Will we ever be able to 'legally' sell plots?

[Lexia]

The closest it has is "you may not take advantage of game system bugs and exploits during gameplay."

House selling has been around for a while, and I have yet to see it listed as a known issue on patch notes.

It would most likely be listed under

3.6 Any Illegal Activities. You may not conduct any illegal activities whatsoever in connection with the Game. This includes every illegal activity not specifically highlighted above, including without limitation gambling, defamation, harassment, and fraud

Person says they selling a house, so player trade money to the person and then goes well where my house the person says you don't get a house that money just for be giving up the plot you still have to buy the plot from the system.

[StouterTaru]

Person says they selling a house, so player trade money to the person and then goes well where my house the person says you don't get a house that money just for be giving up the plot you still have to buy the plot from the system.

Then that wouldn't apply to selling a FC with a house, or accepting money to relinquish the plot at the time of the buyer's choosing. However, both have been dumped into the same group as "selling a house."

"Selling a house" isn't gambling, defamation, or harassment, and fraud can be dealt with the same way other game frauds are dealt with. GMs will step in for fraud in cases where an agreement was reached by 2 people in game, and one person reneged.

[MihaelB]

Then that wouldn't apply to selling a FC with a house, or accepting money to relinquish the plot at the time of the buyer's choosing. However, both have been dumped into the same group as "selling a house."

"Selling a house" isn't gambling, defamation, or harassment, and fraud can be dealt with the same way other game frauds are dealt with. GMs will step in for fraud in cases where an agreement was reached by 2 people in game, and one person reneged.

It's been over 2 months and they haven't even graced us with their formal stance on the issue

Conflicting punishments/ stances were obviously seen in the EU vs NA data centers.

As is their game, their rules but of course it's extremely annoying to the players who need to follow the rules which aren't clear.

[alimdia]

A friend reported someone who was trying to sell a small plot for 22m, he reported the person and a GM replied back like 5 mins later, the GM seemed more interested in fact-checking how much the person was asking for the plot than the act of the sale itself, perhaps they changed their policy again to only go after those who try to sell a plot for more than they paid for.

I mean, it would be hard to argue it's an extortion if someone is selling a plot for 3-5m, there's no profit being made, but someone selling for 22m there's an obvious profit.

[Andrea]

A friend reported someone who was trying to sell a small plot for 22m, he reported the person and a GM replied back like 5 mins later, the GM seemed more interested in fact-checking how much the person was asking for the plot than the act of the sale itself, perhaps they changed their policy again to only go after those who try to sell a plot for more than they paid for.

Which if the case they should actually announce what their stance is on it.

We've seen people get warnings for it and others who have been told that they can't do anything as they aren't breaking any rules for selling.

Imo there shouldn't be any grey area surrounding something that could potentially get your account banned. But here we are. Maybe im crazy.

[Niwashi]

The only way it wouldn't be abused is if there's no way to speculate and overcharge the buyer. This could work if the game set boundaries on the price, and you couldn't sell a plot for any more than the original max price of that plot, but would yourself only get 80% of the sale, with the other 20% absorbed by the game. (You would have the option for selling for less the max if you want. People might want to if they're giving it to a friend or their FC, or if they're having trouble finding a buyer at max price. The 80%/20% or whatever actual percentages SE chooses would be based on the actual sale price, not the max price.)

As for the current version of "selling", SE should set a rule that when a plot is released, it will go back on the market at some random point in the near future, but not immediately. That should reduce the demand for information on when a plot is released.

[worldofneil]

He said the land deeds so we were able to give houses to friends

That was the quote I was trying to find, thanks.

Yes it looks like you were right, originally in April 2013 they did intend for housing to be sellable (I didn't realise it was so long ago!), but sometimes in the 8 months following that and when housing was actually released (patch 2.1 - December 2013) it seems they changed their mind for reasons we don't know (wasn't enough of a gil sink, didn't want to deal with problems with ownership queries, realising technical issues that still currently plague housing/limit the amount, we can only guess...)

Sounds like the original plan was for the estate and the house to be a single entity which was split before it went live.

[MrCide]

It's silly. I paid someone 12m to relinquish their plot, then paid 4.25m to buy the plot. I sold it for 9m then got a warning placed on my account for doing so, despite the buyer being happy about it.

I sold it because I wanted a plot in another area. Am I supposed to sit on my hands for 45 days? The GM referenced the same spot about fraud. Not sure how it's fraud since I didn't rip anyone off.

Oh well.