Not the asking price — the total. Purchase tax, lawyer, agent, mortgage costs and the exchange rate on the day you transfer. A budget set in pounds or dollars moves under you between offer and completion, and it is the most common reason a deal gets uncomfortable late on.

Listings show the flat; they don't show the street at seven in the morning, the building's neighbours, or what is being built next door. Drives and walkthroughs on the channel are for exactly this — narrowing the list before you spend a week in the country on it.

Not the seller's, not the developer's, and not the one the agent recommends without asking. Israeli practice sometimes has one lawyer act for both sides; a buyer from abroad, who cannot read the contract, needs someone whose only duty is to them.

A short memorandum of terms can bind you. If anything is put in front of you before your lawyer has seen it, the safe answer is that your lawyer signs, not you.

Your lawyer checks the register: who owns it, what is charged against it, whether the building matches its permits, whether there are debts or planning applications attached. This is where problems are found, and it is the stage people are tempted to rush.

The contract sets the payment milestones and what happens if either side is late. The deposit is normally held rather than handed over. On a new build the schedule runs across the build itself.

Purchase tax is declared shortly after signing — your lawyer files it, and the olim track has to be claimed rather than granted. Funds coming in from abroad need documenting, and the bank will ask; starting this early avoids a transfer sitting frozen at the worst moment.

Keys come with a handover protocol — snags recorded then are far easier to enforce later. Registration of the title into your name follows, and on a new development can take years. What protects you in the meantime is a specific step, and worth understanding before you are relying on it.