So if you think you found "the" home on the internet ..how?

Does the town have a newspaper? Can you read it online to get a feel for what the town is like?
What about local TV stations?

You can also go on zillow and look at recent home sales in the area. Do homes sit and languish on the market, or do they move regularly? You can look at the listing history and it will tell you when it was listed and when it was sold. Figure 30-45 days of that range is escrow, and you can see if you can find a trend.

Our relocation service and our realtor where our best resources.

Also Citi-data was helpful when we moved to Texas. www.city-data.com

On Zillow they have info that says what schools are in district and gives school ratings. You can go from there. Do you know anyone in that town or close to it that could look at the house and go to the neighborhood?

Is there someone in the family that is in MO that you trust to go look in person and check out the nieghborhood for you? That is how my dd and her husband chose. His dad and brother went to look at houses dd/sil picked as possible homes.  Once his family said this is a good one sil took a fast trip down to verify it was what they were looking for.

2 Hours which direction from KC? I think that Zillow has neighborhood information - or Trulia ...
I live in KC -- 2 hours north and you are in Nebraska or Iowa -- so it has to be south or east....

Google street view can be very interesting sometimes... just remember that it can be older information

Is the price awesome compared to what you could get in your current area or is it awesome compared to homes around it? If it is being marketed below the value of similar homes in the area that should give you pause for thought.

Is renting a viable option? Renting would give you time to discover what areas click with you, nothing worse than moving a huge distance to find that if you had picked a home five miles down the road a lot more facilities, schools etc would be open to you. Just food for thought.

Call the police department in the city and ask them.

Ask the Refupeas? I'll bet someone lives near the area and can give you the scoop or at least a heads up on areas to avoid.

I'd also put the address in Google Street View. You can get a look at the neighborhood around it, and see how the homes around it are kept up.

Trulia can give you information like traffic, crime, school, noise too.

If you used Google maps for my street, you'd see my house from 4 years ago, a year before we bought it. There's crappy landscaping. A couple of the houses don't look like they're being taken care of. The fence that provides some screening from the business across the street is falling down. Today, our yard looks better. The dead tree between two of our neighbor's houses is gone. The falling down fence has been replaced. One house hasn't improved but two others have. Google maps street view may not be up to date.

City data and Trulia may be more accurate in terms of what it's like there. Also, if schools is an issue, find out which district and look up their site as well as their Facebook page. While our district does well in comparison to the other local districts, their Facebook page has posts from parents that did not like how certain issues were handled. Read their reviews and see if any of their newsletters are available online.

Check the map and see how close it is to a main road, fire station, police, etc. Even if crime is low, if you live close to a main road or a station, you may hear a lot of sirens. While my neighborhood shows up on Trulia as low traffic and low noise, I hear sirens every day because I'm two blocks away from​ one of the busiest intersections in the city. It gets old quickly.

we have been looking at houses in florida. My husband reads all the crime stats for areas we've been looking in. Plus, I get on google maps and "drive" around the neighborhood. Neighbor has 17 cars in the driveway and front yard? Probably going to be a problem.

You visit it, and you visit and tour the schools. No way would I rely on second hand knowledge for such a big purchase and life changing decisions.

For such a major purchase/lifestyle change, I really think you need to do your own homework. Looking at all the things mentioned on here (crime/schools/sex offender registry/city data) would tell you that I live in an urban hellhole. However, I live in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Omaha. The only thing that would tell you that is the way houses sell (quickly!). Before we moved here we did a house hunting trip and it was eye opening to say the least. You get the feel for a neighborhood, the traffic, the surrounding area, what amenities are nearby (or not!). I think you are going to need to take a long weekend and get a feel for the area you are looking at. There will be nothing worse than buying a house and finding out you HATE the neighborhood.

You do need to check it out in person. You might also try Google street view. It can be a few years old, but it can give you a starting place. Definitely see how fast homes are selling in the neighborhood compared to others.

Also, don't be so quick discount your Realtor advice. There are things that aren't a good idea for us to say with regards to a house, but we can be a good guide to the area. Start by asking about the area and what neighborhoods are desirable/selling quickly. A good realtor would also be willing to go out and make a video of the block for you so you can see what the neighbor's homes look like. I know I would do it for an out of town client.