Once you find the place you'll settle for, you must make an offer. That would be too easy. You guess what the seller really wants, then you offer less than that. With a car, the manufacturer provides a list price. A list price is the one price having nothing to do with how much you'll pay for the car, but at least it gives you the illusion you're getting a bargain.
Houses have no list price.
So you decide to ask your friends what they paid for their house, to get a feel for the market. Your friends look at you with vague expressions of distaste. You've become the unexpected cockroach crawling across the dinner table of life. You see, it's considered Bad Taste to ask what someone's home cost. Instead, you traipse to City Hall and look it up in the public records.