So ever since September 4th when the Heartfire DLC was available, I've had no trouble purchasing land from Dawnstar or Morthal. But when I reached Falkreath the steward wouldn't give the option to "buy land" it literally took me 2 whole days to figure out the fix and workaround, so here it is. Try these step by step solitions and I'm certain they will fix the Falkreath glitch. In order to do this fix, you MUST be "in a good standing" aka "friends" with the Jarl of Falkreath.

Solution 1:

Make sure you have these side quest completed IF you have them unfinished in your miscellaneous section!

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Rare_Gifts

Once you have completed the "Rare gifts" side quest, then continue to Solution 2, step 4.

Solution 2:

Step 1:
- Go to "storage" on the xbox system options
- Clear system cache
- Uninstall both Dawnguard and Heartfire
- Delete the title update
(the only items left should be any saves you've got and the game installed, if you have it installed)

Step 2:
- Turn xbox off and then back on again
- Start up Skyrim
- Load the latest saved game on your hardrive and it will say something like "are you sure to want to continue" obviously press Yes and continue
- Fast travel to any place that isn't Falkreath right away and save the game on a NEW slot

Step 3:
- Fast travel to Falkreath and the courier should appear within a couple of minutes
- If the courier doesn't show, then enter any place and go back out and then the courier should come up to you
- You should then get the Falkreath letter and adoption letter.

Step 4:
- Head over to the jarl's longhouse and talk to the Jarl and he should give you the option to do a "job" (side quest) do all the quest he wants and continue
- Remember, you DON'T have to be thane in order to purchase plot of lands
- Once the Jarl of Falkreath allows you to buy land, head over to the steward and she should give you the option to do so


These solutions helped me a lot, I now have all 3 houses build, I haven't freezed and have all 65/65 achievements completed! I hope these solutions helped you!

You won't get the adoption letter if you haven't killed Grelod the Kind. That is the trigger for that. Also, saves made with update 1.7 can't be reloaded after deleting the update file from the HDD. It wouldn't let me, anyway.

somewhere you will need to reinstall hearthfire at least? will not work without it

No, you can reload a save without the DLC, the game will tell you that "X is not installed, some items could disappear from your game. Continue?" Or something along those lines. Even in the game where I completed Dawnguard, I was curious to see what would happen if deleted the DLC and tried to reload that save. It just wiped out everything DG related and let me continue.

yes but you cannot play hearthfire with out it installed

Not sure how clearing the cache will help make the quest show up, but ok.

There is a bug where you kill his housecarl and you will be forever in his disfavor, even if you were previously thane. There is no way around it for xbox players except by replacing the thane through the civil war quests and joining the stormcloaks.

So that's it? They should launch a patch fixing this bug. I do not think that I'm in "good standing" with Falkreath's Jarl, but I'll give a try... Things I already tried:

1 - Looking up in my quest list (including miscellaneous) to see if there is anything left related... Nope
2 - Uninstalling Dawnguard. The game started to freeze, so I got no progress...
3 - Starting over the Hearthfire DLC and fast travelling directly to Falkreath (I'm not a thane there), the courier found me but the only letters he gives me are the adoption one and the one to buy a plot in Dawnstar.....

I will try those steps though I don't believe they would work.

I have a solution for someone who:
1. hasn't finished the Main Quest
2. hasn't started the Civil War Quests

1. Play through the MQ until you get to "Season Unending"
2. Convince General Tullius to join the peace council
3. Speak to Ulfric and tell him you'd like to join the Stormcloaks
4. Speak to Galmor and complete "Joining the Stormcloaks"
4. Once "Joining the Stormcloaks" is completed, make sure to back out of conversation with Galmor after reciting the oath (if you start "The Jagged Crown," Ulfric will not speak to you again until it is completed)
5. Speak to Ulfric and convince him to join the peace council
6. Once at the peace council, let Elenwen stay
7. When the Imperials demand to have the Reach, let them have the hold of your choosing (Falkreath may or may not be available at this point)
8. After the Imperials attempt to leave and Esbern makes his speech, Falkreath should be available if it was not available before
9. Once the peace council is over, travel to Falkreath and complete Jarl Dengeir of Stuhn's quests if they have not already been completed
10. Once you are on good terms with the newly reappointed jarl, talk to his steward, Tekla, to buy the land
11. Now that the house is bought, you may start and complete the "The Jagged Crown" by giving it over to whichover side you wish to side with

Note: If done this way, everything should work out perfectly fine, except I do not believe you can get the housecarl, Rayya. According to UESP, you cannot regain your status as thane in Falkreath after switching sides (source: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Thane).

I tried the steps above but my game just freezes....

No solution so far, and don't tell me to start another game because I already spend 116 hours in this game. What I want is a fixing patch from Bethesda!

will not work
i was thane under siddgeir
did the stormcloaks
made dengier jarl and became his thane as well
yes when u decide on which camp u r going to be with
u can become thane again
i have two swords from falkreath, whiterun, and one in markeath and morthol

had no issues with two of my characters getting this plot of land
but my last one i did
the only difference was i did deniers quest for that letter after he became jarl
the other two i never did it at all..

Thank you very much for this tip. I followed these directions to a tee and they worked. However, I would like to note something about them. For anyone who attempts this fix, make certain that you are facing as close to Ulfric as possible when taking the oath. The very moment you are finished with it, "The Jagged Crown" automatically starts and Ulfric will not speak with you. Even if you back out of the conversation, you will be pigeonholed into "The Jagged Crown". You literally have a split second to turn towards Ulfric and ask him to show up at the peace council immediately after finishing the oath before the quest starts. Likewise, the timing MUST be precise. If you are too fast, you will have to do the oath all over again. Too slow, then you'll have to reload your save. It took me several tries, but I finally got it.

I also wanted to add that as of today, I can confirm that using Knights of the Shadows method will reconfigure Siddgeir's disposition should you opt to side with the Empire. I ran into the Dark Brotherhood glitch, but using his method fixed it and allowed me to keep my Thane status even under Siddgeir.

Spent hours last night doing everything i could think of, speaking to everyone in Falkreath. Making sure i had done all the rare gifts quests and i still can't buy the plot. Even did loads of the small tasks like chopping wood and harvesting crops.

Did you do the bandit killing quest? You can get that from the steward.