I bought Benirus Manor from that toad in Anvil and talk about a dump! I wouldn't even call it a fixer upper. Next time I see that guy who sold it to me he gets some blade.... :verymad:

Have you slept there yet? I recommend it if you have not done so. Save first.

I am afraid to sleep there. I would expect cooties and bed bugs or worse. Place is a dump.

That was the first house I ever bought. What a bargin. Pretty awsome quest though.

Buffy said I should sleep there so I slept there and now i got cooties, bedbugs and foul smelling ghosts.

Just one tidbit of warning: If you choose to "disinfect" the place, make sure you don't have anything important stored there beforehand.

Yes, indeed. The containers will reset and you'll lose anything you put in them before the "cleanup."

Houses are lovely and great to roleplay with them. I like just to stay http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/25574-1-1246783541.jpg and relax while watching at the sea.

They're also the logical way to store items that you don't want them to carry with you, but you don't want to inmediately sell either (mathoms). Thus, having at least 1 house is basic in my opinion...

For most of my characters, the only really useful houses are the Waterfront Shack, because of its central location, and Rosethorn Hall, because it's like a museum. The rest are money sinks. Pretty much any character that I play long enough ends up buying all of them though, just because they end up with more money than they can spend and they might as well.

Potions (the liquid kind) are relatively useful generally, and most of my characters at least carry healing, magicka and feather potions, plus odds and ends that are useful in a pinch - silence, paralyze, invisibility.... The parchment "potions" the OP asked about are pretty much just light loot. They always pick them up, just because they have a good weight to value ratio, but I can't remember the last time anybody actually used one.

My main character Sabarel Tatheth owns all of the houses including DLC ones because of her duties as Arch Mage of the Mages Guild. She doesn't like to stay in the Imperial City running the guild from there so goes about the towns staying in her own place while she attends to Guild business. Hailing from Anvil herself it was only right that she had to have one of the largest houses in town and its where she likes to spend as much of her free time as she can just staring out at the vast reaches of the ocean.

As for scrolls she sells what ever ones she gets straight to a guild vendor so that they can be used by people that have working knowledge of Magic and won't mis-use them or use them for the wrong purpose. Potions normally get sold to a vendor for top price due to her haggling abilites and that they are always top-notch.

The only house that I visit on a regular basis is the Shack on the Waterfront, I use it for a regeants dump. Sabarel likes to not waste time mixing new potions every five minutes so she stores them all up there and comes back once a week or so to mix loads of potions.

where is battlehorn castle?

It is NW of Chorrol, but only if you have the Fighter's Stronghold Official Plug In.

More info here: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Official_Plug-ins

Good points here. Septims are easy to find so we got that covered.
As a ranger or hunter to take an example, a house isn′t needed as he lives in the wild and doesn′t need to store stuff. My character Lothran is somewhat like that from time to time but I find it nice to have a house, especially in my favourite town Bruma. I have two more actually and all for practical purposes; storing stuff. As Lothran keeps dragging home more and more loot he refuses to get rid of, I had to do something

Edit: Uncle said it better than me:

By the way, isn′t this trademarked by a member here?

I know someone uses it as their location (can't remember who), but it's kind of an old saying.

I've used Lucien's cave fort farragut as a home before as others said, homes are good to dump loot in. Also handy when you need a nap and can't be bothered to find a bed.