Which should I do? I'm reading conflicting stories of bugged items in the house because people bought the house before completing the quest. What's truth?

Play it safe and wait until after you complete it. What's the downside of waiting?

I thought you needed to buy the house in order to start the quest.

I cannot even start the quest that allows you to buy the house.

On your 2nd or 3rd trip to the city it activates the quest with a guard and 3 people looking over a dead girl. That's how mine started.

I haven't progressed it any because of the house situation. Don't want to waste my time with it if it's bugged as bad as people say it is.

All the weapon racks don't work.

Very odd, I might say.

I would say save before you do it so you can try both ways if you have to. For me (xbox) I did blood on ice than rescued the soldiers from fort neu... (Stormcloak),THEN I bought the house. No bugs *knock on wood* but when I bought decorations I paid for the blood clean several times before the option disappeared, and the mess was gone.

I bought the house during the civil war quest, then on my way to see it the first time I got the quest. Finished the quest and my house is fine, or sort if fine because nothing on the place works but that's because Bethesda released a half finished game and doesn't have anything to do with Blood on the Ice.

Really even if you get a perfect version of the house it us still so [censored] broken it's not worth it. None of the weapon displays work, they mannequins are broken and the contents are constantly rattling and falling over, weapon racks don't work, display cases don't work, pretty much anything that makes the house better then breezehome does not work. Can you tell I'm [censored] mad about it?

I've only had 2 Dagger Racks that didn't work. Hjerim is actually my favorite house. It's big and roomy and has a nice armory. Do you still have the bloody mess in the house?

If you are on PC, check out this thread http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1303955-hjerim-house-purchase-depite-quest-bug/page__fromsearch__1

I was able to clean my house with just one console command df492.disable , this cleaned up the bloody mess.

I bought it before, and the quest was bugged to all hell.

Buy it after the quest. The quest itself requires you to search through a bloody mess, so cleaning it up when buying the house can screw up the quest.

I bought the house before starting the quest....it worked out for me:

1-Bought the house.

2-Visited the house before purchasing anythig else.

3-Blood on the ice started.

4-Investigated everything which had an investigation tag.

5-Made sure to pick up the butcher flyers and grabbed the butchers journals as well as an amulet.

6-Next step activated to find viola.....I found viola and spoke with her, she advised me to speak with the steward and she pointed the finger at a suspect.

7-Instead of the steward I confronted the accused person that viola mentioned. He advised me he was innocent and we hatched a plan to catch the real killer.

8-Next step activated to catch the killer at night in the market place. I go to the marketplace at around 10 pm and catch the killer in the act and murder him, then proceed to loot his body.

9-Finished quest then proceeded to choose clean the house option and went back to the house to verify it in fact had been cleaned, it was.

10-Went back to buy remaining decorations, and since I was stormcloak and taken over that city I was a thane and had my housecarl ready to go.

The ONLY bugs I had were an amulet stuck in my inventory (no biggy) and the first murder victim (another way to activate blood on the ice) was still there and did not go away (i threw her in the bushes to hide her butchered body)