So like, houses were demolished and stuff. What was your experience?

[Atoli]

don't take your frustrations out on legitimate homeowners. I love my house, I want to keep my house, leave me in peace.

Yeah, that was kind of extreme ._.
I only got mine yesterday, and already had people who didn't just try to talk me into selling it again, but I actually got accused of buying it to sell it again in a few weeks (yeah sure, all that furniture I put up within minutes of buying it totally makes it seem as if it is just a money investment..) or that I should just give up the plot right away since I'll drop the game in a few weeks anyway and the plot will be demolished then.
Sorry to say but I've been playing since early 1.0, and since housing is out I've been the only one in charge of tending to the garden and taking care of the chocobos for my FC and I did it dutifully everyday...I don't think you'll talk me into giving up my house, thank you =.=

Houses are a waste of money and completely pointless.

Anything you do in a game is pointless. It does not change anything in your life except giving you some form of enjoyment. Housing does exactly that - give people enjoyment who like to decorate, like to RP, and the like.
Also, even if we simply talk about ingame benefits, there is nothing else to spend huge amounts of Gil on. I saved up for years for a house, but there is nothing else to save up for. Glamours are expensive sometimes, but not to the point of housing and rare furniture.
Nothing else really requires money, so why not "waste" it on housing, since housing even has actual benefits (like Airship explorations, workshops in general, gardening, chocobo dyes, and having a shared social hub for all FC members to go to when they aren't busy)?

Anyway, since some people have posted their catch, I wanna do the same :3
I caught this pretty little one:

[Madjames]

Here is my beauty's, ALL THREE!!

[Ayerinn]

Houses are a waste of money and completely pointless. I don't see the big deal about it.

what else is there to spend gil on? houses and glamour are basically it... oh, and you are effective renting the plot anyways for 20% of it's value + non removable items - at any point in time you can decide to not enter your house for 45 days and get 80% of your gil back...for a small you are able to rent a garden plot for less than a million effective gil depending on grade and server...which can be made back in a week or two selling garden items.

[Heybunny]

I got my house on the spot and ward that I wanted.

The process however? Let's just keep it on sleepless nights and anxiety attacks.
Though what matters most to me is that I got my house. Which will be open to everyone!

So happy to hear you got your house Vell!
Hubby and I got ours, but wasn't plot 30 in Mist, someone beat me to it even though I'd been camping it for 14 hours. Luckily bf was outside second choice and I ring ported and bought that one instead, beat someone to it by about 10 seconds. Mist ward 8 plot 29 on Ragnarok (though currently closed due to renovations but visitors are welcome once it's opened up!). Got to put down both our retainers thankfully so my dream of our FFXI characters greeting visitors has been fulfilled at last! <3

[Samhayne]

its been over 30 hours and people cant buy land plots on jenova server. people have camped for over 30 hours and se hasnt responded. the jenova server is in chaos right now. nothing is being done, most of the server is at a complete hault, and people are fighting over plots. our community is in shambles.

[Riusvell]

So happy to hear you got your house Vell!
Hubby and I got ours, but wasn't plot 30 in Mist, someone beat me to it even though I'd been camping it for 14 hours. Luckily bf was outside second choice and I ring ported and bought that one instead, beat someone to it by about 10 seconds. Mist ward 8 plot 29 on Ragnarok (though currently closed due to renovations but visitors are welcome once it's opened up!). Got to put down both our retainers thankfully so my dream of our FFXI characters greeting visitors has been fulfilled at last! <3

Haha, that's exactly my spot but the "mirrored" version!
I have obtained my house in Mist Ward 5 - Subdivision, plot 59!
It is a lovely place with a lovely view. Congratulations though!

[Reinha]

I camped the Lavender Beds aetheryte between 6 and 9 pm after coming home from a nice Christmas visit. I had read on Reddit that maintenance times would increase the demolition timer so there was no rush. After a while I got tired of waiting and hung out with my SO. Later on I checked the forum and saw someone had seen houses open up. Damn! I quickly tabbed to the game and there it was: dozens of small plots ready for taking. I didn't even care about the location as long as it was in LB so I immediately teleported to a ward with lots of plots. After playing and saving up for 9 months I finally I have a small house! It's still a bit bare-bones, but here it is:

You know what the best part was? Because my plot was one of the less-desirable ones at 4 million I was also able to send enough money to my S.O. who had recently made some big purchases. He made it in time and now has a house in LB. We were very lucky. So happy neither of us has to settle for a mansion apartment, as half the fun is styling the yard. Hopefully SE makes a house moving service someday, so we can become next-door neighbors without losing seasonal furniture.

I've spent all of today figuring out what furniture and utilities I'd like on my plot and getting mats for a few items. Now I'm broke lol. Done painting the outside and interior walls, but there's still lots to do. Got a bathtub at least. All in all it was a surprisingly nice experience. Happy Starlight everyone!

I'm surprised you and your SO didn't just share a house, I'm doing that with mine haha. Though I imagine it's still nice having your own spaces to decorate.
Congrats!

Thanks ^^. I can be quite stubborn opinionated, so it's probably better to have our own wee houses. If we could have afforded a medium we probably would have shared though, but oddly they are 4 times the price of two small plots.

[FoxyAreku]

I don't blame people for wanting a house, it's honestly the best. My game experience is so much more enjoyable having a nice place I can decorate myself that I can go to to idle or craft away from everyone.

I camped the Lavender Beds aetheryte between 6 and 9 pm after coming home from a nice Christmas visit. I had read on Reddit that maintenance times would increase the demolition timer so there was no rush. After a while I got tired of waiting and hung out with my SO. Later on I checked the forum and saw someone had seen houses open up. Damn! I quickly tabbed to the game and there it was: dozens of small plots ready for taking. I didn't even care about the location as long as it was in LB so I immediately teleported to a ward with lots of plots. After playing and saving up for 9 months I finally I have a small house! It's still a bit bare-bones, but here it is:

You know what the best part was? Because my plot was one of the less-desirable ones at 4 million I was also able to send enough money to my S.O. who had recently made some big purchases. He made it in time and now has a house in LB. We were very lucky. So happy neither of us has to settle for a mansion apartment, as half the fun is styling the yard. Hopefully SE makes a house moving service someday, so we can become next-door neighbors without losing seasonal furniture.

I've spent all of today figuring out what furniture and utilities I'd like on my plot and getting mats for a few items. Now I'm broke lol. Done painting the outside and interior walls, but there's still lots to do. All in all it was a surprisingly nice experience. Happy Starlight everyone!

I'm surprised you and your SO didn't just share a house, I'm doing that with mine haha. Though I imagine it's still nice having your own spaces to decorate.
Congrats!

[Haprimac]

There is a guy on my server that have two large houses. Maybe he is a honest gillionaire or maybe not but who I'm to judge him.

I knew a person who had two characters with capped gil (999mil), because he was making so much money making super difficult+expensive crafts. He was usually the first one to make them; he was crafting while others were exploring new dungeons/raids.

[Noshpan]

Nothing happened. Or, more accurately, very little happened. The actual amount of houses "expired" has been very low. Then again, I wasn't expecting a high amount anyway. Hell, there's someone on my server who owns 13 houses (spread over 2 accounts mind you, since a standard subscription only allows 8 characters per server).