I’m considering buying a house. I’ve just made enough money from the AH to buy a small house, which consists of two rooms. I’m limiting myself to the Bree/Shire areas, because I love the lore from there and I think the houses are cute. That said, my choices are the following:
A small Bree house.
Or a small hobbit style house.
My other option is to keep saving my gold, and eventually buy a deluxe house, which is generally three, much-bigger rooms. They’re 7g each, and gold seems rather hard to make in this game (another post for another day). The deluxe houses are pictured below.
I’m partial to the hobbit houses, even though I’d have to stoop to get inside. Tiny hobbits, tiny doors, not meant for giant elves.
I have a few concerns about buying a house at this point in the game. The first one is that they all seem very out of the way. They’re all pretty far from auction houses and either of the big towns in the area (Bree-town and Michel Delving). So, I don’t know how much I’d be spending on travel costs, and what the point of having a house would be, other than the cool factor.
People in my kinship said the main point of buying a house is for the extra storage, but I’m not yet finding that to be a problem. My bank is getting sort of full, but I can get another bank slot for only 45 silver (as opposed to 950 silver for a house and 50 silver a week in upkeep). I also don’t yet play multiple characters, so I wouldn’t need to share items easily between characters.
The other main issue I see in buying a house, is the fact that I’d be spending almost all my money at this point. I have about 1g 500silver. I’d have about 500silver left over, which might seem like a lot to some, but it doesn’t to me. I have skill upgrades to think about, and repairs, and crafting materials. At level 35 a character can buy a mount, which I heard costs around 3.5gold. I’d really like a mount in order to be able to travel faster, and maybe after that point, it would be more practical to buy a house, because I wouldn’t need to pay for a stable horse to get to my house.
EverQuest2 had player housing, and I loved it. The houses were all in the main cities, close to the broker and anything else a character could need. Platinum was incredibly easy to make in that game, and I didn’t feel bad spending 2plat to upgrade from my one room acorn (I was a little fairy who lived in a city built in the branches of some trees) to a two room acorn. I became a carpenter and made a bunch of furniture, and had a lot of fun. In LOTRO, I’m not sure how much furniture costs, what kind there is, who makes it. In EQ2, it seemed like you could spend your entire time in the game making your house look cool. I always liked to go visit random people’s houses and see what their decorating style was like. I haven’t found a way to go inside anyone’s house, so I really have no idea what furniture is like yet.
I think I’ll wait to buy a house. As much as I’d love one, just to say I have one, I don’t need one yet. I think I’ll want a three room house when the time comes. When I’m in the three room houses, I walk from room to room, and imagine which room will be the kitchen, and which will be my bedroom, and what the living room will look like.
