A beginner's guide: is it worth it to have a house in eRepublik?

Day 5,576, 11:08 • Published in Austria Austria • by Ginet

Awhile earlier, after first starting eRepublik, I posed the question to the experienced players in eAustria: "Is it worth it to buy a house and work overtime?"



My fellow eAustrians helped me a lot with this question, and I'm going to summarize this information here in case it helps other new players.

The overall answer: yes buy a house, but only if the house price costs less than what you'll earn in overtime

Let's look into this. As a longer term goal, you should aim buy a house and work overtime in eRepublik if you haven't already. But first to see if it's worth it in your current situation, do a quick calculation, which I will show below. You only want to buy the house if you'll earn more in overtime than the cost of the house. I can't take credit for this analysis, this is how the Rabbit of Caerbannog and other eAustrians explained it to me.

Calculate your overtime earnings versus the house cost
So first, figure out how much overtime you could earn in a week if you had an active house, which would just be your regular job x 7 (for 7 days). For example, if your regular eRepublik job pays you $2300 a day (that's just an example) then in a week you could earn $2300 x 7 = $16100 in overtime if you had an active house.

That number, in this case the $16100 is the house price at which you would make zero profit. So you should only buy a house cheaper than that number to make a profit on your overtime. So in this case, if the cheapest house in your market costs $17000 then don't buy it, you will make a loss! But if you see one for $15500 then buy it, you will make a profit. Again, your numbers will differ depending on your job salary and house prices.

Why do we multiply salary by 7? Because the house gives you 7 days of overtime points (168 hours actually, which is 7 x 24 hours). So the house will give you enough overtime points for a week of work. That's why you need to calculate if the price of the house and if the amount of overtime salary of your job will let you make a profit.

Update: To get a house lasting 8 days instead of 7, consider moving to a city in your eCountry with less than 50 residents. Thank you to The Rabbit of Caerbannog, who pointed this out in the comments. I encourage you to read the Rabbit's whole comment because there are a few other things there too. To get a house lasting for 8 days, if you are resident of a city that has less than 50 people, your house will stay for an extra day, so a total of 8 days. In this situation, you would do your calculation based on 8 days of overtime, so multiply your salary by 8. So moving to a city with less than 50 residents will help you a lot to make a profit on owning a house because it lasts longer so you have more time to earn overtime money.

Other considerations
An active house does give other benefits besides the ability to earn extra money by working overtime. In the case of a Q1 house then you will get +100 energy pool bonus and +2 energy recovery bonus (see https://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php/House ). Other levels of house have other bonuses but since this article is aimed at beginners I won't cover higher level houses here. So there are some other benefits to owning a house, but overtime earnings is still the main benefit.

On the other hand, be aware it does cost a small fee to activate a house after buying it. The activation fee is tiny compared to the cost of the house, but you should be aware of it, especially if you're at that early beginner stage where you're often running out of money.

You can certainly buy a house now and activate it later if you wish. The benefits of a house begin when you activate that house, not before. So you can save your house in your inventory until you need to use it.

Update: state bonus - certain countries only. Thank you to Citoyen Vigneron who brought up this point in the first comment on this article. In some countries, the administration chooses to give back to players some of the money for a Q1 (and sometimes a Q2) house. Why? Because the leaders know that when a player can earn more money, they will be able to fight more often (because they have the money to buy food and weapons). This helps their country. So if you are in a country with a state bonus, you should take it into account when you calculate if you can make a profit. If you don't know if your country has a state bonus for houses, ask one of the leaders of your country via in-game message (you'll need to friend them first).

What if the calculation says I cannot make a profit? How can I improve my prospects?
If the calculation says you can't make a profit on overtime by owning a house, you'll need to either:

- find a higher paying eRepublik job and/or
- wait for a cheaper house to come on the market and/or
- move to a city in your eCountry with less than 50 people, as described in the calculation section and also in comment by The Rabbit of Caerbannog

The first 2 of those things can take time, so be a little bit patient. You'll get there!

In the meantime yes you can certainly make progress in eRepublik without a house. In fact for quite a long time at the start I didn't have a house.

So check on the job market and work your way up to a higher paying job. It won't happen overnight unless you're lucky, but once you're at a decent salary that lets you buy a house then you'll be fine.

While in this process, also check every few days on the cost of a Q1 house in the market. I found that the house prices can vary quite a bit at times, so get a feel for the cost of a house, even if you can't afford one yet. It could happen that you did your calculation at a time of high house prices. Maybe in a day, a few days, or a week, house prices might be cheaper and you are able to buy a house and make a profit on your overtime without even changing your job.



Moving to a city of less than 50 people is much quicker to do, so if you're happy to move then that's something easy you can do. Be aware that once it becomes a bigger city then you will lose the 8 day time of your house and it will only last 7 days.

Of course, if you're at the very early stage where you're scrambling just to survive, don't even think about houses just yet. Wait until you can manage day-to-day survival on eRepublik. It won't take as long as it first seems! While you manage your day-to-day survival, working your way up to a higher paying job is a good start. But don't stress trying to accomplish "everything" in the first few weeks! It definitely gets easier to be on a more stable footing as you go along. In fact, you will soon find yourself wishing it was as easy to move ahead in real life as in eRepublik!

Comments are welcomed, and if I have forgotten to mention something then please let me know