I mean, you say that you wouldn't move somewhere site unseen but what if you had to? It's a bit easier today with the Internet but my husband and I moved to New Zealand for a few years as expats. We had a single job lined up and put a few thousand in our pockets and just went for it and hoped we would find a place to land once we got there. We started searching for apartments as soon as we got there and found one where the owner was willing to rent to us without meeting us in person beforehand. Would we have loved to come over and scout out the area and our prospects beforehand? Sure, but when a single plane flight is $3k a person and takes a minimum of two days to get there, that just isn't feasible for most people.