IntroduceYourself PT 2: The Newlyweds Win a Bid on a New Home!

Good news Steemian! Your favorite newlyweds of ATL had a seller accept our offer on a multiple bid situation. Let me tell you a little bit about our experience.
First of all, see our cute, new [still potential] home:

If someone were to describe this process as "easy" I would implore where and when they are searching. This process has been anything but easy. Fortunately, my wife and I have incredible support from friends and family that got us started on the right foot. I'm not quite sure how home buyers get through this process alone.

To get where we are today, here are my words of advice to any first-time home buyer. For those reading that are already home owners, please reminisce in the fact that you do not need to go through this process in the near future.

1. Get a realtor you can TRUST. Every realtor is in your pocket. We met quite a few with big smiles and even bigger sales tactics. We went off a realtor referral from two independent parties, which both assured us that our realtor was going to be honest and give us a good experience.
2. Get independent advice. Once you've connected with a realtor, he/she may try to connect you with their "lendor" or their "home inspector". This isn't always a bad opportunity, but we found that performing independent research brought us the best results. This way, we could be sure we didn't fall back into someone's pocket. So, we shopped around for nearly everything, and got multiple opinions on several decisions we made. Ultimately, we will be living in the home, so it was most important that we were happy!
3. Pick the house you both love. We visited quite a few houses on our search. Loving from pictures online is vastly different than loving the house in-person. OOPS... the seller may have forgotten to show how ugly their unfinished basement was or how tiny their yard actually is. In our third all-day home tour with the realtor, we found one diamond in the otherwise "rough" that we both truly connected with. That home is pictured above, and the house we won the bid on!
4. Set your budget and don't exceed it. This may seem counter-intuitive to #3, because first-time homeowners cannot always afford their "dream" home out of the gate. But, part of how we won our offer on the house we both loved [without breaking the bank] is determining what our cap was. In order for us to win our bid on a multiple offer situation, we needed to offer the seller something besides the bid amount. We had a modest bid, but we offered the seller: a written letter with our wedding photos, a sizable earnest money check, and a personal introduction to the seller's agent during the open house.
5. Be persistent. Your future home is out there! Just like Steemit, persistence is key to success. Otherwise, you may lose a great home. We both prayed heavily the day we were hearing back on the bid, and our prayers have been answered!

How much more advice can I give? Probably a lot, considering I'm in the thick of this process. But, I'll save room for your thoughts, opinions and questions in the comments. I'm happy to see what the Steemian community has to offer on the subject :)