Believe it or not, people sometimes end up in situations where it isn't possible to do this sort of thing. In my case, the unit I had seen and agreed to rent suddenly was unable to be leased and so my only option was to take a different unit. I had already canceled my lease with my previous landlord and arranged a day for movers to come. "Oh, I'll just find another place to live" was not an option.

I also made a cross-country move during covid and had to choose a place to rent based on old photos because the current tenants understandably did not want their landlord to come into their home to do a virtual walkthrough for me.

"Oh, if you don't work hard to protect yourself of course you get fucked over" is not a good world. It may be the real world but this should not be used as a defense of the virtue of landlords.

There are plenty of other options. You move to the new place, you move your things into storage and you move into an extended stay until you get the lay of the land.

I did something similar. My lease was up and instead of rushing to buy a home. We moved our stuff into storage. We found an extended stay close by and we stayed there six months while our house was getting built.

I had a friend who relocated from Seattle to Atlanta and did something similar.