How to move adult children into their own home?

[Lyubasha]

Misha and Lyuba had 4 children and they are now all adults. Ivan and his sister, Lena, want to share a new house near their parents. Ivan is a Line Cook and Lena is at the top of her Law Enforcement career as an international spy.

I'm still a Sims 3 Pets newbie. I'll ask: How do I build a new house in the same neighbourhood? Can I use the household money ($400,000) to pay for a lot and building materials? My Sims live in Sunset Valley.

How do I move Ivan and Lena in the house after I build it?

Thanks,

Lyuba Marchenko

[Pam]

I'm going to move this over to the Miscellaneous Help board.

There are a couple of ways to Sims out of your house.  You can kick them out or purchase a home for them.  Both are done by using the phone or computer and selecting Real Estate, then Move.  A screen will appear that will let you choose which Sims to move out and where you want to move them.  To move them to a house you built, you will have to use Edit Town.  Once in Edit Town, choose an empty lot and start building.  When finished, that house will be available to choose when you're moving the Sims out, unless another family moves into it first.  So, you'll want to do it quickly to make sure your Sims will get it.

I have a question for you, as well.  You say that you're a "Sims 3 Pets newbie".  Do you mean that you're new to Sims 3 in general or that you're just new to the Pets expansion pack?  We don't normally identify the game with the expansion pack name because it's all Sims 3 and many people have more than one expansion.  In this particular situation, the Pets expansion has nothing to do with your issue.  It's an overall Sims 3 question.  There are other times when we will need to know the expansion, like when your question is specifically about a particular expansion.  I hope this makes sense. 

[Lyubasha]

I'm going to move this over to the Miscellaneous Help board.

There are a couple of ways to Sims out of your house.  You can kick them out or purchase a home for them.  Both are done by using the phone or computer and selecting Real Estate, then Move.  A screen will appear that will let you choose which Sims to move out and where you want to move them.  To move them to a house you built, you will have to use Edit Town.  Once in Edit Town, choose an empty lot and start building.  When finished, that house will be available to choose when you're moving the Sims out, unless another family moves into it first.  So, you'll want to do it quickly to make sure your Sims will get it.

I have a question for you, as well.  You say that you're a "Sims 3 Pets newbie".  Do you mean that you're new to Sims 3 in general or that you're just new to the Pets expansion pack?  We don't normally identify the game with the expansion pack name because it's all Sims 3 and many people have more than one expansion.  In this particular situation, the Pets expansion has nothing to do with your issue.  It's an overall Sims 3 question.  There are other times when we will need to know the expansion, like when your question is specifically about a particular expansion.  I hope this makes sense. 

Thanks for your answer and, yes, I'm a Sims 3 newbie. Hubby got it for my 33rd birthday on 17 November. In my spare time, I've been learning me way about. I love this forum; people are so nice and helpful.

[Dellena]

As Pam mentioned, you can use the phone or a computer to 'Move..' and then pick which sims you want to move and then decide which household will be the active one (the parents or the child).  If you don't want control of the kids, this is the way to go.

However, if you still want to control them, then you can go through 'Real estate..' on the computer and choose to purchase an additional property.  Once purchased, you could then build the house for them to live in.  Now, the game only recognized one lot as the 'Home' lot.  However, your sims can live on any lot you own.  The only thing to remember is that if you send the sim Home, they will always go to the lot designated as the home lot (handy though for nipping to mom's and dad's for Sunday dinner).  It just depends on how complicated you want it to be and if you care about keeping control of the children or not.  I'm going to be using this method soon for the oldest daughter in my current family when she returns from college as I'm not done developing her career, etc.  I also use this method for the parent's farm.  The house is on a separate lot from the 'farm' lot which is next door.  On the farm lot, I have the garden (huge one as I have the tractor), three chicken coops, two dairies and a horse barn.  The horses live on that lot.  I've placed the lots as close together as possible and I change the front of the farm lot to the side that the house is on and put a gate on that side.  Now when the sims go to work the farm, they don't run around to the front of the farm lot but use the side gate instead.  I've had a blast with it!

[Lyubasha]

I want to control both. I'll play a few hours alternating control.

[ragz1332]

I want to control both. I'll play a few hours alternating control.

I'm no expert, but I believe it will require you to change your active household when you want to go from one to the other, and doing so will wipe current wishes you have promised your sims (The 4 active ones, not the Lifetime one, as far as I know).

