I've only just today started to explore The Exchange, and uploading lots to it. I made a dead simple small houseboat with no additional EP or Store items in it to be used as a starter home. I kept the cost to just under 15k with furnishings so my sim would have around $1500 for skill classes, and any items specific to their needs.
I was doing a play through of the houseboat to ensure everything was working the way it should, and that I hadn't forgotten any details (like a sink in the kitchen to do the dishes). It was after I went into buy mode, and noticed the lower value of the houseboat, that I was reminded that the value of the furnishings in the home depreciate by 10% a day. Carrying that thought a little further I played out the first week in the houseboat to fully depreciate the value of it before exporting and sharing to The Exchange.
I then deleted the houseboat from my game before going to The Exchange and adding it to my game. I installed the lot as any other store item, and placed it into my world. The houseboat retained the fully depreciated value, and now a starting sim only pays just under 11k for the lot giving an additional 4k in startup money.
I'm pretty sure I'm late to the party on this, but if anyone else didn't know about buying used homes... now you do
