Investigating Tom Nook's predatory lending practices in Animal Crossing
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Date: 2023-12-10
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Comments and reviews: 30
-kaburii9807
Two average apples in the real world cost 1$ USD.
An apple in the animal crossing world, when natively grown, sells for 100 bells.
Therefore, 100 bells, is the equivalent of 0. 50$ USD.
19, 800 bells to buy the house. Divided by two to convert to USD.
9, 900. Put in the decimal, and you have the full cost of the house: 99. 00$ USD.
Ninety nine dollars is all it takes to buy a full house. No rent to pay. No bills to pay. No future costs. 99$, for a lifelong home with no further expenses.
And this newfound businessman sells you an entire house, for 99$, no future costs, all rent and bills paid by him.
In the first game, of course, being the new business man he is, he needs SOME kind of recompense upfront, hence the menial tasks he gives to you: plant some flowers any way you'd like, and deliver a few packages to nearby houses. That's it. That's all you have to do. Hell, you don't even HAVE to pay off the house entirely! You don't even have to pay any upfront costs in most of the games as it is!
And please, if you're really that upset about the garbage, un-homely walls and floors in your starter home, just buy a rug and wallpaper for like, the equivalent of like, 10$ in game, it's really not that bad. And that's the price for the more expensive wallpapers and floorings!
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Two average apples in the real world cost 1$ USD.
An apple in the animal crossing world, when natively grown, sells for 100 bells.
Therefore, 100 bells, is the equivalent of 0. 50$ USD.
19, 800 bells to buy the house. Divided by two to convert to USD.
9, 900. Put in the decimal, and you have the full cost of the house: 99. 00$ USD.
Ninety nine dollars is all it takes to buy a full house. No rent to pay. No bills to pay. No future costs. 99$, for a lifelong home with no further expenses.
And this newfound businessman sells you an entire house, for 99$, no future costs, all rent and bills paid by him.
In the first game, of course, being the new business man he is, he needs SOME kind of recompense upfront, hence the menial tasks he gives to you: plant some flowers any way you'd like, and deliver a few packages to nearby houses. That's it. That's all you have to do. Hell, you don't even HAVE to pay off the house entirely! You don't even have to pay any upfront costs in most of the games as it is!
And please, if you're really that upset about the garbage, un-homely walls and floors in your starter home, just buy a rug and wallpaper for like, the equivalent of like, 10$ in game, it's really not that bad. And that's the price for the more expensive wallpapers and floorings!
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-lenar7086
Meh, I still love him, and think he-s a good guy.
I think he-s just complex
Also, like others have been saying, you can-t skip wild world and happy home designer. The help to judge his character!
Another thing, is (according to backstory) Tom Nook is very poor at the point of opening the GameCube Nook-s Cranny. He got ripped off by Redd and lost everything, dreams crushed. He opened the first Nook-s Cranny, which is actually Tortimer-s old garden shed from before he became mayor. He even sleeps in the darn thing!
He worked very hard to get where he is now in new horizons. This is proved with facts throughout the games.
Another thing is I don-t think you can say what he-s doing in new horizons is necessarily bad, because those are OUR rules. I don-t think there is anything like the deserted island getaway package in our world, so I-m not sure if we can attach the same laws to it. Nook owns this island, and your living on it, so you follow his rules.
It-s what you signed up for
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Meh, I still love him, and think he-s a good guy.
I think he-s just complex
Also, like others have been saying, you can-t skip wild world and happy home designer. The help to judge his character!
Another thing, is (according to backstory) Tom Nook is very poor at the point of opening the GameCube Nook-s Cranny. He got ripped off by Redd and lost everything, dreams crushed. He opened the first Nook-s Cranny, which is actually Tortimer-s old garden shed from before he became mayor. He even sleeps in the darn thing!
He worked very hard to get where he is now in new horizons. This is proved with facts throughout the games.
Another thing is I don-t think you can say what he-s doing in new horizons is necessarily bad, because those are OUR rules. I don-t think there is anything like the deserted island getaway package in our world, so I-m not sure if we can attach the same laws to it. Nook owns this island, and your living on it, so you follow his rules.
