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I am very new to Monopoly. I have never played it; I'm just learning all the rules. How do people remember who is the owner of each property?

Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership.

But I have looked at title deeds cards. They have a colored band, which is probably the district marker, and they also contain plenty of information about rent. But the title deeds do not specify who owns that property. How do players determine or memorize to whom they must pay their rent? Do I always have to simply hold it in my head?

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    The worst person is usually the owner of the property
    – Wayne Werner
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 20:23
  • @WayneWerner - That is amazing, and pretty much exactly what I do.
    – Taegost
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 21:28
  • Alternatively, play the digital version and the game will do it for you conveniently (including all the seems-trivial-but-actually-complex rules)
    – Andrew T.
    Commented Nov 28, 2017 at 3:31
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    Monopoly is a bit like global thermonuclear war. The only winning move is not to play.
    – Wayne Werner
    Commented Nov 28, 2017 at 15:53
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    @WayneWerner I wanna be the Russians!
    – user45266
    Commented Dec 19, 2018 at 16:30

2 Answers 2

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When I've played Monopoly, the owner of property always kept the property card ("title deed") on the table in front of them, visible to all players.

The bank should also keep the unsold property cards visible to everyone; that way, you won't need to call attention to yourself if you land on an owned property. That is, you shouldn't keep track of who owns property in order to pay rent; it's up to the owner to keep track of what property they own and ask for the rent. "The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before the second player following throws the dice."

An example of how each player can organize their properties, as well as their money, can be seen in the image below:
Picture of Monopoly board with each player's money and properties arranged neatly

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    That matches the way I read the rules. It gets MUCH easier after you've played a few times -- you'll find it's really not difficult to keep track. Early on, most properties are unowned, and in the end game, it'll be down to two players who, between them, own everything that can be owned.
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 14:51
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    Note in the rules "The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before the second player following throws the dice."
    – swbarnes2
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 18:32
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    @Alexander Lay your title deeds out in front of you in the same order they are on the board. If another player moves, you can trivially check wether or not he landed on your property by just scanning your cards. Note that you only need to check when someone else moves, and you only have to check for one player at a time. Its not your responsibility to find out who you need to pay rent to in your own move. The other players have to ask for rent.
    – Polygnome
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 18:46
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    @Alexander When someone moves, you only need to note what color they land on, say it is green. Then you check if you have any green (trivial) and only if you do have green, then you sort through usually 3 (maximum 4) of that color to check the property name and rent. When YOU move, you should check if the property you land on is unowned, in case you wish to buy it, and if it is unowned you might want to check who (if anyone) owns other properties of the same color to influence your purchasing decision.
    – user3067860
    Commented Nov 27, 2017 at 23:02
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    @Alexander Ask your questions the same way you did here. That way, they're available for others who might have the same question another time. That's how these sites build up (some of them have hundreds of thousands of answered questions).
    – Zeiss Ikon
    Commented Nov 28, 2017 at 18:01
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From the rules for Monopoly (emphasis mine):

THE BANK… Besides the Bank’s money, the Bank holds the Title Deed cards and houses and hotels prior to purchase and use by the players. The Bank pays salaries and bonuses. It sells and auctions properties and hands out their proper Title Deed cards;

BUYING PROPERTY… Whenever you land on an unowned property you may buy that property from the Bank at its printed price. You receive the Title Deed card showing ownership; place it face up in front of you.

This is how the ownership of properties and title deeds work, the holder of the card owns the property. At the start of each game, all properties are unowned, the bank has all the cards. As the game progresses, each player is given the option to buy the unowned properties they land on, if they do the bank gives them the deed to that property and they now hold the deed, showing they own the property.

As for the paying of rent, you don't need to remember anything about the owner of the property for paying rent, it's not up to you to just pay rent in Monopoly, it's up to the owner of the property to ask for it:

PAYING RENT… When you land on property owned by another player, the owner collects rent from you in accordance with the list printed on its Title Deed card.

The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before the second player following throws the dice.

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