How does (guild) housing work?

[Anova]

I'm not exactly sure where you're getting this information. It's really easy to buy housing, provided there's land available.

If you want a house, it really is as simple as this Housing Guide. You can buy it by yourself or with a guild. It's just easier with a guild because of the enormous sums of money involved.

1. Buy the Land (a lot of $)
2. Build the House (also costs $)
3. Furnish your house (a lot of time and $)

The advice you're receiving seems to be assuming you won't be able to find a vacant land plot. Thus, it is telling you to 'buy' yourself in to a guild with housing, pay off all the guild members to become the fcmaster and then kick them out to get their land and house. In a nice way.

While there may be players willing to do this, it really does sound like a scam to me. There's no way to safely give them the gil and count on them to make you fcmaster. If you're really doing this, consider first joining the FC and meeting the members in a mumble or some other VOIP if you can and get a good feel for how trustworthy you think they are. As an alternative, consider saving money for now and waiting until SE release more land plots. It's definitely safer, although it may take a while for them to get around to it.

btw, be certain the house is actually owned by a FC and not an individual. You cannot sell houses to other players, and the only way to transfer 'ownership' is if the house is a FC house and both are FC members. If an individual sells you a house, they are selling you the 'CHANCE to buy the land' first (with a very good warning of when it becomes available on the market), not the house or the land. The house is destroyed and you have to pay the full price (value of land when it was purchased) to the npc to buy it. FCs let you transfer ownership rights to a designated FC member, and that member can obtain all the rights of an owner.