What to look for when buying a domain name in 2026, not trying to get burned later

ok so im about to grab a new domain for a side thing and buying a domain name in 2026 feels way more loaded than it used to. prices keep creeping up, privacy stuff is weird, and every registrar has 20 add ons that i dont fully trust.

for people who do this a lot, what do you actually check before you commit? stuff like registrar reputation, renewal pricing games, whois privacy, dns options, resale value, trademark risk, all that. idk if i should care more about seo keywords in the name or just pick something clean and easy to spell that wont look sketchy on emails.

for context this is just a small online project, not a big company, but i dont want to realize later that i picked a name thats a legal headache or locked into a garbage registrar. would love any tips from folks who buy domains regularly, especially in this current hot market where everything good feels taken…