I totally get this. Crushes can be weird because even if you’ve not physically met in person, you can appreciate the way someone’s mind works and value other traits about them. There’s no pressure to “put on” and it can make conversation flow easily.

With that being said, I would not advise admitting feelings to him yet if you already have plans of meeting up. As you wrote yourself, you’re really still building rapport and have not even become good friends, so you’re unsure of how he’d accept that news or react. If you’re not even able to explain to him that you work remote and are open to moving anywhere, that could definitely rub him the wrong way and maybe even make him run for the hills. Whether you mean it to be or not, that’s a lot of pressure in one casual statement.

I get that you’re nervous he will find someone else, but you still need to get to know this guy. There’s a lot about him you don’t know and unless I’m wrong, you wrote you talk periodically over the phone (a few times) and occasionally text, which doesn’t scream that it’s time to be candid.

My best advice would be to try speaking with him more on a regular basis to see if he communicates back. See if you really like him for him, which it seems you do, but I’d tread lightly until there is a stronger rapport built.

Maybe see if there is chemistry still there in person. Right now you’re not sure if he’s 100% single, so I’d test those waters. You don’t really have anything to lose shooting your shot, but you still wanna do it smart.

Good luck.