My in-laws just did this and it took them 2 and 1/2 years to find a house that would work for them. I would say that you should absolutely rent first, as you may find you don't like the area after all. In-laws knew the state and city, as her she grew up there and her mother is still there. It strikes me as very risky to buy a house immediately in an unfamiliar place.

We've moved too, too many times and bought a house each time - because the employer encouraged us to do so. If I had the financial choice I would definitely rent first. As said above, this gives you time to see where you really might like to live, and do so.

Rent first. Until I really understand the various neighborhoods in the new area, traffic patterns, amenities in each neighborhood, safety, personality (yes, I think neighborhoods have personalities), yada yada, I would be quite reluctant to invest any money in anything. If your current home sells quickly, you have some time to reinvest in property before you would be taxed on any profit. Use that time to get to know the area.

If you don't have school-aged kids I would rent first, just put most of your stuff i storage and rent the smallest place that is practical for 3 to 6 months. I am so glad we did this when we moved 20 years ago, we would have ended up on the other side of town, which I now see would have been a mistake.

If you do have school aged kids then this is a different conversation, unless you are sending them to a private school.

Thanks everyone. I don't have any school age children. We are moving to a very rural area and won't be living near any neighborhoods. We are actually wanting to live in a national forest. Any of the towns we would go to for shopping and whatnots, we would be driving at least 30 minutes to get to.

I just moved from Florida to Missouri - we put our stuff in storage and stayed in a motel until we found a house to buy. I would highly recommend considering doing this. We were in the motel for 2 1/2 months (with 2 dogs and a cat), looked at 30 houses and finally found one that worked for us.

Sounds like the available homes could be sparse, it is probably better to rent. If there is a little town try to get involved in something, church, civic group etc. so you can talk to some people. We had a weekend place in a town like that and found out the hard way that unless you listed with the town realtor your place wasn't going to be shown at all. Good luck!

If you don't know the area well, rent first.
If you are familiar with the area it is easier to buy.

I bought my house sight unseen off the internet when I relocated from Florida back to Kentucky- the first time I saw it was when we pulled in the driveway after having driven 1100 miles.
But I was very familiar with the area I wanted to live in and had family available to look at homes, attend the inspection, and serve as power of attorney.

We could not be happier with our choice.
Really, I thank my lucky stars every day that we chose the home we are in.
What with online listings it is very easy to shop and come up with a short list of possibilities. With some planning skills you should be able to view them all in one trip and make a sound decision.

But if you don't know HappyFamilyStreet from Rapeville it is not so easy.

We just moved from suburban Chicago to western NC 8 weeks ago. We'd been house/land hunting for over 2 years, making short tips to look around but didn't find "the one". As you said it's much easier to do the hunting while living in the new area so we are renting here and can take our time.

For us, it made more sense to 1) have a year lease with option to extend month to month and 2) rent a house large enough that we did not need a separate storage unit - I want our possessions under our roof and in heated/cooled space. Dollar for dollar it made sense to put the $$ into rent as opposed to storage. We sold a great deal before moving but every closet here is packed with boxes, under the beds, the basement and the garage has items that don't need conditioned space. We are settled, roughly, but comfortably enough.

In a perfect world I'd prefer to put the rent $$ into a purchase. But finding the perfect place to purchase is more important to us in the long run. We don't have school age children either, but I'm still somewhat concerned about school districts as they relate to resale. My husband would do as you plan and live within a nat'l forest if I'd agree! We're in for a big compromise which is part of the difficulty in finding the right place for us. Good luck in your search - and if you don't mind sharing, where are you planning to move?

Thanks for all the info! We have 2 houses in mind that we really like from what we see on the internet, so when our house sells, we will go and see those with an agent, but if they are not what we expected, we will find a place to rent until the right home comes on the market. We are more concerned with the land and the views than we are the house itself. We figure we can always change what's in the house but can never change the view or the land. We are planning on moving to northern Arkansas from south Louisiana. This will be our pre-retirement home, and the last home we ever plan to buy, we are also considerably downsizing from where we are now, as in sq. footage.

In my city of St Petersburg, FL (and I'm sure many others like it), I would always advise to rent here first. This entire city is small neighborhoods with various personalities. And every high-end neighborhood is just a few blocks away from a marginal neighborhood, so you just can't make sweeping generalizations, although there are plenty of people who won't live south of Central (where I live) or west of 4th St (where I live) or near Midtown (a few blocks from me). And I could never live in those stuck-up areas in the northeast side myself, now that I know better. Unless you lived here or visited for quite a while, you would have no idea.
We moved here from out of state and have to admit that we totally lucked out.
Absolutely come visit us first, before you buy.

I would not plan for the closing of your sale to happen on "your" timeline. You may get a relocation buyer that has to move in immediately or you may get a contingency buyer - meaning that their home has to sell before they can close on yours. Also, keep in mind that during this sellers market, the houses you see online now, may not be available tomorrow.
I would definitely recommend getting an agent and making a road trip, now. See what's out there before you list, line up 2 or 3 options for short term leases in your new neck of the woods, and be ready to move in a moment's notice once you do list. Good luck!