Hello,
To buy a house in Skingrad, you have to talk to Shum gro-Yarug. I can't find him anywhere (and believe me, I've looked!), but I get the red arrow icon close to the castle. I read somewhere that there's a bug and he dies falling off the bridge. Supposedly there's a way to resurrect him, but I can't figure it out.

thanks a bunch,
tommyx

If you are on the PC, you can ressurect him with the console.

See this as the game may think he is still dead unless you do this the correct way

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:NPCs#Console_IDs

Here are the character codes:

http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Console_Commands_%28Oblivion%29/Characters

It might be easier to just advance the quest, although you would also have to add all the Journal and console entries for all the upgrades at the same time. Somebody may have figured out that sequence already and have it published somewhere.