home buying questions!

Anyone is welcome to answer this question, and all opinions are appreciated! My boyfriend and I are (finally!) looking in to buying our own home. However, we don't know much about it and we both have so many questions before we start this process! So, those of you who have bought your own home, how do we get the ball rolling on this? What are some unexpected costs we should be prepared for? How much money should we have saved up? Just as some background, we live in a small town where most house are priced between $100k-$150k. We are fine with this price range but don't want to exceed it.