It-s what you signed up for
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-thomaswolfe9035
Polygon has gotten pretty bad. These think pieces generally have a pretty predictable narrative -is it x? It is kind of, but actually it's y. Here's why y is worse. But here's also why y is actually kind of good! - It all reminds me of sophomoric undergraduate essays.
And the variables are now always filled in with inane twitter leftist -critiques- of capitalism etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm leftist myself, but it's one thing to have a leftist ideology and another to spout inane twitter leftist discourse. Tedious when that shallow discourse bleeds into every video you make.
I miss the days of the McElroys, Pat (Please Retweet, Awful Squad, and yes even Nick, whose abrupt firing reminds me of the kind of puritan moral panic that also misguidedly booted Al Franken from the Senate.
Anyway I'll still check in from time to time to see what BDG is up to.
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Polygon has gotten pretty bad. These think pieces generally have a pretty predictable narrative -is it x? It is kind of, but actually it's y. Here's why y is worse. But here's also why y is actually kind of good! - It all reminds me of sophomoric undergraduate essays.
And the variables are now always filled in with inane twitter leftist -critiques- of capitalism etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm leftist myself, but it's one thing to have a leftist ideology and another to spout inane twitter leftist discourse. Tedious when that shallow discourse bleeds into every video you make.
I miss the days of the McElroys, Pat (Please Retweet, Awful Squad, and yes even Nick, whose abrupt firing reminds me of the kind of puritan moral panic that also misguidedly booted Al Franken from the Senate.
Anyway I'll still check in from time to time to see what BDG is up to.
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-crab4206
Tho I will agree in the first games he is bad and even some of the stuff in the new game and he is based on a tanuki wich in mythology are tricksters and scam artists but its cannon that tom gives 90% of his earnings to charity and its also cannon that Timmy and tommy are adopted so the fact that your attacking and asking so much of a hard working man just trying to better the world for everyone and his adopted children is rude and selfish plus the fact that he let you live on his sunny beautiful tropical island just for his made up money that he doesn't even profit of is so greedy your character paid to live there yet you get mad because he won't give you a house for free its honestly very selfish greedy and just plain horrible
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Tho I will agree in the first games he is bad and even some of the stuff in the new game and he is based on a tanuki wich in mythology are tricksters and scam artists but its cannon that tom gives 90% of his earnings to charity and its also cannon that Timmy and tommy are adopted so the fact that your attacking and asking so much of a hard working man just trying to better the world for everyone and his adopted children is rude and selfish plus the fact that he let you live on his sunny beautiful tropical island just for his made up money that he doesn't even profit of is so greedy your character paid to live there yet you get mad because he won't give you a house for free its honestly very selfish greedy and just plain horrible
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-Panic_Pickle
-No credit check
-No interest
-No time limit. You could never pay him back.
-Cost is meaninglessly small
-No payment up front, all upgrades given without deposit
-The money used to pay for it all comes from his sons- shop, so you pay him back using his money. He doesn-t actually profit (in bells.
The only thing he charges, ultimately, is labour. And we-re not talking hard labour. We-re talking a couple hours a day of whacking rocks, swinging a net, or picking up sticks and fruit which all fall from a tree based on a gentle bump. You don-t even need to do this labour; you can get bells from miles, and you can get miles from just getting out of bed each day and chatting to your neighbours.
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-No credit check
-No interest
-No time limit. You could never pay him back.
-Cost is meaninglessly small
-No payment up front, all upgrades given without deposit
-The money used to pay for it all comes from his sons- shop, so you pay him back using his money. He doesn-t actually profit (in bells.
The only thing he charges, ultimately, is labour. And we-re not talking hard labour. We-re talking a couple hours a day of whacking rocks, swinging a net, or picking up sticks and fruit which all fall from a tree based on a gentle bump. You don-t even need to do this labour; you can get bells from miles, and you can get miles from just getting out of bed each day and chatting to your neighbours.
