Require a verification code within X mins after purchasing a property

[Penthea]

I definitely support having to enter a code to prevent bots from buying property, though not everyone uses one-time passwords, and for whatever reason may not have access to it.

Very few players who have access to a game like FFXIV wouldn't have a smart phone. It's not a chunky piece of software so even an old phone can use it fine. Certainly worked fine for me when I was using a smart phone whose model and OS was several years out of date.

Also everyone should use the one-time password because it truly does keep your account more safe. Certainly if it became part of the purchasing process for a house it would give players an incentive to get it. I remember when WoW offered a minion in exchange for having a one-time password authenticator attached to their account the amount of players who used it rose quite dramatically. Some people don't bother with it thinking they don't need it, not classing it as worthwhile because it doesn't offer an in-game advantage or they're just too lazy to set it up. Blizzard realised this so they gave a reward for using it. More players using the one-time password actually does reduce the workload GMs have to deal with.

I admit I'm not exactly fond of the idea to have it or captchas in order to purchase something but it's clear SE have no intention of changing the housing system enough so that things like demolition and the placard timer would no longer be needed. So with this in mind players think about ways to make it more difficult for bots to game the system, and the one-time password and/or captchas are things that could very greatly inhibit them.

I'm not sure how advanced bots are with stuff like that, but maybe something like a skill question related to the game, like "what's the name of the NPC standing at x11, y17 in Lower La Noscea" (example, of course, since I doubt there's anyone right there )

Someone could create a system that checks for npc locations based on coordinates. If people can create something as advanced as parsers they can definitely create something that merely searches for npcs at a very specific set of coordinates. Bots can complete quests on their own, so searching for something based on coordinates wouldn't be difficult to code.

Also having such a system would make players have to leave the housing area and travel around the game to search for something...it would be potentially adding a lengthy process on top of the already lengthy process that is spamming the placard timer. It would be better to create a system that doesn't require players to leave the plot for what is essentially a quest in order to finish purchasing it.