So, For Rent expansion pack was announced, allowing players to build their own Residential Rental lots, be it apartments, duplexes etc. I'm planning to build at least one in almost every world, especially in smaller worlds as it could allow more households to live there.
To ensure that we can enjoy gameplay more than building when the expansion pack releases, let's start preparing the apartment buildings!
I'm making this thread so you could share your builds that are going to be Residential Rental once the pack releases, so to inspire others or to just share your cool ideas.
Some tips from me:
When you take a picture to show the floor layout, separate units with lines like so for example:

Outdated info:
It also seems like there is going to be 2 new mailboxes: one 2x2 and the other 2x2. Just to be safe, mark out the place you are thinking of by placing three to two mailboxes next to each other (or 5 if you really want to mark out 3x2 with thin mailboxes). If you plan to put the mailbox against the wall, you can use wall mailboxes instead. Here are two examples:
For wall one:

For outdoor one (two possibilities):

In addition, I'll bring some new objects' guessed sizes (thus these might differ in the final release):
- Water heater: 2x2
- Electrical box: 1x1
- Hopscotch: 5x1
- Marbles: 3x3
It's the first time I'm doing a "Show Your Build" thread, but I thought it would be great to have such thread.

Edit. SimGuruNova shared this:
ok, last thing. and this, I think, is an important thing to share asap:
feel free to start pre-building 💕 converting to a Residential Rental is easy peasy
I hope if you have any hesitations to do some pre-building, this will make it go away.
So share, get inspired, share feedback and so on. The pack releases on 7th of December, so it would be great to have some residential rental lots ready, right?
Final edit. The pack is now out! If you have shared your build here and have uploaded it to the Gallery, please do share the link to it here!
Comments
Thanks. I understand your concern, though I feel like it wouldn't be the case, as I feel like you wouldn't be able to change empty lot type to this type too. Though I do feel that occupied lots cannot be changed into that type of lot.
But yeah, we could see what info comes. Should it turn out to be so, no worries. You can save the lot you've built to your Library, bulldoze the lot, change the lot type, and then put in the lot you saved and choosing not to change the lot type. There's always a way.
True! Ok, maybe I will end up posting a couple builds after all!
@EgonVM I think there are two mailbox options - the large wall mailbox that we've seen up close and on the cover art, and what appears to be an outside multi-family mailbox (in at least two swatches, red and white). The outside mailbox would be better suited to any multi-family lots without a shared inner lobby/hallway, and the footprint probably isn't much bigger than the standard mailbox from the looks of it. Maybe 2x1?
Ah, thanks for sharing! In that case, 2 - 3 (depending how thin they are) mailboxes outdoors are also suitable.
I will at one point I will update the original post, even including the assumed sizes of water heaters and electric boxes.
Edit: Changes are now implemented!
Vlad's mansion in Forgotten Hollow has been vacant in my game since he moved elsewhere, and it’s way too big for just one household anyway, so I'm going to turn it into a residential rental for vampires... somehow. Even if I end up with many tiny households in single room apartments, vampires need neither kitchens nor beds or toilets, so they’ll be fine.
The lot on the hill in the Sulanese Ohan'ali town, where the Hoapili household starts out, seems ideal for a Sulani-style apartment building. No idea who exactly is going to live there yet, but probably the "normal" residents of Sulani while the beach lots are reserved for mermaids, children of the ocean and aqua zip athletes.
Most of my residential rentals will have public laundry rooms with several washing machines and dryers for all tenants to use, rather than every household getting their own. I might try to recreate the apartment building from The Big Bang Theory, which has a laundry room like that.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
I also have a workhouse/poor house in my town that I might convert. Lower floor would be the workshops (shared) and upper floor the individual flats. In both cases a played sim would own the complex.
There is a story scenario right there!
Vlad needs passive income plus midnight snacks, so he rents out rooms in his mansion.
I might do that as a test run for the pack.
- I want to know how many units we can add per lot.
- is there a limit of sims living in the building?
- How do we set the zones. I remember in sims 2 we could only use one specific door to enter an apartment. Apartments in sims 2 could not have a back door (no second acces/exit) for any unit. Will there be similar rules in sims 4?
- are there required objects? I assume only the new mailboxes?
- do the units have to be physically linked or can we have separate buildings. I assume we can but I want to know for sure.
Once we get more practical info, I will start preparing in several existing worlds.
(I've tried to resize it for half an hour now but imgur has changed its set up. If anyone has an alternative site for screenshots please lmk