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-JackieJKENVtuber
Quite a few problems with this one:
1. Yes, the -player- actually knows how much a bell is - it's a Japanese game, so players would be accustomed to yen, which is valued at about the same as the bell in-game
2. While the set-up is the same in Wild World as it is in Population Growing, Tom Nook is way nicer in Wild World
3. These houses are insanely cheap
4. In Wild World he asks that you pay your mortgage at a rate of 1. 000 bells per week, which is less than what you earn as a part-timer with him for something you can do in 20 minutes and is equivalent to -10$
5. He's a tanuki and that's a plus on my book
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Quite a few problems with this one:
1. Yes, the -player- actually knows how much a bell is - it's a Japanese game, so players would be accustomed to yen, which is valued at about the same as the bell in-game
2. While the set-up is the same in Wild World as it is in Population Growing, Tom Nook is way nicer in Wild World
3. These houses are insanely cheap
4. In Wild World he asks that you pay your mortgage at a rate of 1. 000 bells per week, which is less than what you earn as a part-timer with him for something you can do in 20 minutes and is equivalent to -10$
5. He's a tanuki and that's a plus on my book
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-algaesachel8551
Nook is not a evil money grubbing capitalist he-s a dictator that can-t manage his own town so he gets you to be his labor force all well barely paying you and if you want a real home and not a tiny tent you need to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars same goes for every other villager so he-s making millions off this and the worst of all he makes it so you can-t leave the island to tell anyone about what is happening so you won-t see your family ever again my guess why he made Nook Miles is so that you working isn-t seen as slavery.
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Nook is not a evil money grubbing capitalist he-s a dictator that can-t manage his own town so he gets you to be his labor force all well barely paying you and if you want a real home and not a tiny tent you need to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars same goes for every other villager so he-s making millions off this and the worst of all he makes it so you can-t leave the island to tell anyone about what is happening so you won-t see your family ever again my guess why he made Nook Miles is so that you working isn-t seen as slavery.
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-louie. 4047
tom nook had such a character arc tho! it-s so upsetting that so many people just call him evil and put him alongside villains like sephiroth. like he got so much nicer, and everything that he -makes- you pay for in acnh are just things YOU want. he doesn-t make you pay for his land plots, you wanted the land plot. you wanted the villagers. you wanted the lighthouse. you didn-t need to buy it, but you did. so he has to charge you, because that stuff doesn-t come cheap
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tom nook had such a character arc tho! it-s so upsetting that so many people just call him evil and put him alongside villains like sephiroth. like he got so much nicer, and everything that he -makes- you pay for in acnh are just things YOU want. he doesn-t make you pay for his land plots, you wanted the land plot. you wanted the villagers. you wanted the lighthouse. you didn-t need to buy it, but you did. so he has to charge you, because that stuff doesn-t come cheap
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-billyweed835
Tom Nook doesn't count as a landlord I don't think. He refers to the house as -yours-, not his, and you don't have to check with him to make major changes. Plus, yes, you do have to pay him. Except you don't. You can stick with the starting house forever and he won't send any goons to break your kneecaps. His strategy seems to be just -build a thing, tell you how much it costs, hope you decide to pay for it out of the goodness of your heart-.
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Tom Nook doesn't count as a landlord I don't think. He refers to the house as -yours-, not his, and you don't have to check with him to make major changes. Plus, yes, you do have to pay him. Except you don't. You can stick with the starting house forever and he won't send any goons to break your kneecaps. His strategy seems to be just -build a thing, tell you how much it costs, hope you decide to pay for it out of the goodness of your heart-.
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-NinjagoLuver
He's just a fat old dad tanuki with 2 adopted kids, a bitter ex who scammed him and is trying to get back into his life, an impressive house construction crew, and lots of room in his fuzzy little heart.
He donates his money to orphanages. Plus, bells are equivalent to yen. So a 16, 000 bell house would be $160 US dollars, as yen is about the price of a penny.
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He's just a fat old dad tanuki with 2 adopted kids, a bitter ex who scammed him and is trying to get back into his life, an impressive house construction crew, and lots of room in his fuzzy little heart.
He donates his money to orphanages. Plus, bells are equivalent to yen. So a 16, 000 bell house would be $160 US dollars, as yen is about the price of a penny.
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-Tyxaar
What really happened is that he got a bad reputation for randomly force-selling overpriced homes, then realised he needed to be more sneaky and -nicer- so he slowly built a monopoly, trying to appear good with one-off nice acts and pleas to backstory while still perpetuating the system that forces one person to fund the housing and development monopoly of his'.
