Quote Originally Posted by Serendair View Post
The eternal bonding example was to show that on the one side there are ppl who are willing to pay actual money for vanity items ...
...Also I was not thinking of a lot. Maybe like 3 Euros as for one of the minions...

...I did come to the assumption that the only way would be some sort of a real money trade situation with the creators themselves as messed up as it sounds.
To answer your points:

Yes, people will pay real money for vanity, but a house isn't just vanity.
We waited months for our FC house and it has radically changed how we play the game and socialise as an FC. Best purchase ever. It gives us access to stables, airships and the Aetherial wheel thingy for buffs (which we haven't looked at yet) all of those are utility things, not fluff.
I know you can use another company's airship to go to the Diadem but it doesn't give nearly as much benefit as having your own.

Most important, housing is heavily promoted as a feature of the game, not an optional extra. I'm paying a sub, that should be enough. Being able to pay for extra retainers is bad enough, introducing more micro-transactions that give you an advantage in game is not the way I'd like to see things going.
I know you said you weren't thinking of charging a lot of money, but if this was implemented it wouldn't be up to players to set the price and there is no guarantee it would be low.

The main problem with housing is there isn't enough.
Personally, I feel it would be better to keep up the pressure for extra wards and instanced personal housing, both of which are being introduced rather than give the impression that we'd be happy to pay real money for something that ought to be available to everyone.

On the other hand, if there was a system in-game that allowed you to put your name down for a house in a particular area and made a list of players/companies who would then be offered available houses on a first-come-first-served basis, then I could get behind your suggestion.