I have bought many outside of New England, some surveyed and some not. Been burned a few times on mechanical issues on non-surveyed boats. Being the son of a marine surveyor I should know better!
I had a whaler that came out of Florida, the boat looked great but the steering tube was almost rusted straight through. Basically ended up repowering the boat, it wasn't worth fixing. Still ended up selling it later on here (with the newer motor) and got out of it relatively unscathed.
My Sonic was a turd. Cosmetically had more damage than depicted, and even though it came with handfuls of receipts for work done it was all shoddy and the boat never ran right. I put a ton of money into it and dumped it the same season. From the time the hauler hooked on at Lake Havasu the problems started. This was my worst experience.
One Monterey I was trying to buy out of NY was a total mess, glad I spent the survey money on that one. Another one in Texas was a nice clean boat, but the survey gave me the ammo I needed to get the dealer down a bit and take care of the small stuff up front.
As far as shipping, I always use Uship. Overall good experiences. A few have been wingnuts, but overall no major issues. One RV I sold and shipped out via Uship was damaged upon arrival at the buyers home, the driver bottomed it out in a ditch literally at the time of delivery.
Don't be afraid to buy out of area, just do your due diligence.
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