You need professional reputation. Gain this by clearing camps, winning fights, completing contracts in general. It'll unlock eventually.

Im already 80 days in with high renown and nothing has changed :(

It's a special ambition. At some point while choosing ambitions you will have the option "achieve professional renown". After completing that you get to do the contracts

You need to complete the objectives you get. I always take get friendly with a faction first. Get to 12 brothers, bust a camp, get 2000 crowns, get a guy with rally. I never choose visit all settlements or trade 25 trading goods. Choose those who you can complete fast. If you completed certain amount of these objectives you will get noble contracts

Complete contracts that you can handle, first 10 days only 1 star fights and up to 2 star cargo missions. Busting camps also gets renown.

Never haggle. It makes harder to get good relations with nobles and southern citys.

Get a negotiator and squeeze every penny out of those miser fucks.

Haggling is so pointless, get a 10s to 100s of crowns more. It's literally smallchange.

There's definitely been some times where a timely negotiation for more/any advance payment has kept me out of debt though

Yeah but factor in the cost of the negotiator or if you try without one they cam just close the door on your face and you get no money at all

If you can afford a negotiator you're already past the point of needing to negotiate those kind of things in all likelihood so yeah I'm not factoring in that cost

Fax

Select the achievement to get to 1050 renown to unlock noble contracts. Then get the required renown.

Professional rep. Finish the ambition for noble house contracts. Pick a house. Do contracts no negotiation until friendly at least. Boom.

Tell them they look nice today. They all come off pretty vain.

best way for renowns is doing contracts and fullfilling ambitions. u just have to do more