[6-16-2016] Sale of Housing Advertisements Temporarily Suspended

[Nero]

The most recent Live Letter during E3 has confirmed that the sale of housing for profit is not allowed, and that the sale of in-game housing for in-game currency is actionable by Final Fantasy XIV GMs.

 

Threads advertising the sale of an in-game house or lot in any section of the RPC forums are no longer permitted and will be archived at moderator discretion.

 

After further consideration and examination and complete failure to find a definitive answer from Square Enix on the subject, threads advertising the sale of housing are temporarily suspended until the official transcription of the Live Letter is available.

 

EDIT: In the wake of the automatic housing demolition, any requests for housing (whether or not it is for resale) are not permitted and will be removed at moderator discretion.

[Knislinge]

I suppose that's pretty good news for those who have been frustrated with the people buying up new lots and selling them for a 70 million gil profit...

 

This might be a dumb question, though, but... then how does one go about getting a house? I was under the impression that when players/fcs moved to a bigger lot, they'd sell the old one to other players. Is one supposed to be very lucky when checking listings, then?

[111]

Players are just supposed to abandon houses they don't want anymore.

 

You can arrange for yourself to be nearby when they do so. However charging people tens of millions for that privledge is no longer allowed.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

Their wording had been something like "selling for exorbitant fees".

 

So basically, no small house scheduled abandonment for 50mil gil.

 

Something tells me SE is probably still fine with people selling for the amount the plot actually cost for. ...so if a plot was 3.5mil, selling abandonment for that is likely fine. We'll need to wait on the official writeup. They did ask for Party Finder advertisements to be reported though, so it's likely that it's still supposed to be a hush-hush done in private thing.

[Nero]

While the wording did suggest that "exorbitant" charges were what were specifically permitted, for the sake of avoiding loopholes, any advertisements for the sale of in-game housing in exchange for in-game currency are no longer permitted.

[Knislinge]

Alright, that all makes a lot of sense, thanks for clearing it up for me!

[Valence]

They even ask people to report.

 

Not gonna complain.

[Delilah Scythewood]

Thank. Fuck.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Did the live letter say anything about the sale of a Free Company?

[Arrelaine]

They didn't, but given the fact that most people's reasons to buy an FC is to get the house that they have... probably not allowed either.

[Lydia Lightfoot]

Not necessarily... a lot of time and effort has to go into unlocking airship sectors, for example, and that's of value to a lot of players who'd prefer to just jump right into it. Heck, the value of the parts on those airships alone is tremendous.

[Nero]

The sale of FCs is still allowed, basically on the premise that the FC is the item being traded and the house is just an aspect of that item.

[Hyakki]

The sale of FCs is still allowed, basically on the premise that the FC is the item being traded and the house is just an aspect of that item.

 

There's the loophle needed to carry on with house scalping. Create and level a FC, buy a plot, claim you're charging for time/gil invested into the company.

[Caspar]

The sale of FCs is still allowed, basically on the premise that the FC is the item being traded and the house is just an aspect of that item.

 

There's the loophle needed to carry on with house scalping. Create and level a FC, buy a plot, claim you're charging for time/gil invested into the company.

They could do that, but at least this time it requires you to go through the trouble of leaving your FC and gathering others to help level it, which will take time rather than just gil which players have outrageous amounts of. It might slow scalpers down. Key word being "might."

[Lydia Lightfoot]

The sale of FCs is still allowed, basically on the premise that the FC is the item being traded and the house is just an aspect of that item.

 

There's the loophle needed to carry on with house scalping. Create and level a FC, buy a plot, claim you're charging for time/gil invested into the company.

 

It does take quite a bit of time and effort to level the FC to that point, though, even if one doesn't do anything else with it (such as unlocking the workshop, etc).

 

I think it's also important to realize that the majority of people who are flipping houses, at least as far as I've seen, have been people who bought the house as a personal house. I'd bet actual money that there wasn't a single FC pre-3.3 that was used to buy a house at the 3.3 housing rush for the purpose of selling the FC and the house.

[Gabineaux]

The sale of FCs is still allowed, basically on the premise that the FC is the item being traded and the house is just an aspect of that item.

 

There's the loophle needed to carry on with house scalping. Create and level a FC, buy a plot, claim you're charging for time/gil invested into the company.

They could do that, but at least this time it requires you to go through the trouble of leaving your FC and gathering others to help level it, which will take time rather than just gil which players have outrageous amounts of. It might slow scalpers down. Key word being "might."

 

Gathering others to help level it? I did it alone, more or less. I was given the empty FC by a friend at rank 6 and leveled it the rest of the way myself, gathered the points to buy flight credits myself, on my own. I'm still doing it alone. Making airship pieces alone, only asking for randos/online friends in other FCs to stand in the workshop with me when needed. But I'm doing it for me, not to sell for a profit. I would have a real FC if I could get myself out there and uh, y'know, think of something that hasn't been done before or isn't overdone. I managed to get a small plot for this fc for the price of a medium plot, which is GENEROUS right now, from a nice couple of guys who moved on to bigger and better plots.

 

EDIT: And people have leveled FCs to rank 6 only to sell the FC themselves.. you know why. LOL. It's VERY easy to level an FC alone. Run experts, roll on everything, roll greed, hand in for points. Before you know it, it's leveled and has points. Spend the points on housing items!

[Virella]

My friends and I levelled a FC to r6 in... 3 days x_X

[Nero]

After further consideration and examination and complete failure to find a definitive answer from Square Enix on the subject, threads advertising the sale of housing are temporarily suspended until the official transcription of the Live Letter is available.

 

Unofficial translations of the live-letter seem to be unable to agree on whether or not selling houses entirely is actionable or whether or not simply flipping is actionable. I think it's fair to consider those sources unreliable.

 

Basically, we'll be erring on the safe side regarding the selling of houses as long as its status a bannable in-game offence is still ambiguous.

[Enla]

My friends and I levelled a FC to r6 in... 3 days x_X

And I'm still getting PTSD when around elevators. ;___;

[Caspar]

My friends and I levelled a FC to r6 in... 3 days x_X

And I'm still getting PTSD when around elevators. ;___;

That's hardcore lol.

 

Still, I mean, it's not much, but I think it's a small barrier that makes price flipping less effortless. It's the first major decision they've made combating the housing problem since the automatic sale if away from the game for too long, aside from ineffectual attempts to add more. I hope they are willing to try more in-depth measures in the future.

[Fulcrum]

I don't normally say much here, never really have.

 

 

From what I've seen of the initial GM raid, and what I've seen from petitions that were sent in, it seems to be any sort of house flipping in general. Here's what we got from a GM when one of my Alliance members asked about things the day of the last round of housing releases, during the initial GM raid while housing flippers were locked in GM Gaol:

 

 

 

 

This makes it sound like any resale of any kind of estate and land is against the TOS, including FC estates/land.

 

 

I would advise that any sort of resale activity involving estates/lands be considered a huge nope, and not be allowed to be discussed anywhere on the site, and I'd advise people not to solicit such on their personal sites or Tumblrs from now on. Just to be safe.