I've still bought some things, but I've passed up a lot that I did want. It's real hard to be good lol.
The selling/buying a house messes with your finances bc there's no way to predict all the costs involved. We sold by owner so there was no realtor fee there, but I do have a 2.5% realtor fee for the buying agent. Closing cost on the new house is around $8K and I might have to pay it, but I might not. That's a lot of money that's just floating around in the air lol...
It's possible to negotiate that the seller pay for closing costs. When I bought, I got the sellers to put $8k towards closing fees. That paid for buying a lower rate, meaning lots of long term savings.
It took me 6 months to find a house.
I paid for 5 home inspections while looking as well before I settled on my house.
I highly recommend a QUALIFIED home inspector with 5 star rating chosen by yourself and not your realtor.
FWIW, I strongly suggest bringing out an HVAC guy, plumber, and other specialists to look at specific systems.
Even a really thorough home inspector might not catch some big ticket issues.
We got an HVAC guy to come check out the systems at the new house and he spotted a freon leak that the home inspector missed. Since it's a freon system, it'll need to be replaced. We got $5k knocked off the price of the house for that.
We got a stucco inspector to come out too. It cost $500 for the report, but we found out that the windows weren't sealed properly and water was getting behind the stucco. Got another $5k to reseal all the windows.
I don't believe a home inspection, even a good one, is enough. Even the best home inspector is only a generalist.