How it plays
First, buy houses through ascending bids. Every player takes a property each round: passing takes the lowest one left and returns half your bid, rounded down; the final bidder pays the full amount for the best remaining house. Those purchases become your hand for the second half.
Then sell. Reveal a set of checks and secretly choose one property each. The highest property takes the largest check, the next highest takes the next check, and so on. Total your checks and unspent money after every house has been sold.
Decisions you’ll make
Judge the gap between the available properties before raising a bid. A small improvement may not justify spending money that also counts toward your final total.
During selling, a valuable property only needs to beat what others actually choose. Saving it for later may produce a better return, but leaves you vulnerable to a low or worthless check now.
Learning the game
Light: two distinct phases, each built around one repeated decision.