I am not having the best luck with my r/l local scene right now but I still wouldn't want to go back to online. I had an online relationship that progressed into a r/l long distance relationship and it really almost killed the whole thing for me. You can talk about and imagin all sorts of things but when it comes down to it a lot of the toys doms use take skill and practice to use correctly. So when you finally meet, like in my case, he might have no clue what he is really doing. Also until you really try it it's hard to know if you will like it or not, there are some things I thought I would like that in reality I don't and others I wouldn't have even imagined enjoying as much as I do.
I am very mental in my submissive but the physical aspect takes it to a completely different level. There is so much you cannot do to yourself with just direction.