House shopping?

So, Ben got a job. HOORAY! (And there is MUCH rejoicing...)

Since then we've been kicking around the idea of buying a house, and poking around just to see what we can find. I'm really excited and have found some good looking ones online (who knows what they look like for real, we'll have to go see them in person). We've got pretty specific criteria (3 bedrooms, within 15 miles of campus and Ben's work, a fairly limited budget, something of a yard, not-scary neighborhood, etc), so I was surprised to have turned up so many. Anyway, we've got to go drive by about 20 places and decide which ones we actually want to go into and see.

While I'm very excited, I'm also completely terrified. I know NOTHING about the process other than a very basic sketchy outline-type knowledge. And as if that isn't enough, we'd be looking at needing to re-sell somewhat shortly, and the terrible market scares me for that.

Anyway. Those are my rambling thoughts. We'll see how it all goes.