How do you deal with cross-country house hunting?

Are you moving to the east coast?!

I always wonder how people move to new towns, because I can always spot a fake ad for a place on craigslist, for Philadelpia and the surrounding areas. Which area are you looking at?
Maybe look into getting a realtor?

@casheroo

meh, realtors are a surefire way to get ripped lol.

I had a bad experience with one.

I can understand your reluctance to use a Realtor, but with that distance you’ll need some help. I would look for a rental agency, perhaps one that is not affiliated with a broker. Many listings now have virtual tours, etc. You may not get as much info on a rental, but you never know. Also, given this market many homes that are for sale also have rental options.

Sort through your options, narrow them down, and plan a weekend viewing trip. If you use your time well you could view quite a few places in a day or two.

You could also look online for local online groups in the areas you’re interested in and poll the locals about areas to live in etc…who knows…there may even be some jellies that know the areas you’re interested in?!

Good Luck!

@bythebay

I shall, as always, heed your advice, wise one ;)

@TaoSan: That makes me laugh!! :)

@bythebay I try ^^

Realtor.com has listings with quite a few virtual tours. A friend of mine bought his house with just a virtual tour and never saw it in person until he moved. I personally wouldn’t do that, but that’s me. What state are you looking at?

East Coast should suffice…

I’m on the East Coast. I highly reccomend this area.

I heard it’s good there ;)

@TaoSan ;
Not ALL Realtors are bad. If you are moving for a job, the personnel department may have a Realtor that they recommend. I wanted a house in Orange County California and I rented an apartment for 6 months first so I could get a feel for the community and see exactly what neighborhood I really wanted. It is sometimes easier to gauge if an apartment community will be good than a private home. Apartments.com has most of the higher end communities in the country. Ask when the building was built, how many units, and what kind of amenities they have. A newer building with 100+ units and lots of unusual amenities is probably on top of things and committed to customer service. The “Newer” probably means it’s in an OK neighborhood. Check with whoever you know in the city before you sign though!

We are in a similar situation, we are moving back to civilization in the next couple of months, about 3500 kilometers away. We are not sure exactly where in the new location we want to live, which (if any) suburb or a couple of acres in the country??? My major requirement is that it be within 15 to 20 min of the beach!!!

But anyhow, we are going to rent for a year at first. During that time we will explore the entire area to decide where we want to buy and settle for a while.

We figure we can live most anywhere for a year. If you were in Australia, I could tell you dozens of sites where individuals list their own properties for sale or rent. I am sure there are just as many in USA. You know the drill, google, google, google!

I hear Florida is pretty nice… ;)

@KrystaElyse

Yeah, I’m sure Florida would be a very good idea ;)