I was once looking to buy a house. I knew that the most important thing was how functional it was, and how sound the construction was. But, I would only be able to tell that by walking through it and having a inspector look at it.
I also needed that it was on a nice looking block. This was non- negotiable (8 cow block).
I had good reasons for this, and they were a definite deal breaker, even though not as important as the other things.
I ran into a problem. Many times the broker would shlep me out to see a house, which as soon as we parked I knew was no good, since the block was ugly. Finally, I just asked for a picture of the block before shlepping out.
Some people told me I was being petty by asking for a picture. I was looking first at the least important part.