Go visit a lender and tell them you want to apply for a mortgage.

Am I, as a consumer, required to allow them one more chance to do the work correctly if they blatantly failed to perform on their first visit? As

I am originally from Staten Island but have lived in other places for quite some time, but still have family on the island and visit a few times per year. 

Nobody wants to be the first to visit a completely unvetted place.

Although I'm extremely biased to New Orleans my advice on choosing a city is travel and visit as many of these places as possible even if it's just weekend trips. 

If you are going to move forward, and this isn't a scam (i.e. they deposit $1 mil in your account and tell you to carry on), you should probably visit a good contract lawyer to spell out what everyone's responsibility is and try to limit your liability if this thing goes south. 

It's well worth the plane ride to visit a new market and make connections.

@Alex Hogle You may want to visit a few mobile home parks and dealerships in the area.

We went last year to visit a friend living in KC and to look at some properties/drive different areas of the city to see what they were like in person. 

I'll bet that feels cool to go and visit a property after you've bought it.