Overwhelmed

Ok so I have to admit....I am totally lost and overwhelmed, I dont even know where to begin. Ever since my husband and I moved to Orlando 3 years ago we have lived in an apartment. We had an amazing, beautiful, large one bedroom when we first moved here for 2 years and now we have our 2 bedroom in a better area but not as nice internally (we live on the side of the blgd that gets NO sunlight!!!) I always have my eyes open for nice houses for sale, you never know when you might find a good one. In my ideal world I would build my own....but I dont see that happening any time soon. Home prices continue to go down daily around here and I am seeing many signs change from sale to rent....people are getting deperate. As my husband says, I get on a true house kick about every 3 months and I drive him crazy for a few weeks and after being shot down a million times I give up. He swears there is no way we could afford a house...at least not right now....I dont see why not! My mom and dad keep telling me that I will never get him to cooperate, so I need to do it myself and just bring all the info to him when I find something and work things out. The problem with that is I have no idea where to begin. I dont know what our finances look like (as I have mentioned before he doesnt share those things with me) and I would think that would be the first thing I would have to get in line in order to figure out what we could afford. I know there are a billion (ok not that many but you get the pic) kinda loans you can get and so on and so forth. I'm not sure if a real estate agent in necessary or if I can search all the info myself, I mean every other house in the neighborhoods around here has a sign in the yard and I have stacks of numbers to call on ones I like. Is is wise to do a rent to own or a lease option, which is what a lot of sellers are looking for. I am totally mind boggled right now....I REALLY want to do this....and on my own. Maybe for selfish reasons, but mostly to show my husband that I'm not a complete idiot and we CAN have a house. It kills me to think that hes ok with throwing over a grand away on rent every month and has no desire to get into a house. My district manager gave me the number to the financial consultant him and his boyfriend used to get both of their houses even when everyone else laughed at them...so maybe I should call!? I think I need my daddy, he always knows the answers!!!