Watching the Kentucky Derby is a reminder that the horse that starts fastest is not usually the one that wins. Pace, position, and a surge at the right moment do more. First-time home buying rewards the same pattern.
Get pre-approved before you start touring homes, so that your budget is a fact rather than a guess. Then pace yourself through the offer process. The first house that catches your eye is rarely the one worth stretching your budget for, and stretching is how buyers end up house-rich and cash-poor in the first year.
The preparation that helps most happens before any offer: correcting credit report errors, letting new accounts age, assembling two years of income documents, and reading the terms of the programs you might use. None of it is glamorous and all of it is easier to do without a contract deadline hanging over it.
If you want to know what your budget actually looks like before you talk to anyone, start at /mortgage-calculator/affordability/ and put your real debts into it.