72 articlesThe Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has just been remastered, and many people are checking it out for the first time or coming back to it after not touching it for many years. In case you did not know or have already forgotten, you can actually purchase certain houses in the game to act as your storage facility and more. In this guide, we will show you how to get one early in the game.
How to Get a House Early | Imperial City Waterfront
Early in the game, you have options of “free” housing that lets you hide from threats or sleep in a bed to level up. However, these are not really good choices if your goal is to have an actual livable space where you can store items, because containers in unowned spaces typically refresh their contents over time.
One of the first choices that you can pay for and requires no quests whatsoever is the Shack for Sale within the Imperial City Waterfront District area. This little shack will cost you a total of 2000 gold, which is a pretty big amount for the early game.
To buy it, you have to go over to the Office of Imperial Commerce within the Market District of the Imperial City. It has a sign right outside the door, and since it is right alongside the road, you cannot possibly miss it.
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Inside, you will find an NPC named Vinicia Melissaeia. She will offer to sell you the house for 2000 gold if her disposition towards you is high enough, which is around 50. If this requirement is not met, just open the persuasion menu and bribe her to raise it. Surely you have enough spare money for that now.
Upon purchasing the house, she will hand you the keys to the shack, which should now have a new name reflecting your current ownership of it. Just head over to the Waterfront District and open it up!
If you are struggling to find it for some reason, just track the quest to “Buy a house in the Imperial City”. This will add a marker on your map showing you the exact spot to go to, and this will go away once you enter for the first time.
When you enter it for the first time, it will be pretty empty. This is because houses in the game usually require you to furnish it as well by purchasing packs from certain vendors. In this case, the quest will tell you to go to Sergius Verus, who is at the Three Brothers Trade Goods.
Go back to the Imperial City Market District and go to the store in question. Again, the game will give you a quest marker if you are tracking it. There, you will find that he sells the following items at varying prices of typically several hundred gold each:
- House Dining Area – Adds some food-related items and a rug to make the floor look less empty.
- House Kitchen Area – This will add a cupboard and another rug, along with other miscellaneous items that serve no practical purpose.
- House Sitting Area – This will simply add some chairs and a table to your shack.
- House Storage Area – This upgrade will add various storage options that you can actually take advantage of, including a chest on the floor.
- House Wall Hangings – This is a purely cosmetic upgrade that adds a bunch of stuff to your walls, making it look less barren and dilapidated.
It is worth noting that most containers within a player owned house is completely safe to store items in and will not respawn over time. However, there are a few exceptions, and we have no idea if the remaster introduced new bugs or mechanics to any of the indoor containers.
Since people are still testing stuff out, it is highly recommended to stick to just the chests in your houses as these are usually the safest bets. If you want to use other stuff like wardrobes and cupboards, check the extensive wikis online to see if they are safe first, as players are still testing and updating those as we speak.
And that is everything you need to know in order to get your first purchasable house in the game, as well as what you can do with it. If you do not want to rely on indoor storage, check out our guide on how to increase carry weight in Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered for some tips on how to carry around all of your items instead.