Originally it wasn't met for this legacy, but with my gen 22 sim having 13 children- it was supposed to be 12 but of course the final pregnancy delivers me twin girls when it's been singles the whole way- I thought it'd be nice to have more of the family together between the three buildings. With the rental pack, I was considering turning the two smaller buildings into rental locations. Not your typical apartment, but more of a small, close knit collection of houses. Buuut, I'm actually...not doing that either. Gen 23's going to be a voidcritter obsessed lady with the cringe trait, so now I'm planning on building a huge, modern apartment building, with various rooms based on the different voidcritters.
I'm still going to make the lot above some sort of rental lot, I just don't know what yet or when I'll use it. The family is descended from a royal family, so maybe some connection there? I've seen several ideas for boarding schools, but I don't know if the build fits that concept.
Doesn't really look like much for right now, but I thought I'd wait and see what BB stuff we'd get and use as much of that as I could, so for now it's pretty much just a shell, sitting empty and waiting to be brought to life:
If anyone wants to download it and use it for themselves my username on the Gallery is the same as here.
Thanks for dropping by
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
These are just a few of my multi-family lots that Ive just had but could never use as actual apartments! They're basically part of the background scenery. BUT NOW they actually have use! I hope we'll be able to adjust the rent on each unit, since I have apartments that are strictly low-income.
First step for me is the "Placement Planning". It would be great for every world to have such a lot, but thinking about it:
- San Myshuno and Evergreen Harbor already have apartment buildings (even if these are multiple different lots).
- I have to think where I have build and which buildings I'm willing to let go of.
- Some just don't feel right for me with an apartment... Henford for example. I can always find a way though eventually...
So, here are the spots I have picked out. Under spoilers, because that is going to be very picture heavy!So, I have begun on some of the projects! Unfortunately, as it is fall and university and so on studies and projects and game development, I don't have a lot of time to enjoy building. Regardless, here are the projects!
I will separate them with spoiler formatting (some of them have a lot of images). My style is to follow the pre-made building's look as closely as possible (or as closely as I feel like).
Unit amount: 16 - 12
Extra: Outdoor space, an utilities room, and a laundry room.
Unit amount: TBA
Extra: An utilities room, a laundry room, and TBA.
Unit amount: 10
Extra: A laundry room with an utility room and a leisure room with an arcade machine and card game.
Unit amount: TBA, definitely over 6
Extra: TBA, but planning to have a bonfire, party bush, werewolf tunnel door, and of course an utility room!
Unit amount: TBA, definitely over 6
Extra: A bar room, a lounge room (with a pipe organ), an outdoors area (use to be determined), a nectar cellar (of course with utility stuff too!)
Unit amount: 6 - 8 (depending if I decide to add basements or not)
Extra: If I do decide to add a basement, then yay, it's a laundry room and utility room time! I pity to student who has to live next to it as their apartment will be smaller. Or I decide to have another use for that. To be determined.
And those are all I have had time for and progress so far. As you can see, my ideas are too ambitious for mere 6 unit apartments, so that cheat that allows more units, here I come!
Now that was a lot of pictures to upload! As you can see, still work in progress!
I built this originally
Mine so wip that it has windows just to test few different ones and no doors yet
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Of course, the entire space could be transformed into accommodation if, as a landlord, you wanted to cram as many people possible into your lot and squeeze every last Simoleon out of them! Hehe
Here's a duplex I built in Willow Creek.
I furnished one half of it for a family I made, and left the other half unfurnished for a future tenant.
All apartments has the same basic furniture, to be decorated later if I use the lot actively. Obviously this is a small lot, and so the apartments are tiny, but I figure that works well for the pack's theme. This could be rented to students between terms (summer or winter breaks if you want them), or for people who just graduated and can't afford much, or that single teacher who wants to live close to their job...
The ground floor is by far the largest:
Then the rest:
I had a lot of pictures of my apartment complex on the 20X15 lot in the cottage living city, I don't know the city's name. Then I clicked the wrong X to close the window and closed the online window instead of the documents window. I deleted the pictures as I put them online. Oops!
Gallery link.
https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/8B2BF680281048D68FF413136C71436E?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=newest&time=all&searchquery=DragonAge_300905&max=50&maxis=false
Took some more pictures. The suitcase is Knotts he's staying a few days.
food cart area shared with a door to lock to keep sims from going behind the food cart.
San Sequoia, due to the expansion pack it came from, feels like a world for families. So here, the idea is to make an apartment building for families. However, due to my original plan of having a café there instead, I added a café there too. This is the first Residential Rental where I don't need that cheat! Progress made!
For floors, I'll only take a picture of the first and second floors, because third and fourth floors are really similar to the second floor.
Unit amount: 6
Extra: Playground, laundry room, café, utility room, and enclosed places for infants and toddlers.