Thread: Housing FAQ

How much do houses cost?
Prices vary, but are in this general range:
Standard (Tier 1): 1g, 50s upkeep
Deluxe (Tier 2): 7g, 150s upkeep
Kin (Tier 3): 15-17g, 300s upkeep
See: http://forums.lotro.com/showpost.php...5&postcount=37

How much do storage containers cost?
Container 1: 100s
Container 2: 500s
Container 3: 2.500g

How much space does each container have?
30 slots.

How many storage containers can I put in my house?
1 container per tier of house.

Can you have more than 1 house on a server?
No.

Can a kinship leader purchase a personal house in addition to a kinship hall?
Yes.

Where are the housing zones located?
Hobbit: Southfarthing, south of Michael Delving
Dwarf: West part of Dwarf starting area
Man: South of Midgewater Swamp
Elf: East of Duillond (Flash Map)
See http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93693

Where are the housing brokers located?
Housing Brokers are available near the entrance to each neighborhood.

What happens if I don't pay the upkeep?
Your house vanishes and the items that were inside can be retrieved from Escrow.

Can you rotate decorations?
No.

When do new housing zones open?
A new housing zone opens when the current zone sells out. In my opinion this is a bug: new zones should open when all houses of a particular tier are purchased.

Can you upgrade a house?
No.

Can your alts use "return to house"?
No.

Can you put workbenches or a forge in your house? Or vendors?
No. My thoughts on this are mixed. On one hand, it would be very convenient. On the other hand, it may make places like Thorin's hall extremely desolate.

What level do you have to be to purchase a house?
Level 15.

What permissions are there on houses?
There are 5 permissions that can be assigned on a individual, kinship, or everyone basis:
- Visitor: Enter/exit house
- Housing Chests: Put items into or take items from a container
- Upkeep: Can pay upkeep
- Decorate: Ability to decorate the house
- Manage Permissions: Ability to change permissions

Can I pay upkeep in advance?
Yes. Up to six weeks.

What happens if you abandon a house?
It will put all of your items from the house in an escrow account that you have to access within 6 days to retrieve the items. It also returns all monies you have paid into the escrow account for maintenance fees. It does not, however, return any of the money that you paid for the house. (Yugi) There is also a 24 hour cooldown before you can purchase another house.

Are neighborhoods racially restricted?
No.

Thanks for the info. A couple more questions if you know the answers...
Once you have purchased a house, can you upgrade it to a higher tier later?
Is there a limited amount of space for housing? (in other words do only the first X number of people that get there have a chance to own a house?)

Are there limited T2 houses per zone? Or does it give you the option to purchase a T1 or T2 house on a specific plot?

1) No....once you spend your cash it seems to be gone. There is no upgrade or transfer option that I have seen.

2) The way it is supposed to work is that as a neighborhood fills up a new neighborhood instance will open up.

Another question I have:

I know you are limited to 1 house per account but it you have 2 subscription's on 1 account are you then allowed 2 houses.

I'm not sure what you mean by accounts and subscriptions. Are you talking about characters on another server?

I would not rely on the pricing seen on the test server to be what we find when this goes "live."

One of the topics on the survey is pricing . . . I suspect final prices will be different. No idea if that means higher or lower.

Originally Posted by Veltkreeg

I'm not sure what you mean by accounts and subscriptions. Are you talking about characters on another server?

Don't think so. You can have multiple subscriptions under one account - basically, two retail game keys registered under the same Turbine username. So if you have two subscriptions, you can have 2x5 characters on one server.

I would guess that you can have a house per subscription (which is how destiny points work), but need to confirm.

Originally Posted by Invincible12

1) No....once you spend your cash it seems to be gone. There is no upgrade or transfer option that I have seen.

2) The way it is supposed to work is that as a neighborhood fills up a new neighborhood instance will open up.

