Tough one Jeff. There are a variety of ways to do it, each more expensive than the last so to speak.
1) You can get a club member to do the visual, then hire an A/P to do the pre-buy or annual, all while having a deposit in place and buy/sell agreement to give you some protection during the evaluation process. If it is clean...one way ticket and fly it home.
2) You can make all the arrangements for the pre-buy and probably even have that done in advance. Buy a round-trip or one way (some times round trip is cheaper than one way) and stay long enough for pre-buy then fly it home.
3) Get the pre-buy and such done and buy it sight unseen. It has been done successfully, but you would really want the right mechanic. Then you fly it or hire it done...your call.
Whatever you do, you can almost count on some squawks needing to be dealt with on your first annual or sooner. Just know that it will happen and don't worry about it, just be aware.
Good Luck on this.
Jeff
