ArcheAge - How to Safely Buy and Sell Land
Recently about players being scammed when trying to sell their property. Typically the scams are carried out in a manner were the seller will agree to sell you his land for a price, let's say 300 gold for example, and happy by the opportunity to finally get some land the buyer will trade the gold to the seller and that, unfortunately, is were the transaction ends. The seller will not relinquish ownership of the property, he will simply take your ArcheAge gold and leave or log off.
In the opposite side, and likely less common method, is that the buyer will not trade money until they can place their farm. The seller will demolish their farm/house and the buyer will place his house/farm down and then refuse to pay the gold. This is much less common but there can be rare occurrences when it happens.
This is a very serious issue. How to safely buy and sell land in ArcheAge?
To sell the land you own you must have completed the construction of your house or farm first, otherwise you will not be able to sell it through the provided game systems. If you are purchasing land that hasn't been built first then you could see yourself in the first scenario mentioned at the beginning of this article so it is not recommended!
When selling property you need an item called an Appraisal Certificate. These can be purchased from the in game store for 300 credits but may also be available in the auction house. Appraisal Certificates are required to sell any property so make sure you come to an agreement with the seller. Some sellers ask that the buyer provide the Appraisal Certificate and other cases are the opposite, just make it clear during discussions to avoid any confusion.
Once the seller has possession of the Appraisal Certificate they can interact with their property by pressing F and the following screen will be displayed.
From this interface they can set a price and they can even sell to a specific buyer by clicking that option and entering the name of the player. By selecting a specific buyer, the property will not be able to be purchased by anyone except for the person named. Once a property is listed for sale you will see sign posts at the four corners notifying people that the property is for sale.
To purchase the property just interact with one of the sign posts and it will give you the option to buy it. If it is listed to sell to a specific buyer then only that person can buy it so if you come across the sign posts and can't buy the land then that is why. Please keep in mind that when you sell your large scarecrow farm you can not get another one on that character unless you buy it yourself, you can still obtain them from making alts though and selling the farm to your main character. Houses are different because you can just purchase another of the auction house or with Gilda Stars. You also can't sell the scarecrow gardens (small farms) in a legit way, anyone offering to sell you the space could be a scam so exercise caution.