Purchasing During Winter In Snowy Markets??

[Patrick Giblin]

Currently looking into various areas to invest, and all of them, (Vermont, Minneapolis and Milwaukee) all have intense winters. From my experience in buying personal residences, the advice I've heard is NEVER buy in the winter, primarily due to potential things being missed during the inspection.

Anyone have thoughts on this?? My one thought is winter might be a good time to invest/purchase property as it is "off season" compared to spring/summer/fall

[Marcus Auerbach]

We have a lot of winter-myths in Milwaukee, here are a couple:

Myth 1: winter is a bad time to sell a house. new inventory starts to slow down in November and reaches its low point between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Buyers are pretty distracted as well, however Q4 has always been my favorite time to pick up investment properties, it is the least competitive quarter.

A lot of left over inventory expires Dec 31st and sellers believe the old pre-internet myth to wait until spring, when hourses and yards look great. Buyers on the other hand wake up on Jan 1st and get on the internet, because holiday season is over and they wanted to buy a new house. However, there is no inventory whatsoever, because the sellers are still waiting for spring. 

I have sold houses in Jan and Feb for fantastic prices, because it was litterally the only house for sale and some buyers don't have time.

Myth 2: You can't find tenants in the winter. This is a self fulfilling prophecy - I have rented properties between Chrsitmas and New Year. Most landlords will structure their leases so they don't expire in winter, so few people are free to look and fewer units are available. People move any month of the year and while demand is certainly lower during Dec-Fabruary, so is supply.

Winter in Wisconsin - what is it really like:

Yes we have periods of snowfall, but as every snowmobiler will complain to you, most of the time we have no or not much of the white stuff on the ground. Long parts of the winter are dry with temeratures in the 40s and 30s, with occasional 20s. We usually get hit by an arctic blast for a couple weeks, then it drops down below zero. And sometimes we get hit by a blizzard and you can't see anything. But 80% of the long winter season are clear days with little or no snow on the ground and just fine for house shopping.

When you have snow on the ground you can't see much of the yard, which is usually not a big deal. It can be difficult for the agent and later the home inspector to check the roof - chimney, flashings, valleys: I sometimes use my windshield brush to clean the edge, so at least I can see the condition and age of the shingles.

On the other hand, you can spot houses with poor insulation from your car driving down the street. Those are the first ones with a snow free roof (and big iceycles).