I refuse to do the main quest..again...and I would want to to get the house in white run but I would have to become the thane..and the only way to do that is to do the main quest.

What houses can I get without the main quest

Any house but Breezehome.

I'm pretty sure you can get Breezehome too, just not the normal way. If you side with the Imperials in the civil war and complete it, you'll have the opertunity to buy it... pretty sure... not 100%. Anyway, you don't have to do much of the main quest to get Breezehome, just slay the dragon.

My understanding is that you can't talk to Jarl Balgruuf without starting the main quest. That includes doing the civil war questline.

I guess I just have a different interpretation of "do" than you have. Talking to the Jarl and getting a quest in my journal isn't "doing" it to me.

On the Xbox, it was impossible to get the house in Windhelm without starting the main quest, because you had to talk to Balgruuf, but Balgruuf wanted you to kill a dragon before reacting to the Stormcloak quest-line. I read in one of the patch notes that this has been addressed so if you back out of the initial conversation with Balgruuf and then do the Stormcloak quest, all will be fine, but I haven't tested that since the patch.


That's a pretty big quest for the main line. Completing it means the world will now be filled with dragons, which to someone trying to avoid the main quest, is a big deal.

Exactly, dragons are the most annoying thing now..

You should be able to get the house in Riften or Markarth without doing the MQ. Windhelm/Whiterun are out. I'm not certain about the Solitude house. IIRC, the quests for Thane-ship there don't involve the MQ, so that one should be available as well.