[SUGGESTION] Adding a "Property Broker" NPC and system

[ItMe]

The current system is just SO restrictive, it places almost all of power to players who simply can play ALL the time. If I'm willing to take time leveling tradeskills, crafting stuff to sell on market-board, and build up gil over time, why not give us an option to offer that gil for the houses we *really* want?

(Emphasis mine)

A.) No it doesn't.
You can get houses without no-lifing a placard.
Let's please not keep pretending we need to be unhealthy in the pursuit of a house.

B.) I don't understand how your system wouldn't also reward people who spend all their time in game.
If you could make an offer to Kaynide... do you honestly think you wouldn't be outbid?
Even if you could make offers you're still not getting that plot.
The people that have been playing longer than you will be.
The people that play the game to make gil will be.
The people who engage in RMT will be.
I don't believe such a system would help you get a house you want.

[Bright-Flower]

The whole point of the random timers and the lottery system is to prevent players from directly selling to others at inflated prices. So I'm against this.

If anything, what they need to do is restrict transfers the same way new purchases are, so that you can't sell a plot for transfer either. Then make all of the wards, not just some, lottery based for both transfers and new purchases.

There won't be a full fix for housing unless they're somehow able to one day add enough wards for everyone or implement an instanced housing system for everyone that doesn't crash the servers. But I think the above is the best case scenario barring actually having enough housing for everyone.

[kaynide]

I mean, I don’t think anyone disagrees with the notion that housing is extremely desirous for players… and I also do t think anyone actually loves the RNG lottery system in itself.

Rather, since SE has designed a housing system that is extremely limited, a random lottery is the best option.

[Terin]

I still feel like adding a Housing Broker would help things quite dramatically. A "lottery" system could potentially be good, but then it's entirely luck. It doesn't address the issue, which is facilitating players being about to trade housing plots.

As said, it sucks to have zero agency in the Housing market. If I spent a lot of time earning gil, is it really so bad I can put that towards getting a super cool house?

Moreover, if the the "brokerage fee" is high enough, then over time, it would lower the value of houses, because it could remove a ton of gil from the economy.

Perhaps a "happy medium" is that when buying a housing lottery-ticket, players can elect to purchase more than one, to increase their odds of getting a house. But in doing so, say a Small if 5mil and you buy 10 tickets, everyone who LOSES gets their gil back, but if you WIN, it keeps all 50mil you spent?