AH HAA! I just figured out why Hobbit and Dwarf housing wasnt opened today. That silly boar only gives 10 gold per week, and the most expensive single person house is 7 Gold, hence I predict we will get to see Hobbit and Dwarf housing next week

And also new neighborhoods are opening up now - houses for all!

Also, where are rugs/welcome mats bought?

Are there any other house item vendors other than the one in the neighborhood and the taxidermist?

So is there a "Return to House" ability/map for the main toon that purchased the house?

There weren't many recipes to look at, whilst it's good to see some when will there be more to choose from.

I hope the dwarf and hobbit dwellings open up before next week, i won't be buying a dwelling until i get to choose from the full range (festivious annoying buyer here lol).

Originally Posted by Krato

Also, where are rugs/welcome mats bought?

You can buy at least one rug from the vendor in the neighborhood. I'm guessing the other ones would be crafted.

Originally Posted by EisenMagus

So is there a "Return to House" ability/map for the main toon that purchased the house?

Yes, it's a skill you are given once you purchase it. You also get a port to the kinship house if your kin has one. Sadly, while you can give permissions to your personal house to alts/other players, these will not get the return skill. I'm hoping that gets changed.

just rechacking , if i buy tier one House do i have to pay every week as well ?

Originally Posted by Linwen

Sadly, while you can give permissions to your personal house to alts/other players, these will not get the return skill. I'm hoping that gets changed.

Yeah, if you can only have 1 house per account then it sorta belongs to all your characters, right?

Wait a sec, what if you have characters on different servers? Still only 1 house?

I have only checked out 1 standard elf house, 1 standard man house, and 1 elf kin house.

So my question is...how many floor plans are there? Are all the elf standard houses them same? etc...

Originally Posted by haplo88

I have only checked out 1 standard elf house, 1 standard man house, and 1 elf kin house.

So my question is...how many floor plans are there? Are all the elf standard houses them same? etc...

Yes, the floor plan is the same for all.

Ok...thanks...so the only reason to try and get a certain address is for vanity reasons...


From my limited time messing with it, seems like a great implementation of housing. Can't wait for it to go live.

Here is a 6mb JPEG of the Lorebook Map. Warning for dial-up, it's a big file.

I have added the Homestead zones for Man, Elf, and Hobbit so everyone can get a nice overview of the distances and placement. The Dwarf zone will be added once we can get back in there.

Enjoy.

As of the update to Roheryn this afternoon, housing upkeep costs have gone up:

Standard: 1g, 50s upkeep
Deluxe: 7g, 150s upkeep
Kinship: 15g, 300s upkeep

Updated upkeep prices

Ok, it says that you can only have one personal house per sever.....does that mean that even though I have 5 characters I can still only have one house. I have a hobbit, elf, man, and dwarf character. Will I be able to buy a house for each of them????

Originally Posted by ravhawk

Ok, it says that you can only have one personal house per sever.....does that mean that even though I have 5 characters I can still only have one house. I have a hobbit, elf, man, and dwarf character. Will I be able to buy a house for each of them????

One house per server means exactly what is says. Only one of your characters on any given server can buy a house.

The old upkeep prices were reasonable, these figures are too high to make housing enjoyable for a player like me. I guess the increase MAY be justified for guild housing, but not for T1 and T2 personal housing.

Also, I should be able to pay ahead of time for my fees as much as I want.

Tier 1 costs haven't increased, just the upkeep for Tier 2 and kinship houses. Tier 1 is still 50s.

I have a couple of questions:

1) Do you get a racial discount if you buy a house in an area of your race - e.g., Human Captain buying near Bree?

2) Do your bonuses stack for discounts - e.g., kinship bonus and resident bonus?

As a side-note, is it pragmatically worth it to pay 50+ silver upkeep per week, for a mere 10% discount (especially for casual players)?

What is the advantage of owning a house? Seems expensive with upkeep for what real benefit

Originally Posted by sirwayne

What is the advantage of owning a house? Seems expensive with upkeep for what real benefit

I bought a standard house for storage, as extra storage in the vault costs over 700 silver, and the house costs 1 gold. You can store 30 items in the house. Also you get a 10 percent discount from the vendors in your neighborhood, which is good for expensive potions and so on.

