A Warning for Buyers

[Jpec07]

This is a post meant to warn other naive, first-time buyers to avoid my mistakes. This is not a complaining post; I am not looking for sympathy, but to help others.

Foreword

So this evening, through a combination of naivete and what looked like a good opportunity, my Free Company was scammed out of several million gil. While the administration is sorting out the details of whether or not what happened to us counts as a scam, and whether or not we will be reimbursed, I wanted to use our misfortune to extend a warning to potential first-time buyers of housing. While many of you may look at this and see several warning flags (which I can see in retrospect), the fact is that it happened, and I'd like to do my part to prevent it happening to others.

Notes for Buyers

If you're in the market for a house, there are a few take-aways from our story that I'd like to share.

• Ask lots of questions. I learned details afterwards from others who came to the plot to warn people that would have made the sale seem extremely shady from the start. If I'd asked questions, I might have been able to avoid it.
• Make the seller state clearly what you will get for your gil. In my case, there is a small chance that my Free Company will not be reimbursed, because the terms of the sale were not explicitly stated (the seller initiated a race of sorts, saying that the winner would "get it"). However, with a clearly stated trade agreement, the GMs will have no choice but to rule in your favor.
• 3,000,000 (3M) gil is too good to be true. Pricing for houses is not well-documented anywhere. While it is easy to surmise that larger houses go for several million gil, there is no clear notice in game of what "several" is. The house we tried to purchase went up for sale near 20,000,000 gil once the title was relinquished, which made the 3,000,000 pricetag absurd. There are also evidently a lot of fees surrounding housing and transfers and the like that are also not well-documented, and in my case, 3M gil was just enough to cover those.
• Look up the process beforehand if you don't know it. The seller in my case feigned ignorance of how to transfer ownership, and attempted to make the relinquishment look like an accident at first. I'm not even sure if there IS a process for getting a house into someone else's hands without going through the market, but these are things I could have found out if I'd looked.
• Stick to the market. If you are a first time buyer and you don't know the ins and outs of the system, avoid private sales. It is too easy for someone who knows the way things work to trick someone who doesn't. If you don't have experience with it, use the default channels.
• Please look forward to it. There are strong, partly-confirmed rumors that the housing system will be revisited prior to 3.1, which likely means in the next month or so. If you're waiting to buy a house, that will likely be the time to buy.

TL,DR: Don't let your excitement and eagerness and desire cloud your judgment. It will come around to bite you in the behind.

[Jpec07]

Our Story

I saw a party in Party Finder advertising sale of a house for the first player to trade the owner 3M gil. Since my small FC has been in the market for a house for a long time, and since we've been stockpiling gil for an eventual purchase, I highlighted this to the officers and other members, and they told me to jump on it.

So I joined the party, and after retrieving the gil from the FC Chest, ported and sprinted to the designated plot. The seller greeted me, and I eagerly traded him our gil. Once he'd received all of it, the seller pulled the party from PF and said that he needed to see how to do it.

The title was relinquished, and the plot went up for sale on the market.

I asked the seller what was going on, and they said that was how it worked. I asked what our 3M was for, and they said it was for the fee to relinquish the land. Then they left the party while I stood, gawking at the plot that could have been ours, up for sale for more than we could afford.

[LunaJoy]

I'm so sorry that that happened to you! I've seen party finders up offering to sell houses and I have always been confused by what exactly they are selling. It makes sense now that they are charging that much gil just to relinquish the land, not for you actually purchase the plot. They should be more clear in their details, as I'm sure there are a lot people out there doing this.

[MysteryNotes]

Our Story

I saw a party in Party Finder advertising sale of a house for the first player to trade the owner 3M gil. Since my small FC has been in the market for a house for a long time, and since we've been stockpiling gil for an eventual purchase, I highlighted this to the officers and other members, and they told me to jump on it.

So I joined the party, and after retrieving the gil from the FC Chest, ported and sprinted to the designated plot. The seller greeted me, and I eagerly traded him our gil. Once he'd received all of it, the seller pulled the party from PF and said that he needed to see how to do it.

The title was relinquished, and the plot went up for sale on the market.

I asked the seller what was going on, and they said that was how it worked. I asked what our 3M was for, and they said it was for the fee to relinquish the land. Then they left the party while I stood, gawking at the plot that could have been ours, up for sale for more than we could afford.

