Cold Weather Flipping

[Aaron Litzenberg]

Hello, BP!  For those of you who flip in cold weather areas, I'm wondering if you strategize around the winter months.

It's been my experience when buying/selling primary residences that the winter months tend to have lower inventories and less buyers.  Not to mention the possible complications of rehabbing in the winter.

So do you try to avoid the winter months for flips?  Or have you found that those tendencies don't have much impact on you deals?

Thanks!

[J Scott]

We did a lot of flips in Wisconsin a few years ago, and this was certainly an issue.  The hardest part was dealing with the exterior repairs -- even something as simple as paint was often delayed by months if the weather didn't cooperate.  

So, if you're going to rehab in these types of places during the winter months, make sure you can be flexible with your schedule, make sure you prioritize exterior work around the weather, and make sure that the house is weather-tight prior to the bad weather coming in.

In general, we found that our Wisconsin flips took an average of about 30% longer than our flips in more temperate climates.