Quote Originally Posted by SalemP View Post
-If I bought a small house and later wanted to buy a large, do I just give up the small house?
You have to give up the small entirely. While the permit to place the house will be refunded (as a permit you can resell or something), your investment into the land plot will not. If your small is in high demand, you might be able to "sell" the plot and permit to a buyer, but they still have to pay whatever relinquish fee you set up as well as the max value of the land.
-What happens to private chambers if I relinquish a small house? I assume they just disappear and no one gets their money back? (This would be a big factor in my decision as I wouldn't want people to waste their personal money.)
When relinquishing a house, everything has to be removed including chocobos and private chambers. That fee is not refunded either. In the case someone is inactive, you'll have to kick them from the FC.
-What happens to furniture? I know some you can get back, but some you can't. I wouldn't put the fancy stuff in like the Ifrit statue, but what about a company chest, summoning bell, chocobo stables?
Anything that is destructable will have to be destroyed (e.g. primal furniture, coil furniture, choco stables crafting stations). Anything that isn't can be stored and used in your new house. Company chest, bells, and gardens are not destructable. You can tell them apart as the destructable objects have "*Cannot be retrieved once placed" in their tooltip.
-What happens to any shopkeepers that are in there? Do they disappear and you have to hire new ones?
You'll have to buy new shopkeepers, as removing them destroys the permit. Hardly a huge monetary investment though.

You have a good enough amount of active people to be comfortable in a medium house though. A lot of people express disappointment decorating large houses due to the really low ratio between item allotments and floor space.