What is the most challenging part of the home buying process?

You need to realize that no one (edit: except some, but not all, of the people you hire) will look out for your interests. If you are in California, the local government is set up to protect existing residents from people attempting to move in.

We bought a fixer-upper. After the sale, we found were discrepancies between what various people told us and reality. It ended up costing us 50% of the price we paid for the property.

The property was obviously distressed, so we knew it was a risk.

The seller, and, separately, the seller‘s agent withheld information, the home inspector found stuff but said it would be easy to fix, and the county permit office flat-out lied to us about our prospects to fix things up.

After we spent six months figuring out how to play by the book, the planning office added a further delay of construction of over six months by processing permits slowly.

For no good reason, PG&E probably won’t hook up power until well after we are ready to move in.