Get pre-approved. I would avoid PMI at all cost which is basically mortgage "insurance" in case you miss a payment. It doesn't really do shit for you except make your payments higher.
I went with Equitable Mortgage, because other people could not get me a 30 yr. fixed with no PMI even though I have outstanding credit, I only had 1 line of credit and most places wanted 3 so I was screwed.
Once you get pre-approved, typically good for up to about 6 months, it varies between lenders. Find a Realtor because now a days buying a house is sorta like Craigslist if you are ready you need to move if the house is at a nice price. Realtor's get the inside scoop on a newly listed homes before they hit the market.
Having a pre-approval is critical here, we put an offer in on our house 2 days after it was on the market, it didn't even have a sign in the yard yet when we went into contract.
We walked through probably 15+ homes without a realtor looking at "open" houses to get a feel for realtor companies and by far on average Keller Williams had the most down to earth realtors that weren't down your throat trying to get you as a customer.
Sit down with your wife and both of you write down your deal breakers, I think yours will be similar to mine and having "2 car garage with relatively flat and paved driveway" was a great criteria to weed out a lot of houses.