If you are familiar with LA, you undoubtedly understand that LA is made up of many, many "areas" with very different characteristics. some or many of these differing characteristics will dramatically affect the appropriate housing within those differing areas.

As an example, LA and San Diego are two of the world's best examples of "micro-climate" variations. Two homes ten miles apart may have average summer temps in the 90s in one location compared with, say, 72 degrees in the other. This will affect housing style, utility costs, etc, etc. Yet both could conceivably be but " an hour to the office."

In my case, before I contacted a realtor I would try to determine a couple of "areas" that I think will work. Important considerations might include, commute, schools, weather, crime, and anything else you might feel important.

If you contact a realtor early, that realtor is inevitably going to steer you toward "areas" within his/her concentration.

I once had a friend that said he was moving to start work in NYC. He asked for suggested housing locations. I answer was probably limit your search to NY, NJ, and CT. When I told my now late father what I had advised, he pointed out that he had folks commuting daily from outside Philly in PA to his office on Wall Street.

I live now in the MD Burbs of DC. We see daily Commuters from MD, VA, WV, PA, and DE as well as DC.

Thank you very much for the advice SaltiDawg! I actually do have a few neighborhoods circled as potentials. I only need to commute into work 2-days per week so traffic becomes less an issue and allows me to focus in on the neighborhood most interesting to me as opposed to closest to work. Right now I would look at DTLA, Silver Lake, WeHo, and I would be open to Long Beach (downtown or East Village) as well. Though I need to stay in the $700k and 2bed room range.

Hello there, have you tried contacting some real estate agents? Some could actually make a quick video for you. Or maybe some agents are willing to get you on a face time call to show you a few areas?

I would think these new technologies are very helpful, but not many agents are using it. Anyone want to give a guess as to why?

There is no better way to get a good feel for a particular area unless one visits the area in person. You need to choose an area that suits you and THEN look at homes.

SaltiDawg - I do have coworkers that live in the area had have provided some great recommendations. I've been to LA area a bunch of times and have stayed in several neighborhoods so feel pretty confident. I have narrowed it down to Silverlake, DTLA, downtown Long Beach and East Village Long Beach. Since I know the areas and can incorporate Google Maps I feel pretty good about viewing the home from an exterior perspective. It's the interior look that I am kind of concerned about. I want to make sure my furniture (coming from across the country) will fit.

MCFC - My goal is to contact some real-estate agents by the end of this week in those neighborhoods. A major criteria would be for them to be somewhat tech-savvy and can do some type of vide/FaceTime walk throughs...or if they are SUPER-tech savvy to get creative.

ncrealestateguy - My neighborhoods are Silverlake, DTLA, downtown Long beach and East Village Long Beach. I know them pretty well...any insights on how I should choose a real-estate agent based on "virtual viewing" capabilities would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much everyone!

Sotheby's is the only agency that I know of that is toying around with virtual 3-D tours. Check them out. It is in it's infancy.

Personally, I would never purchase RE w/o seeing it in person. Each parcel of RE is unique, and each has it's own "feel", which IMO will never be captured from Google Earth or a Virtual Reality tour.

You say you have the chances to visit the areas twice before moving, so why the neccessity of live video showings?

I live in LA County, not in the area you are considering, but use Redfin for searching. If I have interest in a property I google the address and view it on different sites and look at solds nearby. As already said it doesn't replace actual visits but it can narrow it down.

One question, I live on the Palos Verdes Peninsula so I'm familiar with the Long Beach area south of us, you considering of this area seems so different than your other choices, what appeals to you about Long Beach?

Ncrealestateguy- talking from my experience, I think Virtual Reality could have helped me narrow down the choices. When I relocated from NYC to LA (orange county), I had one trip paid for me to look for a house. In the traffic, it took us ~5 hrs to see 5 places, and sadly two of these had deceivingly nice pictures and/or not so nice neighborhoods. I think if there's proven virtual reality technology, the locals could be "spared" from the torture and rule some houses out before committing the time.

I agree with you 100% however that no one should buy RE w/o a in person visit :)

I was on Sotheby's just now and was totally blown away by the price tag. Nothing similar for the average joe i suppose.