When you go to mistveil keep and talk to the steward, ask her the house. When you say you will take it the good lady will start talking and give you the key. Cancel that dialog and go to the chest next to the throne. Quickly store your money in the chest before she gives you the key. Now get the money back. You should now have the key without losing any money. This will probably work with the furniture to.

Anyway, i saved it before i did this because i prefer the usual way. But this might come handy for the greedy people.
If you are going to do this, it will be smart to save before ''buying'' the house, since it might not always work.

Yep, works with Proudspire in Solitude as well.

Taking an advantages of glitches like that takes away from the RP enjoyment. Just to let you know.

My thief is fine with the idea of getting a free house. Why would that break RP? It's just a simply bait and switch operation. I show the Steward a bag full of money, let them count it, but quickly swap it for a bag of rocks when they are distracted fishing the key out of their pocket.

This works for all of them. It's even easier if you use the Slow Time shout.

I've never paid 'retail' for any house in this game.

Maybe they are not Roleplaying? Not everybody roleplays.

Not necessarily. My Thieves' Guild Master helped Maven become Jarl of the Rift and was given the house (and title of Thane) for helping her gain the throne so she didn't have to slip messages and wait for the things she wanted to happen to start happening.

...or maybe we're roleplaying that we're gypsies.