I don't understand?

The agreement was for the house, and he delivered his end of the bargain which was to make the house available to purchase. Its you that didn't do the research, and prepare the requisite sum of money beforehand to purchase it.

It looks to me like you didn't bother find out what happens during a transfer, and are blaming the seller for your own ignorance.
AFAIK there is no way to directly transfer a house to another person(Unless its via taking control of an fc?)

Did you really expect someone to sell you a plot of land for 3mil gil and give you the extra money you needed to purchase it?

[Whiteroom]

I don't understand?

The agreement was for the house, and he delivered his end of the bargain which was to make the house available to purchase. Its you that didn't do the research, and prepare the requisite sum of money beforehand to purchase it.

It looks to me like you didn't bother find out what happens during a transfer, and are blaming the seller for your own ignorance.
AFAIK there is no way to directly transfer a house to another person(Unless its via taking control of an fc?)

Did you really expect someone to sell you a plot of land for 3mil gil and give you the extra money you needed to purchase it?

This is pretty much it. They haven't at least that I've heard, put in any method of transferring your house directly to another player. AFAIK someone could just camp the sellers spot, and as soon as he relinquished it, scoop it out from under you. All you are doing is paying him to give up his claim on the land. You don't get the land, the house or the building permit from the deal. Sounds like he was the legit one. Sorry to say.

[Sylfaein]

Unfortunately, you're out of luck on this one. The seller was legit, AND selling the place at a huge discount, no less. On highly populated servers, people are asking up to two and three times the value of the lot, just to relinquish it.

As someone who recently bough a house from another player, I can tell you how it goes down:
You pay the owner to relinquish. They demolish their house, and relinquish the land. You HURRY to buy it off the plaque (it's open to anyone, so someone watching could rush in and grab it). THEN you own it and build on it.

At this time, there is no way to directly transfer a house or plot from one player/FC to another.

It's important to know the prices of land, as well:
http://imgur.com/a/n7wzC#2 for housing grades my lot.
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Personal_Housing for lot prices by server.
Combining these resources will give you the price of most land plots.

[Sakuraluna]

Idk, the whole party finder race to be the first sounds off to me though. Like you could do your research and be prepared, and be the first to trade the Gil, but once that's done it would be a race to be first to the market to buy the plot because unlike with a private exchange, everyone who looks at PF at that time knows that plot is about to be relinquished right then.

Outside of that, you're not buying a house from that player, you're only paying them to free up the plot as there isn't currently a way to directly transfer a house from one character to another outside of leadership of an FC with housing being passed to you. But if he never explicitly stated that until after accepting the Gil you may have grounds to stand on but it would ultimately depend on the gm's decision since SE have been very clear on how housing can be obtained even if the seller wasn't. Good luck on that, but you're right, it does pay to do research.

[Jpec07]

<snip>

Well that's exactly it. There is no information about housing available within the game for prospective buyers. Pricing, fees, costs incurred, processes - there is nothing unless you've owned a house, or done research outside of the game. We didn't know that there was no way to transfer the house. The seller also implied with the party comments that they were going to transfer the house to us for that cost - there was no indication that we were just buying the opportunity to buy.

We weren't expecting them to relinquish the land and pay for our purchase: we were expecting a fair trade of 3M gil for the deed to the land. This does sound absurd now, but it seemed like the seller just wanted to get rid of it.

I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm looking to warn other newcomers to the market away from these scams, where they might rush headlong without this information and get burned the same way.

[Sylfaein]

Idk, the whole party finder race to be the first sounds off to me though.

I don't think so. Sounds like the guy just wanted to make a quick sale. If he was only asking 3M and not more or "best offer", he may have needed quick cash, or been quitting the game. Without the option to haggle and for such a low price, it seems practical to say "first here gets it".

[Sylfaein]

Well that's exactly it. There is no information about housing available within the game for prospective buyers. Pricing, fees, costs incurred, processes - there is nothing unless you've owned a house, or done research outside of the game.

There isn't information on this process in-game because it was developed by players and the market, rather than SE. Private land sales are completely player-driven. That said, there is a lot to be said for research, like coming to this forum. I posted a question a while back, asking how much to expect to pay for a relinquish, and got a lot of great information. It paid off.