How do you go about buying a car on the other side of the country?

I finally learned my lesson to NEVER buy a car sight-unseen from the internet. But, it took me three separate car fiascos to "get it." Two were from back east and when they arrived here in SoCal they were rust buckets, one had a stuck engine. Another was a hot rod that turned out to be such a Frankenstein mess that it would never be road worthy. That was ten years ago that I decided never again.
Getting a professional or someone from FABO to thoroughly inspect it would be a minimum safeguard. Personally, I'd save until I could buy the plane ticket or just wait for a car to come up locally. You definitely cannot believe the sellers.