I think the most important thing is that you need to feel good about where you live. If you always wanted a garage to putter around in, don't look at houses without one -- that sort of thing. If you think that you will live there the rest of your life, sit down with your wife, talk about what features in a house are important to you and make a list.
If you will live there "forever" then I say you don't care what anyone else thinks. If not, then you might consider looking at your home from the perspective of what "everyone" wants in a home. Things like how easy is it to get to where most people work. What is parking like. How many bedrooms does it have. What amenities are nearby.
Those are my thoughts about what to buy. If you are looking at how to buy I have some thoughts there as well.
FSBO: (For Sale By Owner)
Look at these, but be aware that there are some issues pro and con. People selling their own homes generally have two obstacles 1) emotional attachment to the home and the price they paid for it, and 2) lack of broad knowledge of the CURRENT market for similar homes. Some savy individuals will minimize one or both of these, but they generally apply to anyone who is selling their own home rather than doing it for a living. In a hot market FSOB homes can often be underpriced because of both 1 or 2, but more likely 2. In a poor seller's market, like we are in now, FSOB are often OVER priced because of both 1 & 2.
Distressed Property
If you are not in a hurry, look at distressed properties. By this I mean properties that are in forclosure, have been forclosed on, or are for sale by owners who are underwater. These transactions can take a long time, but the savings can really be worth it. There are lots of stories circulating recently about people who have acquired a really nice house this way for around 60% of listed price.
Should I get an Agent?
You used to have little or no choice because the market would not give you access to listings (MLS) unless you used an agent. The Supreme Court made that illegal and now you can get virtually all of the information an agent gets online yourself. My personal opinion is that if you know generally where you want to live you probably don't need an agent when buying a home if you can get a real estate attorney to do the paperwork. Even if you don't get your own agent, you may end up dealing with a seller's agent. Some of them will try to represent you in addition to the seller and get a double commission. This is illegal unless you agree to it, but its not readily obvious that its happening in a lot of cases. You pay for the property and the commission comes out of the money the bank/seller receive. Be aware that you can negotiate an agent's rate in most cases. Good agents will be willing to talk to you about commission in a market like this one, particularly if you found the property yourself. I still see a place for real estate agents for people who are relocating to an area they don't know well, first time buyers and on the sell side. However, I think that the commission agents generally charge is completely out of line with the value they add to most transactions.