When should I start looking for a home?

My husband and I re-signed our lease for our apartment until November 2014. We just got pre-qualified and we'll get pre-approved later.

We've been looking online and we have an appointment with our Realtor next week, but my mother said not to look right now because we'll end up finding a home we love and want to be out sooner, but we can't break our lease and we re-signed it because we need more time to save.\

So when should we start looking for real?

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