Been going on adventures and putting my new items in Delphine's little chest at the Riverwood Tavern.

Now I am selling these items to the Riverwood Trader, who will buy - as far as I know - everything you got.

So I've been doing that, and I got - so far - 4176 Gold - but I still got a lot more items to sell.

Should I purchase a house? I know it should be up to me, but do you think it is worth it? What is the reason for it, and what can you do with it - other than sleep in it and store items in it?

Or do you think I should keep working on my Smithing Skill (which takes money) and make some Dragon Armor? I can easily find the supplies, and I got more than enough Dragon Scales to make it.

I just want to know if a House is something I should invest in.

Go to Whiterun and finish that part of the MQ. Buy the house there for 5K gold. Several merchants there to sell stuff to.

If you ever run out of money in Skyrim you can always just chop wood. One of my characters left Riverwood with over 8K gold and a lot of it was just from chopping wood.

Well yeah, a fellow in Whiterun, maybe the Jarl, offered me a place to buy, but I never did.

I went to Riverwood and chopped wood, but I only ended up with like 6 pieces.... is it infinite? Can I just chop wood all day there?

You can just keep chopping wood, it never runs out. Also using NPC containers to store things in not a good idea as they will probably disappear over time. Containers in your own property are always safe to put things in.

I waited until I had around 10k before I bought a house. Maybe I'm just frugal, but I hate the idea of having less than a couple thousand on hand.

The advantages of buying a house are many. Storing stuff in a cheast or barrel svcks. Especially when you're talking about mixing alchemy ingredients. In a house you at least have space to store everything in a seperate plac somewhere (weapons in one place, alchmey stuff in another, etc.). Plus an alchemy lab and an enchanting table (except for Whiterun).

The most convenient house is probably Honeyside due to being able to do alchemy and enchanting in your home; and having 3 vendors who everything and two more--one who buys jewels and jewelry apparel and the other who buys weapons, armor, and associated items. The latter is the blacksmith who has everything for smithing except a smelter, which is a minor annoyance. But FT to Whiterun real quick and then back. It only adds about 45 seconds total time.

And if you've done all the City Influence Quests you'll have 5 more Vendors in the TG. And Tonalia will have 4K on her to buy stuff from you. I

My next character's starting in the TG before ever going to Whiterun.

I don't mind the enchanting table being in the castle at Whiterun because there is also a mage merchant standing right there also.

What I really like about Whiterun's house is the fact that there are two smith merchants right next door. Just selling to them can net you over 3K gold, and most my characters have been Smithing craftsmen. Then you can run up the street to sell potions, then finish up at the common traders merchant.

Another thing I like about Whiterun is the fact that Drunken Huntsman is never closed. You can come back from a dungeon dive and make a quick stop there do sell off some things no matter what time it is.

I've bought the Whiterun house a couple of times, but I'm about done with Dragons with my newer characters. Honeyside in Riften is my new favorite. Enchanting and alchemy stations, a tanning rack, a back door that leads directly to the countryside...and three different merchants who will buy all the swag you've looted from dungeons and dead bandits. The big plus for me is getting the house without starting the MQ, AND if you've got more than 5000, but less than the 8000 asking price, they'll sell it to you anyway.

I tried to get the Windhelm house for my Nord character, but there's something in that questline I'm missing. Solitude is too big and too expensive and I don't even go to Markarth unless I have to, something about that city just gives me the creeps.

I tried Honeyside last time, but I hated how little storage there was in that place. In Breezehome I had a chest for ingots, a chest for clothes, a chest for gems/jewlery, and cabinet for soul gems, a barrel for ingredients. The only thing l liked about Honeyside was the manniquines and more weapon racks. Honeyside really needs more storage downstairs, especially a barrel or something next to the alchemy table. It's impossible to stack and store things on the shelves.

Yes, you should buy a house.Get Breezehome, it's the cheapest and a good place to start. But the nicest houses are the ones in solitude, markarth and windhelm.
Honeyside is in that slum rifton, so despite being ok, it's not so great I want to spend any time there.

I find I spend a lot of time in Breezehome, because it's a nice place and has shops close to it.

There are plenty of storage opportunities in Honeyside - 1 chest, 2 wardrobes, 3 night stands, 2 cabinets, 3 barrels, 1 kitchen cabinet. Honeyside is my preferred home. I just love sitting on the porch, sipping some mead and watching the Sunset! Oh plus it comes with a cute, little garden!


