Im in the process of moving to california (90 more days) even tho I lived there before, Ive gone back 3 times to check housing. I know places in california you see online look great in the pictures, and they are dead center in the hood, and look nothing like the pic's. The job thing was haunting me too, I was holding out the move until I had a job lined up. The uhaul should run you around 1200-1500 bucks depending on size, then add fuel and hotels.