myself.
I like your post better than most... I doubt I will loose my customers, but there are still pleanty to go around for you. Jsut dont count on us going out of busienss, we are makeing a solid profit, even if our margins are lower than yours. My favorite people are the whiners saying " you are ruining it for the rest of us!". Sad but true, good busniesses just ruinthings for bad businesses.
At least you are not one of those. 
I sell Small houses for 8k and Factories for 30k. I have seen people sell for lower than me, if they can stay in busienss and do that, great, I am prepared to lower my prices again when I need too, no need yet.
Otso wrote:
3) Ignore the lowballers, stick with it ...stick to your prices (what you feel is fair) and only sell when you have the sale at hand or do not do final combines until that order is a done deal. This way if someone has found a better deal along the way while waiting for you, you didn't make something you may not sell right away. You still have material that can be used in a number of items.
This is a nice solution in an ideal world, but for those of us who don't have 12 hours to play and a lot of time to stand around cities waiting for someone to come along and agree to our prices, this solution won't work. This profession is very unfriendly to casual players despite the game advertising itself as just the opposite. What we need is a solution that makes all architects able to operate in a more favorable market. It shouldn't take hours to make a sale at a reasonable price that compensates me for my expenses, time and skills. Players shouldn't complain about having to shell out for a structure that in most cases will pay for itself very quickly.
Dalyn, it was very refreshing for me to read your posts in this thread becouse i thought i am the only one doing business that way. I calculate all my structures at 2.5 cr. I produce a lot and i produce fast.
I have more customersthen i can handle so i give orders away to other architects that agreed to sell at 2.5 cr. per resources and trust me everyone is more then happy with this.
I am an architect becouse i love to build things and my pricing gives me the opportunity to build a lot of structures every day. My customers come always back for everything they need and they recommend me to all there friends, PA, etc.
It's fun to run a business at that scale and your right, it's competition and the best on the market will survive and since there is no quality difference in structures it will be the price and service that decides who stays in the market and who has to close shop.
And the simple math is that 10 large houses sold per day for 90 K is way more profit then 1 house sold for 150 K
And if anyone doesnt like to build stuff and describes it as a pain to make certain structure.. well you had better chosen marksman is all i can say.
And just as a side note for everyone that will post i wont get enough credits for my time and effort... I see very often Architects in Theed yelling for HOURS and trying to sell there stuff for high prices. Now, THAT is a waste of time imo. I log in and latest 1 hour later i sold a days production. And my order list reaches usually 1 - 2 weeks ahead.
And if you look at prices for other items in the game.. they all go down and will continue to go down.
I dont know who came up with 3 credits for a resource unit first. It cost less then 0.5 cr to produce a unit.
I think the answer is - GREED
Yandain, as I stated above, your position is not a reality for most of us. We don't have the time, the lots, or the money to furnish all of our own resources. The line of reasoning you're taking seems to mean that you have to have access to 2 or 3 players worth of lots, a sizable chunk of starting capital and 8-12 hours of playtime per day in order to be a successful architect.
To accuse people of greed because they do not have your fortunate position is silly and shortsighted. 3cr per resource is *not* high, in fact, it's cost for the average architect. If you found a way to get around this, as I said, you're lucky and well connected. But please don't go around acting like you're superior and the rest of us are greedy simply because we desire to break even, or god forbid, turn a small profit on our endeavors.
Positronic,
I think you are absolutely, positively correct in your thinking. I take the exact same approach.
When you really think about it, once you reach Master Architect, there really isn't any reason to continue building structures for sale. There's higher profit in selling resources with no chance of critical failures wiping out 20k or more resources and an hour's worth of boringclick-time.
That makes it a complete no-brainer. I ran into this thought when I was busy clicking out an order and realized that my profit on it was less than I could sell the resources for and here I was wasting an hour's worth of game time and not even getting any experience for it anymore.
I turn down a lot of business and I do a lot of referrals to other Architects and when I do sell, I sell at a price that makes it worth my time. As a matter of fact, I've had other Architects ask me to stop referring people to them, as they've also discovered they don't need to continue to build stuff.
For the most part, I just amuse myself with my structures or build them for friends.
Yandain
Thanks, you are 100% correct, although greed is not the only thing. Too many people buy into the 3 cr per resrouce thing. They actyually believe that is the cost. It isnt, if everyone stoped buying at that price, it would come down.
The funniest thing I have seen so far was a Master archetect buying materials in bulk, he paid 3.5 cr per resrouce. I about fell over, I would NEVER have done that.
There are a whole lot of people here that dont understand about business and the nature of ours. The truth is, that the botom is going to fall out of the market. Once every player has the house he wants they will stop buying houses, all sales will be to newbies and upgrades. That market will be highly competitive as they newbies can pay the premium prices or they will hear about people like us, more and more people every day hear about people like us. Our business will sucueed even when the bottom drops out, I am sure of it.
The good market is now, right now. Until some kind of decay is introduced the archetect will be a backwater eventually.
It is not that these other archetects cannot compete wtih me, it is that they choose not too. Fine with me, business is war, and my buainess is doing great!