Buying a Home? These Non-Negotiables Could Save You Regret, According to a Real Estate Expert

Does location still matter most? Should you remodel your home to suit your tastes or for resale value? Are starter homes still a thing? We all have plenty of questions about the ever-changing world of real estate. In our Ask an Agent series, we’re partnering with experts at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to answer your biggest questions about finding, buying, and selling a home.

The home-buying process is stressful enough as is, so feeling empowered about what’s on your list of non-negotiables is essential to alleviate some of that strain. After speaking with a real estate expert, we discovered that almost every non-negotiable comes down to one factor—location. Read on to learn more about what to look for and how to identify potential issues the next time you tour a home.

For this installment of Ask an Agent, we spoke with Ben Fox of the Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Journey to learn what non-negotiables you should have on your list when touring a home.

Ask an Agent: What Non-Negotiables Should I Have on My List When Touring a Home?

To me, non-negotiables are only things that you cannot control. You have to consider your budget and tolerance for potential (or existing) issues with the property. With this perspective, almost everything about the house and property itself is technically negotiable, so it really comes down to your budget and tolerance.

A non-negotiable to me is something uncontrollable, like neighbors, a busy street, noise from a nearby school, being in a flood zone, etc. If location doesn’t work, that’s a non-negotiable. That’s the number one thing—location. Everything else inside the house and property is negotiable in terms of what you want to deal with and what is in your budget.

If you’re having a difficult time deciding if something about the home is a deal-breaker, ask yourself if you can control it at all. For example, you can’t control zoning or whether your neighborhood is going to turn into a commercial area. Or, if you’re planning to use the property as a short-term rental, make sure that you’re allowed to do so through your local municipality zoning regulations, as well as the property’s POA and/or HOA. Other than these location factors, you can either choose to tolerate an issue or physically change it, based on your means.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.