First time home buyer

Hello, so I’m PCSing to Luke AFB pretty soon. Currently an E3, pin on E4 in August. The housing being offered to me on base is god awful. I’m not going to pay 2100$ in BAH for a 2 bed 1 bath ghetto house, so the wife and I are looking at buying our first home. We don’t want to rent because I’d rather put my money into something I can get back and renting is just a waste of money. My plan is to use the VA home loan, and we’re looking at a house budget of 350k-400k MAX. I’m asking for your knowledge in buying a home for the first time, and maybe some things I could be missing regarding the whole process. Thanks for anything you can provide.