The best money you can spend is on a private home inspector. Make sure he's going to work for you...and be there with him as he goes through the house. He will be a wealth of information, and you can point things out to him as you're walking around with him.

He should check the roof, heating system, electrical system, sewer system, plumbing, foundation, insulation in crawlspaces or attic, structural areas like the flooring & stairs, chimney (either fireplace or heating system), and if you have a well...make sure he does a flow test to verify that the well can put out a decent amount of water without running into problems.

And get title insurance. If there's a problem with the title that doesn't get discovered in the title search...you're covered! When we refinanced our house last year, it was discovered during the bank's title search that our land was actually comprised of two lots. Only one of the lots had gone through probate when the previous owner's husband had passed away, so technically we owned our house and the lot it sat on, and the second lot was owned half by us and half by a person that had passed away. Because we had title insurance...they paid to straighten the whole mess out!

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Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.