When you first enter a city, apart from seeing the city map and its red dots, indicating open properties, and neighbourhood tags below you, you will see the "Property Filter" box (right) on your screen.

This is simply an easy way for you to identify which properties in each category are open, from city view. Regardless of which city you are entering, the method remains the same.

Each property category denotes a different type of house, that the owners have placed their property in for ease of finding. Further information about property categories can be found here. New players to the game should normally follow the advice in the installation instructions and choose the 'shaking hands' icon to list welcome houses - these properties are often run by experienced players who are specifically happy to help you find your way around, or new players who are equally as confused as you are and will often be happy to make friends and learn with you. However, you may also come across people offering fantastic gifts and prizes in "welcome" for seemingly menial tasks…. but be aware that something that sounds too good to be true often is. Helpful advice on avoiding being the victim of a scam can be found here.

When you click on a property category, ten random online properties in the category you have chosen will appear on the map in front of you, complete with thumbnail views of the property design, and an arrow pointing to where on the map the property can be found. Clicking on it again will turn off the category view, and clicking a second time will bring up another 10 random houses in that category.

If there are less than 10 properties online in that category, you will see them all on screen. If there are no properties in that particular category open at that time (this may happen at a quiet time, in a small city, or in one of the not so popular categories), then no properties will show up.

When you click on the thumbnail, the property bio opens up (hit the expand tab if it doesn't) and you will be able to read what the house offers. Scroll down if there is more to read than can be shown in the small box.

If that property offers what you are looking for, then click on the large arrow or thumbnail to enter the property. If not, simply select another property, or indeed another category.

The "top 100 property lists" will show all the most popular properties in a category, but only the open properties are listed in yellow. In a category where there are not many houses open at any one time, it is often quicker to use the map view filter just to show the open properties, rather than scrolling through 10 pages of closed houses.

Sometimes the top 100 list does not always update, and is not a true representation of which houses are and are not open. Clicking on the map filter will force your game client to obtain fresh data from the server to show on the map, and will also update the top 100 list.

Often some of the most entertaining properties in your city can be found outside of the "top 100" rankings, as well as new properties or those who do not show up because they recently changed category. It can be a rewarding - and refreshing - experience to randomly visit such houses, not only to give them a 'helping hand' onto the list, but just to meet new people that you may not normally meet in the course of your normal gameplay. The lower ranked houses are often far more grateful to receive visitors than the top ranked houses, and you may also make some new friends as well as having a good time.

There is one final icon in the "Map Filter" - this is the list of the 10 properties you have most recently visited. They are shown in a similar style to the map filters, but are ranked from 1 - 10, with 1 being the one you are currently in. Properties that are open are shown highlighted in blue, and properties that are currently offline are shown in grey similar to bookmarks.

But what use is it, you may wonder, to know where you've been; surely it's more use to know where you are?

The main use of this would be as a memory reminder. You went to that fantastic skill house or store yesterday, or met that great person at the money house that was called "something" jams but can't remember the name? As long as you haven't been to more than 10 properties since that visit, it will be on this list, and will help you retrace your steps to find the people you want to meet or places that you want to go to again.