not sure what you're referring to with the control you put on R3?
to research, open your inventory and move down to the gear icon in the bottom left window, selecting that will list which items you can currently research in your inventory.
all you have to do is select an item from the list and then select "research", it will add what you have on you towards the research goal.
can you specify which function you're mapping to R3? cause i don't recall there being a mappable "research" function, unless i somehow overlooked it in all my time experimenting with controls.
as for the housing query, it can be a bit tricky to get used to.
-open inventory
-select the housing query icon on the bottom right window
-press the button that says "switch to world" shown at the bottom of the screen
-move your cursor over the house and press the button you have "use item" mapped to