How to buy the shop: the short answer
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- Where you buy it: the landlord's rent visit adds a third option, "Buyout the store", once you have enough cash on hand and the store isn't already paid off.
- What it costs: the option shows the price in Credits.
- In the demo: not possible. The landlord only ever offers to collect rent.
- With a mortgage: the game has a loan shark who offers one; in the full game he does turn up.
- Afterwards: the run ends with a stats screen.
Buying the shop at a glance
Buying the shop at a glance | Field | Value |
| Where | The landlord's rent visit adds a third option, "Buyout the store", once you have enough cash on hand and the store isn't already paid off. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| Price | The option shows the price in Credits. Source: In-game text. |
| In the demo | Not possible in the demo: the landlord only offers to collect rent. Source: The demo's game code; player reports. |
| Mortgage | Offered by a loan shark; in the full game he does turn up. Source: In-game text; the game code. |
| After you buy it | The Buyout ending and a stats screen. Source: In-game text; the developers' October 21, 2026 announcement. |
| Rent | Due every week, rising over time; a missed payment is forgiven once. Source: In-game text. |
How to buy the shop in Probably Stolen
The landlord's rent visit adds a third option, "Buyout the store", once you have enough cash on hand and the store isn't already paid off. The option reads "Buyout the store", with the price beside it.
At the end of the tutorial the Mentor gives the two ways to get there: "Once you have more Credits, you can either find someone to offer you a mortgage, or buy out the store directly, if you got enough." Buying it directly means having the full price in Credits when the option comes up; a mortgage, covered below, lets you buy it with a down payment and pay off the rest week by week.
When you buy it, the landlord answers: "Well, the store is yours."
How much it costs to buy the shop
The option shows the price in Credits. The game fills the price in when the option appears, so this page does not give a number; the one on the option is the one that counts.
The difficulty you pick at the start also plays a part. The difficulty card says whether the property price is standard, higher or lower.
Getting a mortgage from the loan shark
The game's lender is a loan shark from the Lower Levels. His opening lines explain why: "The Upper Levels banks do not offer loans to the honest people of Lower Levels." He offers you a mortgage to purchase the store, admits that "the interest are a bit higher than the Banks", and says he will visit again on Sundays once you have enough Credits.
When he comes back, he names the current value of the property, a down payment he has negotiated with the landlord, a yearly interest rate and a weekly payment for a set number of weeks. You can agree and make the down payment, decline and save up to buy the store yourself, or ask him to come back in a week. Miss a weekly payment and he takes some of your things instead ("Alright, these will do for now"); when you have nothing worth taking, he seizes the store and the run ends in Repossession. Make the last payment and he tells you: "The store is yours, for good."
In the full game he does turn up.
The game's text also has lines for a bank loan clerk, with a down payment and an interest rate of his own, but the game's code never uses them.
Why you can't buy the shop in the demo
In the free demo, the landlord only ever offered to collect rent. On rent day the demo's code gives you two choices, "Pay Rent" and "Don't pay the rent", however many Credits you hold. The "Buyout the store" option and the landlord's reply are in the demo's text files, but the demo never shows them. The mortgage does not help either: the demo's code has no way to send the loan shark, so his offer never comes.
It is not a bug in your save. Demo players who saved far past what the shop should cost report seeing only the rent options, and the official Discord's FAQ gave the same answer for the Playtest in August 2026. Our guide to what the demo includes covers its other limits.
What happens after you buy the shop
Buying the shop ends the run with the Buyout ending. Its screen reads: "You sign the deed, and with it, the weight of the rent vanishes, alongside the shadow of the Landlord. The shop is yours, free and clear, a hard-earned victory in a world that's never been kind." Paying off the loan shark gives a second version: "You sign the final papers, and with it, the last chains that bound you to the loan shark are broken."
In the full release the ending comes with a stats screen, the developers said on October 21, 2026: your most profitable sale, the days you survived, your total worth, your perks and more. After the ending screen you can keep playing the same run. The full list of endings is on our Probably Stolen endings page.
Rent, eviction and Probably Stolen insurance
Until you own the shop, the landlord comes for rent every week, and after each payment he tells you what the next week's rent will be; it goes up as the game goes on. If you cannot pay, he lets it go once: "For this time and this time ONLY." Miss it again and he calls Security: "Alright I am calling Security, you are evicted!" That ends the run with "You Defaulted On Your Rent".
He also asks to install vending machines in front of your store, "in exchange for a tiny rent increase": the options read "Accept Vending Machine (+150 Weekly Rent)" and "Accept Water Vending Machine (+150 Weekly Rent)".
Joe Wild can help with both. His Rent Grace favor lets you pay a missed rent together with the next week's, and insurance is a service you get through him: the lead developer's patch notes of September 18, 2026 fixed insurance being available before Joe Wild had introduced it.
Version notes and limits
The sections on the demo, the mortgage lines and the endings come from the demo's files and code. The sections on where you buy the shop, how the price shows and what follows the ending were filled from the full game's files on October 28, 2026. What insurance covers and costs has not been read from the game yet, so this page only says where it comes from. A patch that changes rent, the buyout or the mortgage triggers a recheck, added with the date it was checked.
Buying the shop: FAQ
How do you buy the shop in Probably Stolen?
The landlord's rent visit adds a third option, "Buyout the store", once you have enough cash on hand and the store isn't already paid off. You need the full price in Credits, or a mortgage from the loan shark.
How much does it cost to buy the shop?
The option shows the price in Credits. The difficulty you pick also changes the property price.
Why can't I buy the shop in the demo?
The demo's landlord only offers to collect rent, and the demo never sends the loan shark who offers a mortgage. It is not a bug in your save.
How do I get a mortgage?
The loan shark offers one: after he introduces himself, he comes back on a Sunday once you have saved enough and asks for a down payment, then a weekly payment for a set number of weeks. In the full game he does turn up.
What happens after you buy the shop?
The run ends with the Buyout ending and a stats screen of your run. After the ending screen you can keep playing the same run.
What happens if you can't pay the rent?
The landlord forgives one missed payment. The next time, he has you evicted and the run ends.
What is insurance in Probably Stolen?
A service you get through Joe Wild. What it covers is not on this page yet.
Endings · Demo · Joe Wild's Network
Sources and version history for this guide: Probably Stolen sources and versions.
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