SF Bay Area, especially in terms of SFH construction quality, market temperature, tenant quality etc.

Our electrical bill last month was $175 ... which included heat (the one baseboard) and running all our tools during 4-weeks where the daily high temperature was seldom over 0F.  

We always install laundry on the lowest floor in the unit (several of our units are 2-story) and install an overflow pan with floor drain under the laundry units themselves.We have winter here which comes with a month or more of temperatures in the -20 to -30 range.  

Today it as still cold, -20C (-4F) with a windchill effective temperature of -34C (-29F) and I, along with a crew of 3 others, spent the day clearing snow off roofs.

I'd be more concerned with 2 things:1) The drastic temperature change the house will experience in going from white to black shingles2) A home inspector for your end buyer who might throw up a red flag since he won't run into something like that very often.

I also have WiFi thermostats so I can remotely change the temperature when no one is there to save on the electric bill.

Just starting to do some shortsales in Ca and AZ. Anybody got advice on where I should start my offers to the banks?? i.e. 70%,80% of BPO??

THEY DON'T CARE WHAT THE UTILITY BILLS ARE and I will frequently drive by these places rentals during the middle of the winter when the temperature is BELOW ZERO and see windows open!

However, this can leave some rooms at such low temperatures during winter that damage can occur to plumbing or the building structure. 

The average daytime temperature in the winter is the mid-fifties.