Question?

[Vidu]

The invisible timer is both invisible and random - from my understanding it can take anything between 6 and 48 hours (though we dont know the precise times - could even be less or even more).

The point of this timer is that no one knows when it will end - once the plot goes up for sale, the invisible timer starts ticking. In order to give everyone a "fair chance" at it, its also random. (Dont tell me that that isnt fair or a stupid system, I did not put it in place.)

The reason behind this is that we used to have a huge problem with house flipping: People would buy plots with the sole intention of selling them off later. In order to do so, the seller and buyer would agree on a price for the house (often way, way more than the plot itself costs) and once gil exchanged hands, the seller would relinquish the plot so that the buyer could snatch it right up. To combat that, they put the invisible, random timer in place - both it being invisible and random play a role in the combat against house flipping (if it was only invisible but with a set time, people would have figured out what that timer was and would be able to plan for it; if it was only random but visible you could again plan for it - in that case everyone would show up within the last few minutes of the timer aswell, not giving anyone a better chance to get the house).

The relocation feature bypasses the timer btw - so you could always buy a house in a less desirable spot and relocate freely to any open house you want.

At the current time the timer is not a great feature, but one that is needed until the underlying problem is solved one way or another. All suggestions in order to change this timer are usually not thought all the way through and are mostly made with the idea in midn how much easier it would be for oneself to buy the house - without considering that it would also be that much easier for everyone else and there chances of getting the house in the first place would most likely go down, not up.

[ZodiarkE]

That I do understand because I had looked it up awhile ago within afew days back, most of it is so complexed that at times it doesn't make sense at all, I mean I'm not gonna say that it isn't fair, I mean its suppose to work as that this most of my fc leader and I know this, its just simply a pain because most of us tend to stay up and we only set a goal on how long, the sucky part is when you still do not have a place of your own before going offline to bed or have a time limit on how long you can stay on for due to " adulting " due to life, my only issue is " it is giving me a headache and its confusing on how this works. " lol

[Vidu]

That I do understand because I had looked it up awhile ago within afew days back, most of it is so complexed that at times it doesn't make sense at all, I mean I'm not gonna say that it isn't fair, I mean its suppose to work as that this most of my fc leader and I know this, its just simply a pain because most of us tend to stay up and we only set a goal on how long, the sucky part is when you still do not have a place of your own before going offline to bed or have a time limit on how long you can stay on for due to " adulting " due to life, my only issue is " it is giving me a headache and its confusing on how this works. " lol

Its not half as confusing as reading texts without punctuation, let me tell you... Because at this point you have me confused what your actual question is? I tried my best to answer my best guess from your first post, but apparently I wasnt able to tell you anything new. Now I have to ask: Do you even have a question that can be answered? Your wall of text comes off more like a (maybe) justified but pointless rant about a system that we all know isnt working all to great - in which case I would advise you (and anyone else whos bothered by this) to stop making individual threads about it since that achieves nothing (except maybe you feeling a bit better because you found a place to rant?). They're even aware of this issue and are working on solutions, though so far we're only getting band aids (aka more wards and apartments).

If you're wondering how we ended up here: Back in the day housing was meant for FCs only. It was meant to be a massive gil sink that only a group of people working together would be able to achieve - the devalution timer was even useful back in the day, because you could wait for your desired plot to decrease in price, you even kinda had to plan for that! Even the 4 million you had to pay for a small house was nothing to sneeze at!
Then individual players expressed the desire to own houses and formed shell FCs - and even though they promised that personal housing would be different, it ended up the same. Add gil inflation and an increased playerbase to the mix and you're at our current situation.

...I'm still not sure if I answered any question because I'm not sure there actually is a question to be answered here...

[Jojoya]

How to know about the invisible timer? Ask another player how the housing system works. Read the Lodestone housing guide, which specifically states

Plots will be temporarily unavailable for purchase if they are emptied for any of the following reasons:
・Selecting "Relinquish Land" from the Housing menu
・Auto-demolition
・Relocation
・The character that owned the plot is deleted

* During this period, plots will still be available for relocation

That I do understand because I had looked it up awhile ago within afew days back, most of it is so complexed that at times it doesn't make sense at all, I mean I'm not gonna say that it isn't fair, I mean its suppose to work as that this most of my fc leader and I know this, its just simply a pain because most of us tend to stay up and we only set a goal on how long, the sucky part is when you still do not have a place of your own before going offline to bed or have a time limit on how long you can stay on for due to " adulting " due to life, my only issue is " it is giving me a headache and its confusing on how this works. " lol

The system isn't complex. A plot becomes vacant. There is a short period of time (less than 24 hours) that it is only available to relocation then it becomes available for both relocation and purchase. That's pretty simple.

What's causing the problem is the lack of supply adequate compared to player demand. When we had an adequate supply back in 2018, the timer wasn't a problem because there were plenty of vacant plots on all but a few congested worlds. Something was always available for purchase.

Making changes to the timer is not going to get you a house because it does not fix the supply problem.