Hola! me nombre es Kane - British teacher needing advice on moving to Valencia

Hi In January 2016 my partner and I are planning to move from England to Valencia. We are qualified English teachers in our mid twenties, and we are looking to find work and settle in Spain, first as private tutors (then we will look for jobs in a language school with a bit of luck!) Integration is important to us and we have spent the last few months learning as much of the langauge as possible.
 I need some advice about the best way to secure our accommodation. We are looking for a long term rent on an apartment  500-600 euros a month approx and we wish to stay near or around the city centre. Because we are in the UK should we book our property viewings BEFORE the week we arrive or is it best to sort this out in person once we are there and stay in a hotel in the mean time? We would not want to stay in a hotel for too long.
I want to know i anyone other young brits have had expereince sorting a  long term rental on a spanish property and for them to let me know how they secured it  
This is all completely new to us so any advice I could get from you on this would be appreciated.

Thanks for taking time to read this :) 
Kane

My advice would be to go out first and then find a place to rent. It shouldn't be difficult or expensive to find a hotel or short term let in January. Do read the threads on moving and living in Spain on this forum and most important, do have enough money to cover living expenses for at least 6 months (some say a year). You will need to factor in private health care as well. Unlike the UK, Spanish healthcare is not resident based but contribution based. Also, jobs are very hard to find. Do a lot of reaserch.......and good luck.

Some good advice from GB45. There was a thread on here recently entitled 'What would you do differently' which although (as per usual) went off topic, hopefully it will help you not to make the mistakes many of us have made. You can check out idealista.com or fotocasa.es to get an idea of what property is available, how much and where etc but I wouldn't decide on a property before coming over. Luckily Valencia is very cheap for a large city so it won't drain your money too quickly but do take into account the job situation and also the fact that the lack of work has led many people like yourself to take up teaching English so don't assume you're in a niche market.

Bring winter clothes too, it's colder than you think in January.

Some good advice given here, thank you both very much !

One other rather important point. If you intend to work in Spain teaching English before you find a job be careful. Self employed people are expected to pay to be autonomo which is 269 euros a month regardless of what you earn and it must be paid on time or else you get fined. One example is that You will be hard pressed to find a Spanish builder prepared to work in the open for fear of getting caught by the aurhorities. They are known to walk arounfd towns both inland and on the coast looking for evidence of building work to check that all workmen are paying their fair whack. The fine I believe is somewhere in the region of 6000 euros. It is less likely you would run into prpblems working from home but remember you will have to advertise for classes.

Have you tried International schools like Kings College of which there are lots.Not such a good time of year to apply as most employ in Spring and start dates are August as you will know. 

Google International schools, Spain. These are great schools to work in, as I am talking from experience teaching in South American schools and many Spanish parents use them as they want their children to learn English from an early age.