[Pam]

I'm no expert, but I believe it will require you to change your active household when you want to go from one to the other, and doing so will wipe current wishes you have promised your sims (The 4 active ones, not the Lifetime one, as far as I know).

I haven't played with having a second house, but I think you stay with the same household and just switch to the other house.  What you're describing is what happens when you change to a different household through Edit Town.  Perhaps Dellena can confirm how it works with having a second house.  Also, using the two houses method, the limit of eight Sims per household will still be in effect, I believe.

[Dellena]

I've played with multiple 'additional homes' quite a lot.  Yes, you're still limited to 8 sims (unless you use a mod to override it).  The game sees one of the properties as the 'home' property.  However, your sims can eat, sleep, play, etc. on any of the properties they own.  It's just if you use the arrow button on a sim's portrait to 'Go home' then they will go to the one property designated as home.  So if you have you sims, who are living at one of the other properties, out and about and want to send them to their home (one of the additional properties), you'll need to move your camera to that property and then click on the ground and us the 'Go here' or 'Go here with...' interactions.  It can be a challenge running multiple properties but if you're bored or find it too easy running a larger group of sims on one property, then you might like the challenge.  Right clicking on a sims portrait is usually my fast way of swapping from one property to another fairly quickly.  When you go into build mode, you'll need the camera at whichever property you want to work on.  But there's no switching of the active household as they're all still in the household as far as the game is concerned, so no loosing dreams and wishes.  One other thing, if you 'move' to one of your other properties that you own, ALL of your sims move there and that property becomes the main home (for the game).  However, you can just separate them out again to the different properties that you're using.  BTW, all mail will come to the main home as well as the newspaper delivery.  I find it best to keep the property locations close together - easier to swap from place to place without having to go out to the map view.  If later, you decide you no longer want to control the sims you have living at another property but want them to stay at that house, then you'll need to use the 'Real estate' interactions and sell that property first, then you can move those sims to that house in the traditional method.  I hope that's all clear but I'm happy to answer any questions.

[Pam]

Thank you, Dellena.

Can Sims own more than one extra property?

[Dellena]

Yes, you can own as many as you can afford.  When I get the bakery set, I'll likely run it this way, as an additional property.  Although I might be tempted to start a new game and do the traditional building with the shop on the ground floor and living space above it.  With a rooftop garden <creative juices flowing...>.

[Lyubasha]

OOOOPS!

I think I've done something wrong! Some ugly weird Sim has moved into the parents' household whilst I was playing with the 2 children at their household.

This is what I did. First, before Lena and Ivan moved out of their parents home, they bought cars and put them in their personal inventory for cash when the new house was built. Ivan called the Real Estate and moved himself and Lena to the new house. I got a message saying that if I switch over, wishes and dreams? would be reset or something in the parents household. I clicked it and then I could finish the new house and play the game with Lena and Ivan.

When I switched back to the parents house, an ugly old Sim moved into the parents house and took over their bed! It was dating one of the children still living at the house! My question is how to fix this. I was thinking when I switched between houses, it would be as if I signed out of Sims 3 for the day and it would continue where I left off!

Someone mentioned just having the kids move into a new house but keeping the parents as the main home. I think that is what I want. I wish my English was better to explain. Can you help?

Thanks,

Lyuba Marchenko.

[Dellena]

When you change the active household, the game takes over the previous one and things like what you've described can happen. 

If you want to control all the family members, then it's a bit more complicated but doable.

First, I'd move the current family back into the parent's house.  Then have one of them use the computer > Real Estate > buy additional home (not in game at the moment so writing this from memory).

Now, you have the choice of making the Parent's house the main home or the new place.  This mainly effects mail, newspaper delivery and where Sims go if you click on their portrait and then the "Go Home" button.  Otherwise, you can control both properties.  People can eat, sleep, etc. on each property.  I'd advise that you use the "assign..." feature on beds to be sure everyone is sleeping where you want them to.

Basically, you have total control of more than one lot.  One more thing, I can't remember for sure, but when someone gets a ride home from work, it might take them to the main home.  Can't remember at the moment.  But like I said, it's a bit more complicated but it will ensure you have control of the whole family.

[KRae]

You can always kick out the unwanted sim, but he might move right back in when you stop controlling that household again.

[jesirose]

Another option is to play two separate files, one where you move the kids out and play them, and one where you play the parents.

[Lyubasha]

Another option is to play two separate files, one where you move the kids out and play them, and one where you play the parents.

How would one do that? It sounds good for my next project.