now i've only been to riften and markarth so far, so it could be only limited to these 2 cities, but i'm not getting any house buying options when talking to the jarl or the jarl's advisor in either city.


the 1st time i spoke to the jarl's advisor markarth the option was available, but i clicked on the conversation option that gave a bounty quest as it was the 1st one on the conversation list. afterwards i couldn't enter conversation with him until i'd completed the quest. now the only time i can enter conversation with him is when he has a new bounty for me or because i'm due a bounty reward.



I've heard pvssyr that reputuation plays a part in whether you can get a house in a city, but as the numbers for repuation (city/faction/individual) is hidden away in skyrim i have no way to work out if i'm near to the threshold, or even if i'm on the right track with my actions.


based on a google search i'm not the only one who's go no idea what criteria is needed to be fulfilled to get a house in either of these cities

So did you kill the scripted dragon fight by a watch tower near the town of Jarl?

no. so far the only dragon i've encountered is the one in the introduction/tutorial sequence at the start.

i'm not following the MQ at the moment. when i emerged from the tutorial the 1st thing i did was head back to the town and follow the road that the cart came down. (i was curious if it'd lead anywhere)

You have to do favors for them first.

Yeah - like in Oblivion, you need to have them like you. But without being able to see your Fame score on your character sheet.



The first cheap house is easily available if you follow the MQ a bit. But you can apparently also get the option to buy it if you do enough bounties & quests for them. It's in

like others, i've already done several for them and other NPCs in the towns...
if i could see a town repuatation number somewhere it'd really help me know though if i've done enough (heck, i don't even know if some town quests count against me or not, i mean there are some that i suppose could upset certain people, but there's no indication how the game mechanics function in that regard)

Its quite simple actually. You may buy a home in any major city (so far this is all that I am aware of), but you must first complete set tasks for each Jarl. Whiterun was actually the first city I was allowed to purchase a home in, due to some quests I completed through the main story. Speak to the Jarl's of each city, do them favors (complete their quests) and you will have the option to buy a home it each city.