A Warning for Buyers

[LiliaLia]

I'm really sorry for your misunderstanding. It doesn't sound like the person had any intention to deceive you though, they just assumed that you knew "buying" a house meant that you are paying them to relinquish the land.

I think this really ought to serve as a warning to sellers to make sure that the buyers they find are actually able to afford the land and understand what it is that they're buying. But at least understand that relinquishing their land for 3 million was already a huge deficit to them, so expecting them to refund your gil because of your mistake is problematic.

This is kind of a lose/lose situation that arose from a misunderstanding, not a scam. The only proper way to fix it would be to give the sellers their land back and give you your money back, which hopefully SE can do.

[Jpec07]

This is kind of a lose/lose situation that arose from a misunderstanding, not a scam. The only proper way to fix it would be to give the sellers their land back and give you your money back, which hopefully SE can do.

I'm not holding my breath on this one. The land was already purchased by another player, and I doubt if SE'd take it away from them.

[Jpec07]

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.

Even so, there isn't anything about how much a house actually costs to purchase. There isn't anything that says that players can't transfer land directly to one another. Even with either of those things clearly stated somewhere, this whole scam/misunderstanding/whatever you want to call it would have been avoided.

[Sylfaein]

Even so, there isn't anything about how much a house actually costs to purchase. There isn't anything that says that players can't transfer land directly to one another. Even with either of those things clearly stated somewhere, this whole scam/misunderstanding/whatever you want to call it would have been avoided.

I was given these links when I asked about buying houses:
http://imgur.com/a/n7wzC#2 for housing grades my lot.
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Personal_Housing for lot prices by server.

I found several sources through Google that showed there was no direct transfer.

It's unfortunate that this happened, but the information is out there; you just have to look.

[Jpec07]

I was given these links when I asked about buying houses:
http://imgur.com/a/n7wzC#2 for housing grades my lot.
http://ffxiv.consolegameswiki.com/wiki/Personal_Housing for lot prices by server.

I found several sources through Google that showed there was no direct transfer.

It's unfortunate that this happened, but the information is out there; you just have to look.

I'm not disagreeing with you - I'm just saying that this information isn't available in game. We were operating in a time-sensitive manner, since we thought this rare opportunity of a house sale would evaporate. You and everyone else who is saying to have researched it first are correct: that is the thing to do. But that's also why I'm posting this, to hopefully help people like me avoid my mistake. Like I said in the first post, it was incredibly naive in hindsight.

[Eye_Gore]

Its very vague, but the resident caretaker in each housing ward kind of tells you how to buy a house. Couple things he has questions for is buying and relinquishing property. He does say you can only buy an unowned property, that coupled with relinquishing in would give somewhat of an idea, as there is no mention of player to player transactions. As for pricing, yes there is no values in game unless there is a plot for sale. Thing is it varies by world and where the plot is. It will also drop every 6 hours until it hits its bottom value. Not that any of this helps, just an FYI.

[Elim]

Seller was legit. That's how buying a plot from a player works. The only other way is to buy a FC with a plot. But you would still need to relinquish the plot from that FC and re-buy it with yours. Unless you made everyone switch to the FC you bought. I'm sorry it happened to you, but you could have asked questions or done some research. You're on the forums so you know where to go to do some research. The mistake was completely yours. As the buyer and FC leader the onus is on you. You shouldn't have just given a stranger 3mil without knowing exactly what would go down. Sorry if I seem a bit harsh, but I'm an officer in my FC and if I had done what you did my leader would have ripped me a good one. In fact, I'm certain he'd demote any officer so careless with our gil. Of course the seller could have asked if you knew what you were doing, but he probably assumed you did.

[crc0427]

There actually is quite a bit of info in the help menu for housing. The seller didn't do anything wrong, he probably assumed you knew what you were doing. If he were to give you back your Gil, he'd not only be out 3m, he'd also be out not having a house.

I think it was just an unfortunately mistake, and I don't see a GM making him give your Gil back, unless they can get him his property and all furnishings that were destroyed back.

[crc0427]

Even so, there isn't anything about how much a house actually costs to purchase. There isn't anything that says that players can't transfer land directly to one another. Even with either of those things clearly stated somewhere, this whole scam/misunderstanding/whatever you want to call it would have been avoided.

You're right - there isn't anything that says players can't do this and that, because the list would be too long. The help menu only says what you CAN do. if it's not listed, you should assume you CAN'T do it, or research online how it could be done. It just would not be possible to list all of what you CAN'T do in game.

If land is legitimately up for sale, the cost is displayed. There's no cost displayed to relinquish the land, as that's not part of the actual purchasing process and therefore not in the help menu. The help menu only reviews purchasing land the way the game intended.

I think what's happened here is that you just simply didn't understand what was happening and didn't review the help menu, or you would have seen there's no mention of purchasing from another player. The "seller" assumed you knew how it all worked, and likely meant no scam.

I wouldn't blame him here, as I don't think he's at fault.

[Sakuraluna]

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".

I get what you're saying and I agree, but I guess my line of reasoning was that putting it up in party finder the way OP described is basically advertising to the server that this is happening right now. If someone really wanted to, had the gil to buy and didn't feel like paying to have a plot relinquished, they could just camp the market board until it shows up and potentially grab it before the hopeful buyer can, whether or not that person is connected with the seller. GMs wouldn't be able to do anything about that and neither would the original buyer or seller. That's why I said it sounded iffy to me.