Housing

               ==The Benefits of Owning a House==
Every character can have at least one house by "buying" it at no cost (described in the Buying a House section below). 

Even if you have no interest in interacting with housing as gameplay, most players get the following basic benefits from owing at least one house.

'''Sales and Extra Storage:'''  
*Housing serves as a place from which a player can sell their goods to other players via the [[Broker|broker]].
:*Owning any inn room or house grants a character a maximum of 6 slots on the broker. No matter how many homes a character owns that number can not be exceeded. Limitations on buying and selling via the broker may apply based on your [[Free-To-Play|(free or paid) membership level]]
:*Special containers called [[Sales Display|Sales Displays]] can be placed in a house as furniture so other players can shop in your home. Sales Displays offer an advantage on the broker market: other players can shop from them and avoid the broker fee they would normally pay outside of your home.
*Home ownership grants a character a [[House Vault| house vault]] with 6 storage slots. Like the broker, owning multiple homes on one character will not increase the number of house vault slots that character has.
*Housing is also an excellent way to unclog the limited space in the [[Bank|bank]], by displaying [[Furniture|house items]] like those awarded when you complete [[Lore and Legend]] quests, [[Heritage Quest Timeline|Heritage Quests]], and [[Book Quests Timeline|Book Quests]]. 

'''Additional Travel Options:'''
*The [[Housing & Leaderboards]] now allows you to enter ''any house'' from ''any location'' within a (major) city that has player-housing. You must have a minimum of Visitor access (described below). The process of doing this is described on the Housing & Leaderboards page. 
*Many players use [[House Portal]]s to turn one or more houses they own into a centralized "hub" for travel, allowing them to travel between cities (including those of the opposite alignment), to travel all of the world using [[House items that transport|a variety of house items for travel]]. The most popular house-related travel item is [[Magic Door to the Guild Hall]], that allows you to instantly return to your [[Guild Hall|guild hall]] without using the (spell) normally used to do so.    


===='''Housing as Gameplay'''====
:''Only the general topic of furniture and decorating is touched on in this article, because this article is an on the general topic of housing.''
There are numerous reasons players may choose to own a house, but many do because the robust housing in EQ2 has unleashed the creativity of players of who enjoy all types of game-play. Over the years owning a house has gone ''well'' beyond the concept of "making a nice home" and grown into an activity enjoyed by those who need a break from the everyday "grind" that can occur with constant adventure [[Quest-a-holic|quests]] or [[Tradeskill|working on a tradeskill]].

Housing as form of gameplay is primarily tied to the concept of "publishing" a house using the Ratings tab in the [[Housing & Leaderboards]] window. Published houses may be simple homes that have been artfully [[Decorating Houses|decorated]], while others may be complex structures built from scratch using [[Housing Item Limit and Building Blocks|building blocks]], like pyramids or spaceships. 

Publishing a house is covered on the page about [[Decorating Houses|decorating houses]].

Housing is a popular space for gameplay with players who enjoy [[Roleplay|roleplaying]] (RP), because it can be customized to suit RP interests and needs. While RP can occur in any location throughout the larger game world of EQ2, housing used to this purpose allows player to create spaces that suit a specific purpose, like restaurants, bars, barracks, and more.