That's RIFTEN and the Rift is probably the prettiest countryside in the game. Sure, Riften has its issues, but I rather live with a bunch of Thieves than a pack of Werewolves who smell like wet dogs! =p LOL

Riften ain't so bad. It's better than Windhelm, the ghetto of Skyrim. And Honeyside is small but if you've done all the TG City Influence quests it's easily the most functional house in the game.

Can you explain that one to me? Why would doing TG quests make the house better?

I always buy every house I can, but I use the exploit for the houses and the upgrades.

Like mentioned you can continually loop wood-chopping - you'll eventually be over encumbered, but you can chop forever. Make sure you're selling to the mill owners and not general vendors.

You can smith Ebony, Daedric, and Dragon past the armor cap so it's really about aesthetics and/or personal choice. For example, on my warrior dude I wear Daedric armor most of the time, but wear Dragonplate when doing the MQ. On my assassin chick I wear Forsworn or Fur (bikini+shawl version) most of the time, but wear Dragonscale for the MQ. With the Light Armor perks I've smithed the Forsworn and Fur past the cap, so it's pretty much about preference.

One final thing: don't ever store anything in barrels...anywhere. They respawn and you will lose whatever is in them.

Riften was my first house.I used the housecarls room for alchemy storage.It was right around the corner.

That's where my thief stores alchemy ingredients.

I bought Breezehome first and then added Honeyside. One of my friends did the Stormcloak attack on Whiterun and hasn't been able to find the steward to buy Breezehome, so it may be you can't buy it after that battle - I bought it early on . I have since been told that you may be able to by the house from Brill? after the battle but only if he hasn't been found dead in the street following the battle..in which case there is no plan C.

I also use the housecarl's dresser for alchemy ingredient storage in Honeyside. I also put wide-mouthed baskets on the floor next to the alchemy table to drop ingredients into. In the room with the arcane enchanting table, I placed three big black kettles to put my soul gems in. One for petty, one for lesser, one for common. I don't collect greater or grand soul gems because I use them right away to enchant weapons, armor, and jewelry. Otherwise, Honeyside has plenty of storage upstairs, as Argona pointed out . (Be careful about the table at the foot of the bed. I lost soul gems stored in it for some reason, of course that could have just been a glitch for me on that play-through, I don't know. I didn't lose anything else, just the soul gems. I play on Xbox 360.) To answer the OP, I would definitely buy a house! It just makes the role playing better. I feel like I really live in Skyrim. Using the room in Riverwood is functional, but it does not feel like it is mine, it is really Delphine's room. It is a good place to store stuff until you buy your own house, but I still would not feel as if my stuff is safe there. With my own house, I know for certain that it is safe storage.

If you're worried about buying a house and not having any money left, there are quite a few items in the houses that you can sell if you don't want to use them, such as strength potions, alchemy ingredients, weapons, and shields. I've never gone through and sold all of the stuff in any of the houses, but I would guess that there is easily 500 probably more in each house worth of stuff to sell.

Windhelm house (Hjerim) WOULD be the best house in the game if it worked. I've managed to get through the questline to buy it (I know a lot of people can't even get that part to work), but most of the display containers are bugged and eat any item you put into them (except for the mannequins which work). Whiterun house is too small for me and you can't put an enchant table in, I also don't like the Solitude house and considering it is the most expensive house it is really poor in quality. I've never acquired the house in Riften before but I love the one in Markath. It is so spacious for the amount of gold it costs. The downside is Markath is a pretty annoying city to get around, take the wrong staircase and you have to backtrack or take a risk and hope the fall damage isn't fatal. On the plus side the house itself is awesome inside, I love the Dwarven Architecture and it has a handy bin right outside your front door (theres a large sack I stuff everything I cant sell into). Word of warning though the Housecarl is a bit scary, being a male character I get quite scared when I hear "always nice to see you My Thane!" in his gruff voice.

Once you've established the influence of the TG in all the major towns, there are 4 additional merchants in the Ragged Flagon, and Tonilla has a ton of gold. This really makes Riften the town with the most merchant gold available at any time:
Bersi: 750(+500)
Balimund: ~1000(+500)
Grelka: 750
Brand-Shei: 750
Madesi: 750
Elgrim: 750(+500)
Wrylandiah: 750(+500)
Tonilla: 4000
smith dude in the Ragged Flagon: ~1000
alchemy dude in the RF: 750
general store in the RF: 750
other general store in the RF: 750
--------------------------------------------
Total: 12750 (+2000)

If you add the food vendors, who have such pityful amounts of money that I usually ignore them, then it's an additional few hundred gold.


Whiterun in addition to the glitched Creeper in Riverwood has more (because of the Creeper), but you have to cover wider distances to get to all the merchants there.