Good Luck Hollie & Congrats and welcome to the club. In answer to your questions:
-If I get a realtor, do I have to pay a fee?
I don't personally think a realtor is neccessary for buying. We were very familiar with the areas we were looking at, but we did find one realtor who helped us but he worked for the seller's so we didn't pay any commission
-How did everyone obtain their mortgage?
We went to a couple of banks to get quotes and found HSBC had the best rates and was the quickest moving. We got our pre-approval then placed an offer within 2 weeks.
-How much $$ did people generally put down? I know it varies but is $30,000-$45,000 sufficient?
We put down $27,000 for our condo which was $272K, so 10% down.