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What really happened is that he got a bad reputation for randomly force-selling overpriced homes, then realised he needed to be more sneaky and -nicer- so he slowly built a monopoly, trying to appear good with one-off nice acts and pleas to backstory while still perpetuating the system that forces one person to fund the housing and development monopoly of his'.
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-mr. messofgeorgia
I used to be really anti-Tom in the early days, but after my third playthrough of the original, I paid my first debt off at night, and the night worker went, -wow, someone actually paid him off? - and I went -oh hell he's livin in a little cabin and literally giving away houses for free in exchange for getting to be mean to you for a week-
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I used to be really anti-Tom in the early days, but after my third playthrough of the original, I paid my first debt off at night, and the night worker went, -wow, someone actually paid him off? - and I went -oh hell he's livin in a little cabin and literally giving away houses for free in exchange for getting to be mean to you for a week-
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polygon
At first I thought he was average.
Then he started making me pay 10, 000 bells for -him- to make money! I didn't even get, like, an easter egg or anything! Just some miles, which I use to beautify -his- island so -he- can charge me to sell more of -his- plots!
I guess he would be great in Smash Bros. Mm. Crippling debt. Yes, yes.
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At first I thought he was average.
Then he started making me pay 10, 000 bells for -him- to make money! I didn't even get, like, an easter egg or anything! Just some miles, which I use to beautify -his- island so -he- can charge me to sell more of -his- plots!
I guess he would be great in Smash Bros. Mm. Crippling debt. Yes, yes.
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-addymant
I think there's actually a lot more room for interpretation in New Horizons (e. g.: you could argue Nook is just a secretary to you now, and the money you give him is used to pay the laborers that build the bridge or house)
That being said, join your union; tenant, labor, or otherwise. Together we bargain, alone we beg.
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I think there's actually a lot more room for interpretation in New Horizons (e. g.: you could argue Nook is just a secretary to you now, and the money you give him is used to pay the laborers that build the bridge or house)
That being said, join your union; tenant, labor, or otherwise. Together we bargain, alone we beg.
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-JohnnyKronaz
lol, a landlord kicking you out because you can't pay rent? yeah, what a monster! -But it's not my fault! - Well neither are most financial troubles, but how is that your landlord's problem? You think they OWE you a place to live? YOu think you're ENTITLED to someone else's property?
STFU, commies.
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lol, a landlord kicking you out because you can't pay rent? yeah, what a monster! -But it's not my fault! - Well neither are most financial troubles, but how is that your landlord's problem? You think they OWE you a place to live? YOu think you're ENTITLED to someone else's property?
STFU, commies.
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-drawkilldragon
Tldr: Tom Nook takes all the money! But it's good because friction!
Me, who has literally never felt tense about getting a loan from Nook and is apparently the only person who isn't bothered by him being paid for stuff he probably has to spend money on:
-wanna run that past me again-? -
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Tldr: Tom Nook takes all the money! But it's good because friction!
Me, who has literally never felt tense about getting a loan from Nook and is apparently the only person who isn't bothered by him being paid for stuff he probably has to spend money on:
-wanna run that past me again-? -
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-leafgreenbeast
we do get an apparent confirmation as to what nook actually does with all his ill-gotten money: he uses the money on things like helping orphans, and specifically cultivates his villainous exterior to deflect from that--which of course doesn't excuse his predatory practices
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we do get an apparent confirmation as to what nook actually does with all his ill-gotten money: he uses the money on things like helping orphans, and specifically cultivates his villainous exterior to deflect from that--which of course doesn't excuse his predatory practices
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-psychinferno
I'm not entirely convinced that Tom Nook isn't a murderer. You know all those boots you fish out of the river? That's an inordinate amount of footwear to find in any river. Maybe those boots once belonged to former clients of Nook that failed to payback their loans.
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I'm not entirely convinced that Tom Nook isn't a murderer. You know all those boots you fish out of the river? That's an inordinate amount of footwear to find in any river. Maybe those boots once belonged to former clients of Nook that failed to payback their loans.
