I'm asking this because we are playing a homebrew in Brevoy and my players just recently hit a milestone in the campaign and have gained some minor minor nobility and a small wealth of gold. My player is interested in buying some land outside of the capital of new stetven for his pc and said the cost for an acre of land in Michigan (where we live) is about $2100, so I figured gold is worth more than dollars so I said 500gp, but I feel as though even that number might be a little high.
Have you had any experiences with this/how much should I be charging? (He only has 1000 gold to work with)
1) it depends on what the land is farmland is more expensive than desert (unless there is a gold mine in the desert)
2) How much is there. Land in Japan costs more land in Idaho as there is less land avialble
3) Remember pc's are implausibly rich because of the magic items cost thing and most land is bought by low level commoners with only a few gp
4) The economy in pathfinder and pretty much all D+D type games explodes your head if you try and rationalise it
5)Look at ultimate campaign for the cost of building a new building that includes the land it is on , it may help
Phew, man....making realistic comparisons can be really tricky, I'd think. Lots of different variables.
And the setting....you said it's outside of a capitol city? If this is a setting of realms and kings, I'm not sure how that would affect just pure buying land. Especially if it was good real estate like that.
Just went through some tables and stuff...
A doctor (lv3 NPC expert) can get hired for 1/gp a day. Maybe they live an average lifestyle, 10 gp/month. Level 3 NPC would have 800-1600 gp net wealth (maybe more, as they are a professional with steady work). With some gp set aside for tools of the trade....I would think that maybe (?) after that, they should have enough for an acre of land, and ownership of a house.
Again, that's if this setting allowed for normal citizen landowners.
But that's using rules that, I don't think, were really made for breaking down finances of NPCs, so I dunno.
In the end, I find it more fun to have PCs not keep a ledger on their finances when it comes to some things, but instead: help some person, blah blah blah, adventure, "You gain a +1 House of Comfort!"
The group collectively got a small manor in the city as a part of their reward. Also we are playing a real low magic, low loot kind of campagin where gold has been pretty scarce so 1000 gold to them is the bees knee.
I would say make land cost little, so it makes sense for NPC's, and use the campaign rules for building a house (which can take ~2 hours using the system, somehow). But I would recommend that the RIGHT to purchase land require some show of wealth (donate a statue to the town center, give some works of art to the local lorde, etc), or be rewarded with the right for land ownership through a mighty deed or quest. This will ensure that they do not simple make a ton of gold and build their own city, as well it gives them some ownership and sense of stake in the property (I killed that dam ogre tribe for it)!
As well, the land can be revoked if they do not keep up with their noble duties, or make enemies in the kingdom.
PC's homes are weird, because in order to make it of relative price for the pc's it has to be more than most kings could afford, but still NPC's need to ow or lease land too, sometimes for silvers a day.
I would say set the deed value at 10-25% WBL, a good chunk of change, but not outrageous, then add the 500 on top. And they can always lease, or delay payment (80% of first 3 harvests, or 300 gold a year plus 10% interest yearly).
Obviously there are a temendous number of variables, and most of them are beyond the scope of guesswork like this so I will making some very broad assumptions.
Let us say that an average worker has a +6 bonus on Profession checks from a combination of skill ranks, class skill training bonus, Wisdom, and whatever else. I am not including Skill Focus, because that would represent those with higher earnings - not average earnings. With an average d20 result of 10, the worker earns 8 GP per week. We'll say that is 35 GP per month.
I'm having trouble determining the average earnings for a US worker, because every set of numbers I look at says something different, but after 10 minutes of online browsing I have decided on $3000 per month.
Using my very broad assumptions, that would place the exchange rates at $85 to 1 GP. You could allow your PC to purchase land using this amount or any amount you feel OK with. However, I also feel that an acquisition such as hige tracts of lands would be better obtained a a gift from a benevolent NPC for extraordinary services rendered by the PCs.
While we're in the real of crazy, anyway, I may want to point out another strange thing. Min. wage job, after taxes, would yield, what, about 50 bucks a day, maybe? An unskilled laborer makes 1 silver piece a day. We live in a more advanced culture, where most Americans don't live in huts and such....
yeah, nevermind. Real world comparisons aren't cutting it, for me :(
I'mma go ahead and vote for 500 gp an acre, cause sure.