Thank you everyone for your advice; I will do what I can between now and the time that we're ready to buy...which means cleaning up reports, no inquiries unless absolutely necessary (which is easy for me to do...not so much for my fiance! 
) and getting our credit cards under 10%, etc., etc...
Will go to my bank's web site (NFCU) to see if they offer a home buying seminar and attend it; I know that the rules and regulations and other things will probably change between now and the time we're ready to buy, but at least I'll have a gist of what to expect.
@pfarro1 - thanks for the info about Home Depot and Lowe's; I never knew that, and I'll definitely check that out!
...even if you don't wind up posting the info here, do yourself a big favor and read the "Do I Qualify" thread sticky at the top of the mortgage forum ...walk through it step-by-step digging out the info and writing it down all in one place ...it will give you a very good picture of exactly what your mortgage situation really is ...and will easily identify the areas you need to work on ...even if you intend to wait 3 yrs, starting now to get all the bugs worked out will help your confidence immensely when the time does come ...hth
@Lemmus wrote:...even if you don't wind up posting the info here, do yourself a big favor and read the "Do I Qualify" thread sticky at the top of the mortgage forum ...walk through it step-by-step digging out the info and writing it down all in one place ...it will give you a very good picture of exactly what your mortgage situation really is ...and will easily identify the areas you need to work on ...even if you intend to wait 3 yrs, starting now to get all the bugs worked out will help your confidence immensely when the time does come ...hth
Thanks, Lemmus! I actually already did that! Printed it out and put it in my "future mortgage" folder to read during down time at work...
