the title pretty much says it all, i cant buy the house in windhelm i have done the murder quest but still i am unable to buy this house, is this because i must become thane first? i had the house on another charc and never had this problem.. any and all help will be great thank you ^^... playing on ps3 btw (haters gona hate)

Did you do any of the civil war quest? Per the wiki;

"You will have to capture Whiterun and Falkreath for the Stormcloaks (if you joined the Stormcloaks) or complete The Battle For Windhelm (if you sided with the Imperials) before this quest becomes available."

The Jarl will then offer to make you Thane if you help people of Eastmarch and if you buy the house. So talk to him first.

thanks ill give that a go, i was thinking it could of been something like that but the didnt say that had to be done so i guessed id ask here, thanks for the fast reply ^.^

In order for the house to be available for sale, the murder quest has to be completed. In order for you to be allowed to buy it, you must be a Stormcloak and have gotten to a certain point in the war. IIRC Ulfric will tell you when that happens, letting you know that he will allow you to buy property in the city if you so desire. The property is actually purchased through the steward Jorleif.

You don't have to be Thane to buy the house, but you do have to buy the house in order to become Thane. It may also require you to progress a little bit further in the CW before Ulfric will offer you the title and tell you what the requirements are.

And here's the thing, if you are reporting back to him after finished CW battles, usually he will address the CW situation right off and then tell you what your next assignment is, he will not bring up the possibility of making you Thane and the necessary dialogue options may not appear for you in your responses to the convo about the CW stuff. However, if you disengage from conversation and then re-engage him after the CW convo is out of the way, and you are at the point where becoming Thane is a possibility, you will get the option to ask "is there anything else you require" or something like that and *that* is what triggers the Thane conversation.

That place is messed up anyway. svcks how you have to progress in the CW to purchase it.

It's perfectly realistic. Windhelm is the capital of the Stormcloaks, it wouldn't make sense for someone of unknown or debatable allegiance to walk in and be allowed to buy property and live there while they are at war with the Empire. It would be a security risk. Besides which, every Jarl requires that you provide some unique service that is near and dear to his/her heart; naturally in Windhelm you are expected to fight for the cause. That just makes sense.

If you play the Legion side, obviously you're not going to get the house until the Legion holds the city. Also makes perfect sense.

Ah, OK. That explains why I still haven't been able to buy it with my empire-aligned altmer. I just finished the CW, and haven't gone back to the Windhelm palace. I've been too busy trying to get this Hadvar guy to quit following me around Whiterun.

I've managed to purchase the house via console commands but there are some bugs in doing so.