Early Pulling - Is it wrong?

[Brian_]

Let me try to put this into a way that makes sense. I can deliberately buy a house in this game, just for fun, and that could interfere with the enjoyment of the game of another player.

Is me buying the house a violation of the ToS?

I don't think you have any argument. Numerous GMs and even Yoshida himself have clarified their stance on griefing over and over again.

Just recently they've said that reselling a house for an exorbitant mark-up is not okay. Previously GMs have said that doing so is an abuse of the existing system and a violation of the ToS.

If you haven't realized, their ToS is purposefully vague so that it can be applied to these situations.

It's the same as parsing. Yoshida has said that they have no problem with it as long as it's not used for harassment.

Again, they trust that players are civil in their behavior. Even if what you're doing falls into the gray-zone of legality, as long as it does not cross that line of civility, they generally let players handle it themselves.

[Kerii]

-snip-

That's kind of the problem we have now. They expect the community behave in civil ways, but many won't and don't care. If they won't get banned or more than a slap on the wrist they'll just keep doing it.