House Hunting In Boise: When The Fun Stops

I've been a renter for years. Currently renting in Meridian but I've got the itch lately to buy a house. How do people do this without experiencing insane amounts of stress?!

For the record, I've only just begun the search for a house and at this point, it's pretty casual. I have some credit challenges but as it turns out, I'm not as far away as I thought I might be. In fact, if all goes well and I can pay off some things, I may be able to buy a house in six months when my lease is up (by the way, how do you time that out?!)

I have not spoken with a Realtor or a lender yet and maybe I should. Looking at houses on Zillow and I found one AMAZING one in Boise, so amazing I decided I'd drive by it on Sunday and I totally got catfished! This house looked gorgeous online and really rough in person (I wonder if that photographer can do my wedding photos). There are also a ton of beautiful homes in the Treasure Valley as well.

I think I'm more inclined to buy an older home with some real character vs a newer home in a subdivision, but this is just my initial thought process after searching Zillow and going out for a drive.

In addition to the search, there is the whole financial part of it! Credit, income, debt to income ratio, mortgage insurance, homeowners insurance, HOA's, all the different pieces! How do real adults do this?