Quote Originally Posted by Penthea View Post
How was the old system better? Before the random timer so many were buying houses with the sole intention of selling them off for several times their price. I have looked on the housing market forums at the prices and some servers cottages were going for 30 million. And that was just the fee for them to demolish the house. You had to pay the fee the placard asked for on top of that. How is this much better than placard spam? Most players don't even have half that gil. This often drove players to use RMT to get enough gil. There was also no protection from getting scammed because by reporting the scam you would be also admitting that you were violating the ToS by attempting to buy a house from a player instead of the placard. It was awful. The annoying placard system we have now was introduced because of this.

At least now because of the placard timer most people who are trying to buy a house are doing so because they actually want the house. Not because they want to sell it off for a gigantic profit and take advantage of other players, and make them consider risking their account by not only purchasing from a player but also using RMT to be able to afford the house. This is a small comfort to those who still have no house I know. But at least you don't have to worry about the placard scamming you out of 10+ million gil.

The old system was bad and the current system is bad. They're both horrendously bad, just for different reasons.
People are still buying and selling houses for profit. They can only sell to relocators now or sell whole FCs with a house attached. The only thing this system changed was who can buy the house. I don't see how changing the system so that it's harder for people to buy their first house helps anyone. Because that's all the current system has done is make it harder for a new player to buy their first house. Anyone with a house can walk up and relocate, by passing the random timer. So house selling is still very much a thing, and usually still for very inflated prices. So, I call the old system better. With everything else equal, at least with the old system a new person could buy a house from a re-seller or walk up to a plot and instantly buy it without sitting for an undetermined amount of time placard spamming only to lose the house to either a relocator or someone else spamming the placard as well.

To me, the only reason the old system was bad was because of the limited numbers of houses (which is still a huge problem). If everyone could walk up and buy a house somewhere, then reselling would (mostly) die off, since there wouldn't be a need for it (other than preferred plots, certain mediums and larges throughout the wards).