House Trading/Selling

[SiskaArisato]

First time poster here Sharing some thoughts on the state of housing from my perspective on Zalera, which is one of the lower population servers.

We have a ton of small and a few medium houses available on Zalera and, while there are many neighborhoods that are full (e.g. lower # Shirogane wards), there are also some that are nearly completely vacant with the exception of the 3 larges in the ward (e.g. Goblet).

There's obviously a much higher demand for mansions as those tend to fill up first, but people also hang on to them to sell the plot for 1-3x the amount that they bought the plot for in the first place. I understand this practice isn't encouraged, but nobody I know is going to let their large plot auto-demo without getting substantial compensation, just due to the demand.

It would be nice if there was a way to sell your house directly or trade houses with another player (in the same way you would other items - just keep the housing permit/deed around as a physical token notating ownership) to encourage giving folks the flexibility to move into their dream plot without the risk of getting scammed, or not being able to get into the plot at all because someone is asking for unreasonable amounts of gil to displace themselves.

The current system isn't working well, but we haven't gotten much traction on asking for things to be different, and the current stance seems to be "don't buy plots from other players". Given the above, do others have feedback/thoughts we could pass along to make this a better experience for the player base overall? I'd like to hear from those on more populated servers as what works on Zalera may not work on Levi or Balmung.

[Dustytome]

or not being able to get into the plot at all because someone is asking for unreasonable amounts of gil to displace themselves.

The problem is, if there's a system to trade in game that limits the cost and lets you choose who to trade the plot to, that will just enable flippers to request more from a trade outside the system. Personally I think they need to lock the system down further by bringing back the temporary rules as a permanent base and then add on to them so people can't transfer fcs or sell relocations.

[SiskaArisato]

Can you elaborate on the temporary rules? I've been on XIV for a year, so I don't have all the context some veterans do.

Maybe auction houses and all the gil beyond the original cost of the house can only go to the housing vendor or something? So it doesn't benefit the seller?

Not sure what other main proposals are that have been thrown out, but we as a community can think of something that would help, I'd wager.

[Rymm]

Can you elaborate on the temporary rules?

Basically once a plot is emptied, either through auto-demo or voluntary relinquishment, it doesn't immediately go back up for sale. There is a random, unmarked wait period, ranging from (I think) 30 minutes to 24 hours before the house can be purchased by anyone. So if you "buy" a plot off someone, you have to camp the placard for up to 24 hours in order to get it. That is, of course, assuming no one else comes up and has the blind luck to click it faster than the intended buyer and get it instead.

Maybe auction houses and all the gil beyond the original cost of the house can only go to the housing vendor or something? So it doesn't benefit the seller?

Sellers would still try to manipulate the system, in this case by doing something like agreeing to put the house up for auction at a specific, low-pop time. For a price of course. And I dislike the idea of an auction system for housing; with what we have in place now everyone has an equal chance of getting a house as long as they have the minimum gil. You just gotta get lucky. An auction system would give more of an advantage to the super-rich.

If anything, I think the best way to get some of your investment back would be to allow players to sell plots back to the server. Even at a loss, it would be nice if you could get a portion of your gil back without having to wait the 45 days.

[SiskaArisato]

Basically once a plot is emptied, either through auto-demo or voluntary relinquishment, it doesn't immediately go back up for sale. There is a random, unmarked wait period, ranging from (I think) 30 minutes to 24 hours before the house can be purchased by anyone. So if you "buy" a plot off someone, you have to camp the placard for up to 24 hours in order to get it. That is, of course, assuming no one else comes up and has the blind luck to click it faster than the intended buyer and get it instead.

Isn't that still in effect? It sounded like DustyTome was referencing some other temporary rule, but I could be misinterpreting.

[Rymm]

Isn't that still in effect? It sounded like DustyTome was referencing some other temporary rule, but I could be misinterpreting.

As far as I know it is. She might also have been referencing the rule limiting the number of FCs with housing that you can be leader of. But I was under the impression that one was still rolling too.

[Wiccan026]

During the temporary phase you physically could not transfer fc's... after the first two weeks that ban was lifted.

Some use that to argue that rule was intended to only be temporary not permanent... I however just get annoyed because there are empty houses aplenty and folks aren't buying them on my server not because they can't afford to... they just don't like where they actually are.

[SiskaArisato]

I think another part to this is that we haven't seen direct statements indicating that trading housing plots is against the ToS. Some situations are ok, while others are not.

If infrastructure went in to support the trading SE wants players to be able to do, they could issue a statement regarding what isn't allowed and then enforce it.

Is that unrealistic? Seems like this needs to be backed by both feature and policy.

[NotOliverB]

As far as I know it is. She might also have been referencing the rule limiting the number of FCs with housing that you can be leader of. But I was under the impression that one was still rolling too.

Funny how you weighted on the subject before but you are unaware of what's been going on

[Brynne]

Isn't that still in effect? It sounded like DustyTome was referencing some other temporary rule, but I could be misinterpreting.

I believe DustyTome was referring to the rule where you could not own two FC houses on the same account and world. If one of your characters was a member of a FC that owned a house, you could not purchase a FC house on another character on the same server. They have since lifted that restriction.

As far as I'm aware, the other restrictions are still in place.