How do I buy storage? What is the chest named and who sells it?
How do I decorate the house?

As I recall, the standard house storage chest was sold by the house neighborhood "Housing Supplier" vendor. Look at the Map of your neighborhood to see where the vendors are, then the chest is there at a minimal price. Then you place the chest in your house where you want it.

Read the sticky "Rain's Decorating Guide" on this "Housing" forum to get all the info you'd ever want to know

Looked at Furnishing vendor - there was a "red chest" for sale, Is that storage? Or is that decorative like everything else.

I read Rain's guide, but it is all pictures. Doesn't tell me how to do it. I went into the house, dragged the rug out and tried to place it - the client asked me if I wanted to destroy the rug.

How do I see the hookpoints?

Normally it costs me much less than a gold to feel stupid.

with all the new updates was wondering if they made any changes to housing. i have a standard house but i need more storage is they a way to upgrade to a duplex or buy more storage chests. also if we want to buy a new house do we have to abandon the one we have now or can we sell it.

Originally Posted by Madmatt1976

with all the new updates was wondering if they made any changes to housing. i have a standard house but i need more storage is they a way to upgrade to a duplex or buy more storage chests. also if we want to buy a new house do we have to abandon the one we have now or can we sell it.

Currently the only way to move up to a better house is to abandon your current one. All you will get back as far as coin is unused upkeep. I am not sure if you have to unload storage and decor before abandoning or not. Deluxe comes with two storage and standard can only have the one. I guess the storage and extra hooks for decor is supposed to be enough incentive to want to pay the extra. I currently don't see it worth it until I have at least two characters like 40+. Or they offer much more incentives or improve it to upgrading from previous so that the coins spent buying the old house are put towards the price of the new house.

Originally Posted by LotRfan2000

Currently the only way to move up to a better house is to abandon your current one. All you will get back as far as coin is unused upkeep.

Correct.

Originally Posted by LotRfan2000

I am not sure if you have to unload storage and decor before abandoning or not.

No, it will go into the escrow at the bank just as it would if you lost the house due to nonpayment of maintenance. (Side note on that: Once Book 13 goes live, you will not lose your house for nonpayment. You will just be locked out of it until the maintenance is paid.)

I thought this would be an important note to add.


If you do a Character transfer. IE...move your toon from one server to the other and that toon owns a house then it is best to keep your house. Empty all the chests out but keep the house. You will find out that when your character appears on the new server you will be refunded the cost of the house and you can purchase a new house on the new server with that money.

I wish you would get some of your investment back when you switch houses, be it to a bigger one or to a prettier spot.
It would make sense that you would get a little back by selling the house back to the housing broker... instead of losing your investment completely.

Originally Posted by Veltkreeg

Can your alts use "return to house"?
No.

Is this still the case?

No, this was changed in Book 12. Alts can now recall to the house and receive neighborhood vendor discounts just like the house owner.

I don't see this question being ask.. so I will.


If your main char has a Kinship house, does your ALT have access to it, if he's not part of the Kinship?

Does a person get to keep his kinship house if his kinship disbanded or he's no longer the leader of the kinship?

There is no such thing as a "main" character. The server treats all characters equally. It has no knowledge of how or what you use a particular character for. The Kin Leader controls the Kin House and has to set permissions for who can do what. If the Kinship disbands the Kin House is put back on the market for sale. If someone else becomes the Kin Leader, then the new Kin Leader will control the Kin House. For more information, see the LOTRO Housing FAQs.

And to answer your specific question, anyone can gain access to any part of your Kinship house if you give them permission to do so. So if your main owns a Kinship house as the Kinship leader, he can grant special permission to your ALTs to access chests, decorations, etc. The only thing your alts will NOT have is the "travel to kinhouse" skill (unless you put them into the Kinship).