  My real estate agent recommends doing a "blitz" before getting serious about buying. From the 100 listings of houses in my price range and the areas I'm interested in, I picked out 25 I thought were cute or reasonable.
Today, I dragged my friends along and we drove by each of them and assessed the houses based on the neighborhood and outside appearance. It gave me a better idea of each area and what it is that I like about a house. I will be more knowledgeable now when I view houses with my agent.
What am I looking for in a house? I want a stand-alone house with at least 3 bedrooms (preferably 4), 1.75 baths (preferably 2.5), garage, and a fenced yard. I have a thing about bathrooms, some of the older homes only have 1 bath but I don't think I could handle that. It is probably from when my family lived in Taiwan. We lived in a one bedroom shack without a bathroom. We had to go down the block for the public toilet (which in Taiwan is the squatting kind and not very nice).
Housing prices in Seattle are ridiculous (ok, so not as high as NY or CA but still very high). If I lived in Idaho, I could buy something decent for a third of what I will have to pay here. But I guess there is a good reason why I don't live in Idaho. 
