House Trading/Selling

[Rymm]

Can you elaborate on the temporary rules?

Basically once a plot is emptied, either through auto-demo or voluntary relinquishment, it doesn't immediately go back up for sale. There is a random, unmarked wait period, ranging from (I think) 30 minutes to 24 hours before the house can be purchased by anyone. So if you "buy" a plot off someone, you have to camp the placard for up to 24 hours in order to get it. That is, of course, assuming no one else comes up and has the blind luck to click it faster than the intended buyer and get it instead.

Maybe auction houses and all the gil beyond the original cost of the house can only go to the housing vendor or something? So it doesn't benefit the seller?

Sellers would still try to manipulate the system, in this case by doing something like agreeing to put the house up for auction at a specific, low-pop time. For a price of course. And I dislike the idea of an auction system for housing; with what we have in place now everyone has an equal chance of getting a house as long as they have the minimum gil. You just gotta get lucky. An auction system would give more of an advantage to the super-rich.

If anything, I think the best way to get some of your investment back would be to allow players to sell plots back to the server. Even at a loss, it would be nice if you could get a portion of your gil back without having to wait the 45 days.