Alright.... after a very bloody ordeal I've finally got my Riften House. I'm going to tell you what happened just in case someone else faces the same problem, which is very likely: Now, after becoming very upset I took my frosty warhammer into the Jarl Laila Law-Giver and took off her head while she was eating her 2pm lunch. Me and my two companions, Lydia and Vigilance, and with a little help from my sanguine rose friend, then proceeded to destroy everyone there. After turning the jarls home into a bloodbath we went outside to destroy the rest of the town..... As it happens, it must have been several minutes later, while I was killing a skinny homeless man with long white hair (which was also about the same time I saw my beautiful dog laying dead on the ground nearby), that I realised where I may have gone wrong.... So I stopped the game and went back to a point before I started to destroy the town and decided to help a few people. I know that in the other towns the jarl would request that I help a handful of people before making me thane, but apparently in Riften they don't ask you, they just expect that you should know that much by now. And I guess that's reasonable enough..... I'm now happy to say, after giving the skinny old man a coin, helping some woman find a few wraith teeth, assisting an elf to figure out a clue about his past, and then finally grabbing some fire salts for the smith master - a caption finally came up on my screen to say that I had completed something. ....So I went and bought a house. It's a nice little house, it even has a garden. I hope this helps someone out there, and thanks to the rest of you for listening. Buttons is happy again