How to Buy a House in Whiterun in Skyrim

Complete "Bleak Falls Barrow"

Start the quest "Bleak Falls Barrow". This quest is part of the main storyline in Skyrim, and you will receive the quest from the Farengar Secret-Fire wizard at the Dragonsreach location in the city of Whiterun. This quest is given immediately after the "Before the Storm" quest.

Note: You can make things much easier for yourself by going to Bleak Fall Barrow before even going to the city of Whiterun. You can start the Golden Claw quest by talking to Lucan Valerius in Riverwood. This is the step to get all the items you need from Bleak Falls Barrow and give them to the Farengar Secret-Fire wizard right after accepting the quest without having to return to the same place.

Go to Bleak Falls Barrow. You can find this dungeon south of Whiterun and west of Riverwood. There will be many bandits outside, so you need to eliminate them before entering. You'll find the entrance to Bleak Falls Barrow at the top of the stairs in the ruins.

Kill the two bandits in the first room and continue. You will soon encounter a robber who pulls the wrong lever, triggering a trap that harms himself.

Rotate the column. You can look at the slab above the gate and next to the lever to determine in what order the column needs to be rotated. Let's rotate the column to "serpent", "serpent" and "whale". This is the step to pull the lever and move on.

Free Arvel, then kill him. You'll find Arvel the Swift trapped in a spider web deep below the dungeon. Hitting the spider web is the way to free him, and he will run like hell. Try to kill him right away so you can easily get the item from his body. If you don't take action, he will be killed by a Draugr creature after running a short distance, or impaled by a spike trap.

Arvel will cower for a moment after being freed from the web, and this is the ideal time to kill him.

Get the Golden Claw and use it to solve the puzzle. You will find this item on Arvel's body. The Golden Claw is an item needed to pass the Three Ring puzzle in the dungeon later on. When you zoom in on Golden Claw's palm in your inventory, you'll see the exact sequence of the rings (from top to bottom: bear, hummingbird, owl).

Read the wall of text and defeat the dragon. Word Wall will teach you the spell Unrelenting - one of the most useful spells in the game. After reading the wall of text, you will be attacked by the Draugr Overlord creature. Destroy the dragon and get the Dragonstone.

Give the Dragonstone to the wizard Farengar Secret-Fire at Dragonsreach in the city of Whiterun. This is the step to complete the quest so you can buy a house in Whiterun.

Buy house

Talk to the Jarl. After completing the quest, talk to the Jarl in Dragonsreach. He will inform you that the house is now available to buy and that you should meet with Proventus Avenicci.

Find Proventus Avenicci in the city of Whiterun. You can usually find him near the throne in Dragonsreach. If not seen, he is likely in his bedroom or dining in the Great Porch area.

If you do not buy a house before starting the "Battle for Whiterun" quest for the Stormcloaks faction, you will later have to buy a house from Brill in Dragonsreach.

Buy a house for 5000 gold. The character Proventus will sell you the house if you agree to pay 5000 gold. If you don't have enough gold yet, fight in a few nearby dungeons and sell your loot to the merchant in the city of Whiterun.

Buy furniture (furnishings) from Proventus character. Your home will look pretty basic when you first buy it, but you can buy additional furniture and decorations from Proventus. When you buy more, the furniture will be automatically delivered to your home.

You can buy furniture by room. For example: Furniture for the living room includes 2 weapon racks, 1 bookshelf, 1 cupboard, 1 small table and 2 small chairs. Furniture for the bedroom includes 3 tea tables, 1 chest with many drawers, 1 desk, 1 chest, 2 chairs and 1 shield.

Search for your new home. After purchasing the home, you will receive the keys and can start using it. The house is called "Breezehome", and you can find it east of "Warmaiden's" just inside the west gate of Whiterun.

Home use

Safely store items in containers. Many containers in Skyrim will reset after a while, making this an unsafe place to store valuable items in the long term. However, the container in your home will never be reset, allowing you to safely store all your leftovers while you go on many adventures.

Many players will sort different types of items into different containers to make it easier to find the items later. For example: You can put all the costumes and armor in containers in the bedroom, and store all the ingredients in the kitchen.

The weapon rack will automatically store equipped weapons when you use them, and this is a great way to display more valuable weapons.

Upgrade the kitchen to cook ingredients and make food. When upgrading the kitchen, you will have a cooking pot. You can use this pot to combine ingredients to create a dish that is richer in nutrients and healthier.

Most dishes require salt as an ingredient.

Upgrade the Alchemy Laboratory to prepare medicine. The alchemy laboratory allows you to use ingredients to brew very powerful potions. You can combine up to three ingredients (two base ingredients and one additional ingredient) to create a variety of useful potions and terrible poisons. The alchemy laboratory is the most expensive because it costs 500 Gold. You can learn how to prepare medicine yourself.

If you have the "Hearthfire" expansion pack, you can replace the alchemy laboratory with the Children's Bedroom. This is the step that allows you to adopt a child to live with you. You can learn for yourself how to adopt in Skyrim.

Take advantage of the nearby blacksmith. One of the best things about Breezehome is its proximity to Warmaiden's. This means you can quickly forge and repair equipment without having to fumble around looking for much of what you need.

Know that you can't do anything at Breezehome. Breezehome does not have an Enchanting Table or Mannequin. That means you can't enchant items without traveling all the way to Dragonsreach. Without mannequins, you can't display your favorite armor sets. Breezehome is also quite far from the Thieves Guild faction's merchant house in Honningbrew Meadery.

Lesley Montoya

Update 04 November 2023