What are the 3 most important things when buying a home?

Definitely an experienced agent that can inform you of what is important on the specific home you are interested in, depending on area, age, condition, and many other factors. Secondly, ordering inspections that are going to be important on the specific type of property looking to purchase, like home inspection, pest inspection, or others that apply. Third, get title insurance.

1-Hire a good Realtor to assist you in getting pre-approved with a lender, advise you and what inspections you will need, survey, etc., negotiate, navigate and advocate for you. 2-Location - Make sure the home is in a location you want to live - You do not want to move in and find out that even though you love the house, you hate the location, or the drive to work is too far. 3- If you have kids, schools are very important to consider. Make sure you know what schools your kids will be assigned to. Your Realtor will be able to help you with this.

I like the framework of your question because focusing on the top three things should help you with success in the buying process. 1. The first thing that I'll spotlight would be the importance of buying money before you buy the house. What I mean by that is having a conversation with a competent lender who has access to all programs. That is super important because you don't just want to know what you qualify for in terms of a maximum price point; you also want to know what will be manageable on a monthly basis. Often, the maximum that you qualify for is not where you should be looking. You should actually cut down the budget to something that's more affordable for you. Keep in mind, here in Connecticut, we have great first-time homebuyer programs from CHFA. Specifically, the Time to Own program can give qualified borrowers access up to $25,000 for down payment and closing costs. Many of the lenders do not have access to that program. I'll toss out my favorite lender for that and that would be Keith Turner from Homestead Funding. His direct line is 860-444-0650. 2. The second thing that you should do is do homework on the agents that you are considering working with. What I mean by that is, if you just click on a home on Realtor.com or Zillow, you are being connected to an agent who is paying for that lead. Your contact information is actually being sold to multiple agents and lenders that serve that area. I would use a site like Homes.com and type in the agent's name to see what their reputation is, not reputation so much as a personality, but their performance level has been. You can view a 5-year book of business on a desktop. You can narrow it down to 3 years or 1 year. Keep in mind, in Connecticut, about 52% of the 18,000-plus agents have done 1 or fewer transactions in a year. You have to decide: do you want to work with someone who is full-time, doing a large amount of business, or do you want to work with somebody who just does real estate on the side and dabbles and does 1, 2, or 0 transactions in a year? 3. The third thing is to do your due diligence on the property before you buy it. Make sure that you're comfortable with the home's condition, which is often uncovered through doing proper inspections. As far as I'm concerned, the strategy that many buyers are using, which is waiving inspections, is a high-risk proposition, especially if you're on a septic system. It could be a $25,000 bill to replace a septic system, so you should resist making offers without a home inspection. When inspection issues come up, that's where your experienced agent can really help you work through either getting repairs done by the seller or negotiating credits so you can deal with the items after closing. Keep in mind that some mortgage types require health and safety issues to be taken care of before closing.

Get financing pre-approval, Having a home inspection and survey, Get a title search and title insurance. And hire a good Real Estate Agent.

The most important things for buying a home are different for different people. Things like staying within your budget, finding a home that suits your needs and having an idea about your long range plans are universally important.