2 Stick with the lottery with some changes... it's better than the old system.

First change is one house per account period. Figure out an honest way to revert back the many houses that are owned by one person. If they can give houses away for a bug in the system then they can figure out a way to be fair about the changes in TOS which would remove all but ONE house per paying account period.

Second change, shorten the lottery timeframe. Nine days is a long time.. if you're looking to buy a house and then win it, you should stay on top of things. If you want a house, get your tickets in and if you win, get it finalized. No need for SE to give so much time to hold your hand.

Third change, stop turning off the demos of houses that aren't being used once a month. 45 days even during high que times is reasonable for ANYONE to get into their house at least once if they want to save it. Turning it off only hurts the ones that have never had a house and want one. Again SE should not have to hold your hand. if you want to keep your house, log in ONCE in 45 days.

Fourth, offer relocations again, but heavily limit it to once a year or some large amount of time. This would allow people to get into a nicer spot but not overwhelm the system with needless daily relocations.. I know why they turned them off completely because people were being a holes and relocating daily just to make people mad.. that wasn't fair, but turn them off completely I don't think was fair either. Once a year would at least allow you to get that view or get closer to your spouse without being unfair to others.

All in all I think the lottery system is a much fairer system then giving up the game to get a house for months. Plus for now, it cuts out the bots.. I saw four lalas win so many house and then just move to the next one, winning five and six a day at times... at least for now they can't do that.. although I am sure they will find a way to beat the system sadly..