Housing feature questions

I have a Free Company of 20-30 people. We have raised about 5m so far and could fairly easily stretch to a small house but we are considering saving for a medium. Before we can make that decision, with a lot of people's hard work and time involved, we need to know it's worth it.

1. If we buy a small house, will that lock us out of any future features?
   
2. If we buy a medium house will we have access to features that small houses won't?
   
3. Will large houses have the option to add features not available to small and medium?
   
4. If bought a small house and then we tear down our house and want to relinquish the land, can we get any of our gil back so we can use it towards a medium house?
   
5. What are the ingame benefits of owning a house?
   
6. Will furnishings give anything other than quality of life benefits?
   
7. Why is teleporting from inside your house expensive?

In answer to #4:

Quote:

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Relinquishing Land
In order to relinquish a plot of land, you must first remove the estate hall and all furnishings. Once the plot is completely vacant, it can be relinquished from the Housing menu. Only free company members with the requisite authorization can perform this action.
* Gil will not be refunded upon relinquishing a plot of land.
* From patch 2.2 onward, a free company will automatically relinquish its land if its estate is unused for a prolonged period of time.

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Source: http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodest...7af43f3c43828a

This game seems awfully stingy with gil considering how limited its use is. SE needs to do something about that. I'm sure it's going to leave a bad taste in many players mouths.