Probably Stolen Deed Price: How to Buy the Store, Mortgage and Rent

To buy the store in Probably Stolen, pay the Landlord the deed price in cash or take the Loan Shark's mortgage and clear every installment. The deed price is fixed until Day 50 on every difficulty, so a cash buyout before then is the cheapest win, and on Mark Up that means 12,000 credits.

The planner above uses the game's real formulas. Pick your difficulty, the current day, your starting scenario and the cash you have; it shows today's deed price, the mortgage terms you would be offered, your upcoming rent payments and the Business Permit price.

How do you read the deed planner?

Take a Fence on Mark Up on Day 30 with 6,000 credits. The planner shows a deed of 12,000, so you are 6,000 short with 20 days left before the price starts rising. It also shows rent of 302 due on Day 35 and 317 on Day 42, because the Fence starts at 250, plus the 1,500 Business Permit that officials will start asking for on Day 38. Subtract those from your income over the next three weeks and you know whether Day 49 is realistic, or whether the mortgage terms in the same panel are the better plan.

How much does the deed cost?

The deed has a base price, a daily increase that only starts after Day 50, and a cap. This is the detail most guides miss: there is no penalty for taking your time before Day 50, and every day after it costs you.

On Mark Up, Day 70 costs 13,000 and Day 100 costs 14,500. If your income is a few hundred a day, the deed is running away from you at 50 a day, so the closer you are to Day 50, the more each day of saving matters.

The Landlord only takes credits. Equipment such as a Storage Bay, an Alarm System or a Toolbox counts toward your total wealth for achievements like Comfortably Afloat, but none of it counts toward the deed.

Cash buyout or mortgage?

Pay cash if you can reach the price before Day 50. Take the mortgage only if waiting for the cash would push you deep past Day 50.

The mortgage has a down payment, then fixed weekly installments. The game rounds the down payment to the nearest 500, with a minimum of 500, and charges interest as a yearly rate spread over the loan's weeks.

Read the last column against the daily rise. On Mark Up, the 1,160 premium equals 23 days of price increases, so a mortgage taken before Day 50 beats saving up only if the cash would otherwise arrive after about Day 73. On Price Gouge the premium is just 364, about 15 days of increases, which makes the mortgage an easy call. On Red Ink the premium is 8,920, almost 90 days of increases, and a weekly bill of 2,370 on top of 10%-a-week rent growth.

• Cash wins on speed. Cash is the only way to get Prodigious, which needs the store before Day 50. A mortgage hands you the store only on its final installment, at least eight weeks after you sign.
• The mortgage wins on time. It locks the price at the day you sign and spreads it across weeks of income you have not earned yet.

When does the Loan Shark offer a mortgage?

The Loan Shark introduces himself once your cash reaches the down payment. After that, on a rent day when you hold at least twice the down payment, he makes the offer, as long as you have not declined it. On Mark Up before Day 50 that means 4,000 in cash on a Sunday.

What if you miss an installment?

If you cannot pay, the Loan Shark seizes items worth roughly one installment. If your store does not hold enough to cover it, the run ends in Repossession. Until the final installment clears, the store is not yours, so keep a full week's installment in reserve, just as you do with rent.

How does rent go up?

Rent is due on Day 7, 14, 21 and every seventh day after. After each payment it is multiplied by the difficulty's rate and rounded down: 1.025 on Price Gouge, 1.05 on Mark Up, and 1.1 on Thin Margins and Red Ink.

The starting rent is 200, but several starts and perks raise it, and the increase compounds from there:

• Fence and Gunsmith: +50, so 250.
• Hydroponic Farmer and Aquafarmer: +40, so 240.
• Bad Lease perk: +40. Prime Real Estate perk: +75.

By Day 49 on Mark Up you have paid 1,623 in rent from a 200 start. That is money that never goes toward the deed, which is one more reason to buy early.

If you cannot pay, a Landlord grace rolls the missed rent into the next payment. Price Gouge and Mark Up give you one at the start; Thin Margins and Red Ink do not. Joe Wild sells another as the Rent Grace favor for 100, with a 15-day cooldown, and its price doubles each time you use it. Without a grace, a missed rent ends the run.

When do you need the Business Permit?

The Business Permit is a separate bill that lands right when you are saving for the deed. The game schedules it like this:

1. Day 24. The Mentor reminds you that you need a permit.
2. Day 38. An official visits for the first time, then again every week (Day 45, 52 and so on) until you buy one.
3. Each refusal. The game records an Operating Without a License crime against you, worth 50 plus 20 for every full week of the run, which feeds Security's investigation.
4. From Day 45. The official will accept a bribe paid in items instead. The amount owed grows with each visit, and settling it gets you left alone, but not the permit itself.

The permit costs 500 on Price Gouge, 1,500 on Mark Up, 2,000 on Thin Margins and 3,000 on Red Ink. Buying it unlocks the Authorized achievement; the bribe route does not.

What happens after you buy the store?

Paying the deed or the last installment triggers a Buyout ending, and you can keep playing. Owning the store unlocks the Advanced tab in Wild's Network, where Wild's Endorsements raise every customer's budget by 25% per level and the Hypertech Smuggler sells high-end goods each night.

Buying the deed also unlocks Keys to the Kingdom, and Prodigious if it is before Day 50. If you never sold stolen goods or contraband in that run, you get Clean Hands too. The endings guide lists every way a run can finish, and the beginner guide covers getting to your first 12,000. For everything else, start at the Probably Stolen guide home page.