It will also likely leave me with a vacant house in the winter which will probably be difficult to fill.

I even looked Upstate, but decided didn't want to deal with winter weather and Property taxes in general in NY state are high..

Good getaway i guess too for winter.

I want to be able to keep my house above freezing in the winter if they can't pay their oil bill.

I want to be able to acquire several more of these especially as my market goes into the winter and prices tend to drop. 

We would basically be there in the winter and here in Maine in the summer/fall (June-Octoberish).It has a decent airport with lots of flights to Atlanta (my wife travels a lot for her job and uses Delta). 

Selling in the dead of winter? 

@Marc Winter, maybe in your country you can change locks on an occupied unit.

My plan is to spend all of next winter talking to every lender I can about what they're willing to do for me. 

I've driven in Seattle many times and the roads are narrow, twisty, hilly and wet and the "sun" goes down by 4:00pm in the winter.