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-magusperde365
Nook hasnt become less evil. He just has good PR now. But the entirety of new horizons is him using the excuse of building a new home on a deserted island to use all of its inhabitant as free labor to exploit the natural ressources while he makes all the profits
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Nook hasnt become less evil. He just has good PR now. But the entirety of new horizons is him using the excuse of building a new home on a deserted island to use all of its inhabitant as free labor to exploit the natural ressources while he makes all the profits
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polygon
In the first animal crossing tom nook is living and selling out of a shack then sells a house to a child that rolls into town with no payment upfront or interest then he works up to being a billionaire. He lives the American dream and helps others get there
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In the first animal crossing tom nook is living and selling out of a shack then sells a house to a child that rolls into town with no payment upfront or interest then he works up to being a billionaire. He lives the American dream and helps others get there
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-mewgiah8057
This is a perfect example why woman are just not funny. She sets up the joke, and then has a stilted zinger and laugh that just whiffs so hard.
Compare this to someone like BDG and the quirky behavior works much better for him.
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This is a perfect example why woman are just not funny. She sets up the joke, and then has a stilted zinger and laugh that just whiffs so hard.
Compare this to someone like BDG and the quirky behavior works much better for him.
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-JangoTheBlueFox
consider this though. all of the money in Animal Crossing ultimately comes from Tom Nook which means when you pay off your loan he isn't really making any money from that, you're just giving back the money that he gave you.
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consider this though. all of the money in Animal Crossing ultimately comes from Tom Nook which means when you pay off your loan he isn't really making any money from that, you're just giving back the money that he gave you.
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-kawaiiblossom3117
He always expect me to be poor so whenever I play off the loans he always so surprised. I just don-t like to be indebted to people or owe people stuff so my goal is pay off those loans fast as possible
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He always expect me to be poor so whenever I play off the loans he always so surprised. I just don-t like to be indebted to people or owe people stuff so my goal is pay off those loans fast as possible
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-LPrulez943
Tom Nook has been raking in bellions since the first game! What's the cost of a small house when the tenant is now yet another customer for your empire? Of course, he's nice, he can afford to be!
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Tom Nook has been raking in bellions since the first game! What's the cost of a small house when the tenant is now yet another customer for your empire? Of course, he's nice, he can afford to be!
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-Victoria-qb3dr
-Tom Nook doesn't drag us in kicking and screaming; we want to escape with him-
That makes it sounds like the main character was eventually groomed by Tom Nook. Tom Nook the pimp haha! xD
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-Tom Nook doesn't drag us in kicking and screaming; we want to escape with him-
That makes it sounds like the main character was eventually groomed by Tom Nook. Tom Nook the pimp haha! xD
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-ChiliHorse27
Tom Nook is a son of a b-tch. Whenever he'd make me write an advertisement for his shop on the bulletin board, I would just do a giant sh-tpost about him and he would still love it either way.
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Tom Nook is a son of a b-tch. Whenever he'd make me write an advertisement for his shop on the bulletin board, I would just do a giant sh-tpost about him and he would still love it either way.
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-bansho7076
You can call him a villain for controlling and indebting you, but at the end of the day he enforces none of this.
If you don't want to pay, don't pay; he won't do a thing.
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You can call him a villain for controlling and indebting you, but at the end of the day he enforces none of this.
If you don't want to pay, don't pay; he won't do a thing.
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-modelmajorpita
This would be a lot more convincing if you didn't call Tom Nook a landlord. He's not. He's a realtor and a banker. You do not pay him rent, you pay him a mortgage.
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This would be a lot more convincing if you didn't call Tom Nook a landlord. He's not. He's a realtor and a banker. You do not pay him rent, you pay him a mortgage.
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-Dostoron
-alright kiddo, here's your loan for the house, yes you can move in and decorate as you like right now, pay it back whenever, no interest no time limit. -
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-alright kiddo, here's your loan for the house, yes you can move in and decorate as you like right now, pay it back whenever, no interest no time limit. -
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-thejonofalltrades
Like others have said, he isn-t a landlord. The land is your own, he-s giving you a loan to pay for construction and the cost of the land
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Like others have said, he isn-t a landlord. The land is your own, he-s giving you a loan to pay for construction and the cost of the land
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