Question about moving and reception

I've been thinking about moving to a rural area and looked at one place yesterday (a rental). It's more heavily treed than where I live now but there are gaps. But I don't know if I could get a line of sight. I also still have about a year and a half commitment to D*. What happens if I can't get reception? I did see a few other dishes in the area. I asked at the general store how satellite service was and the woman told me she'd seen some inventive places used for dish placement. Somehow I think Ironwood wasn't involved. At least one of those guys told me it was against D* policy to string lines between buildings because "A squirrel or something could chew on the wires." when I tried to get hooked up at my current place. (There's my cottage and a duplex and triplex sharing the same yard, had my landlord's permission).
Anyway, is there anyway to check ahead of time? It's not the only deciding factor but if I do move there I'd rather not pay for service I can't get.

And an unrelated question- I want to give someone a DVR for Christmas. I was hoping they would have the option of canceling service without penalties if they decided they didn't want it within a certain amount of time. But a CSR told me they would be stuck with the 2 year commitment no matter what once it was activated. Is this true? Or would reaching a different CSR make a difference?