Many people are intrigued by this game of virtual monopoly. Yet, it can be hard to know whether to put money into this game or not. Here is how I recommend getting started:
Upland is a game that pays you 14.7% interest to hold property, but the fast money is in flipping property. The game will give you 4,500 UPX (the local currency), which is the equivalent to $4.5 USD.
Step 1 — Put a small amount of money into the game
To 5x your money in Upland, start with investing $20 USD into the game. Your first-time purchase should come from a referral link. If you click the link below, the game will give you another $10 USD in UPX. You will now have 34500 UPX (4.5k+10k+20k). Already over 70% in profit.
Pro TIP: Your rank is found by clicking your Block Explorer in the top left of your screen. DO NOT PROMOTE YOUR RANK at this stage. Wait two weeks for Spark Week in order to get a bonus. Trust me…waiting is worth it.
Step 2 — Choose to start in LA. Ignore the other cities for now because you need a cheap and plentiful source of FSA properties (Fair Start Properties available for New Players).
Step 3 — Your Block Explorer (your game piece, aka BE) will be floating around randomly in space without being able to control it, so you will have to send it (paper airplane icon) to where you want to mint (buy unclaimed property). I recommend Panorama City and North Hills in North LA, or Watts and Boyle Heights in South LA.
Step 4 — Before you jump around, click on the white properties (unclaimed properties) to find the lowest prices. There should still be some around 6k or less. It pays to search for the cheaper prices by clicking around.
Step 5 — You can’t send directly to unclaimed properties, so choose the closest property to that one that is either Blue (bought) or Dark Green (for sale). Above the Address on the property card, you can see the fee for sending (in this case 75 UPX). It is not necessary to pay more than 50 UPX in LA so click around.
The goal is to buy at least 15 properties over the next two weeks, starting with six FSA properties with your 34.5k. With log-in bonuses and collection rewards, you might be able to stretch to 7 properties. For example, this one next door sells for 5.35k.
TIP: There are three dots in the bottom middle of your screen. If you click on that, your menu will appear with Collections second on the list. Your first property will earn you a Newbie Collection (800 UPX and 1.1x earnings, i.e. 10% extra per month).
You can collect the bonus and then unassign your properties and add them to a new collection, so it is a good idea to fill your Newbie, King of the Street, and City Pro Collections once you have your six properties.
Pro TIP: Buy three in the same street and sell these last. That way, once you have 9 properties on hand you will have the Newbie Collection, King of the Street Collection, and the City Pro collections active to boost your UPX earnings on each property.
Step 6 — The game imposes a two-FSA property sale limit per week, so you should now list your cheapest two for sale. The blockchain will take up to 5 minutes to update ownership, so get a coffee and come back ready to profit.
Pro TIP: You can reach your FSA limit (100k net worth) faster by investing 50 USD (25k referral bonus), but the game prevents new players from selling the cheap properties (FSA) faster than two per week, so you will not speed up cashing out with this strategy.
Step 7 —Find the prices around you by clicking the building icon (the middle icon on the bottom left of the screen). Many players underprice their properties to flip them the fastest. However, LA is huge and not everyone is going to do a city-wide search for property. This is especially true on mobile, as the USD listings will typically show at the top of the list as they are often priced at a discount to UPX listings. The result is players scrolling down and down the list trying to find a place to buy in UPX or zooming in to a smaller area where the competition is less fierce.
Step 8 — Add 1–2k to the floor price in your city when you list it. I will be honest — I missed minting Chicago because I only entered the game two months ago. When preparing for LA, I knew I wanted to put money in the game but I also wanted to get a bonus on my investment. I once sold over 100 properties a week in Chicago by buying the USD floor at 7 and selling above the UPX floor (then 8k) at 9. I didn’t need to price at the bottom to flip properties because the city was huge, the number of players is huge, and each player searches in different ways for different needs. As a new player, you can only sell two FSA a week, so sell for a good markup (8–10k) depending on the market. My properties in South LA are selling 1–2 a day for almost 10.
Step 9 —With a couple of properties sold, you are starting to make your money back. Buy more FSA properties, and only FSA properties. The non-FSA floor in LA is quickly rising, and it will be hard to make a large profit.
Step 10 — Once Spark Week starts, you should get promoted to get some spark for your account. Spark is used for building and potentially for many other in-game activities, so it is good to have at least what the game gives you for free. After getting promoted during Spark Week, you now have the option to sell your properties for USD. Up to you if you sell for USD, but you will have to accept a lower price than UPX. A longer process to get to 5x, but you will have your money in USD not UPX.
The reality is that selling 6 properties over 3 weeks will get you to around 54k UPX. If you reinvest in Los Angeles FSA, you can potentially reach your 100k UPX (or 5x) over the 6 weeks (12 properties x 9k = 108k UPX) to 5x your investment in about 6 weeks. If you are selling USD, you might need to accept lower margins, but you will 5x your money in two months (16 x $8 = 128 USD). Alternatively, wait for the next new city (probably be in late February/March) to mint cheap FSA and continue the process.
Pro TIP— It is good to promote yourself to Uplander, but new players should delay upgrading to Pro until they have reached their 100k limit of FSA properties. The reason is that they will not have access to FSA properties once they reach Pro Status.
Summary: Invest $20 and earn $80 over the next 6 weeks by taking advantage of FSA properties. If you play it right and maximize your FSA properties (around 18), then you should be able to earn even more over time. DM me on Discord (Andia2) if you have any questions about Upland.
Help me reach 100 followers on Medium Channel by clicking on my profile image and then the + Follow button on the top right. Once I reach 100 followers, I will publish my advanced strategies for Medium paid subscribers before the new city releases so that you can benefit. Regular content will remain free.
