Buying a home is often a long process that starts with looking at your options and deciding which ones are worth visiting, and eventually which one is worth making an offer on. What questions did you ask during your house hunt?

One big lesson we learned from the housing crisis: Don't buy more home than you can afford. There are a handful of rules for figuring out what that amount is, but this one considers the additional costs, beyond home price. With this rule, all of your housing-related expenses should be no more than 25 per cent of your gross income.

The cost of owning a home goes well beyond the price you paid for the house itself. When something breaks, you have to fix it, and those repairs can be costly. You can't foresee or avoid every home repair, but some regular maintenance can save you hundreds -- maybe thousands -- on some of these big ones.

Older homes have character, often boasting features like architectural windows and solid plaster walls that you don't find in many newer buildings. When it's time to renovate, though, older houses present costly challenges that aren't so charming. Here are the biggest and most common renovation issues you should prepare for.

Most houses don't come cheap, so if you're looking to buy, you want to be smart. And typically, the longer you plan on owning the home, the better. Personal finance blog MoneyNing explains why, suggesting the "five-year rule" in the process.