Greenville, SC · Member since 2020 · 6 posts · 10 votes
Hi everyone - I was curious on what peoples thoughts are with flipping houses during the winter in cold weather states (ie: Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc). Does the severe weather create limitations for finding GC's or hamper their ability to get work done in the harsh conditions? Or does the weather not have as big an impact on their work as I'm picturing in my head?
I would imagine exterior work like landscaping, siding, roofing, etc would be impacted a good bit. Any thoughts or feedback from those that have expereince in this area is greatly appreciated.
@Doug Hogan I agree things slow down but you can't stop business just because of weather. We have had siding replaced in February. In some cases, you will get better deals if you buy when its freezing. Do your rehab and have it ready to go when the Spring market hits.
You can get stuff done but generally at a little slower pace, even the interior.
In Iowa we can get occasional breaks from the cold where some outdoor work can be completed on a more 'normal' pace. Workers/contractors may put some work off until higher temps (painting, roofs etc...)
We have done winter flips in Iowa. There are pros and cons. One of the positive aspects is that perspective buyers can't see the landscaping, roof, etc. So it may hide some issues (assuming you didn't know about them either). But it's obviously harder doing things on the exterior of the property, and you need to make sure your furnace/boiler work well so if you aren't at the property for a few days, you don't end up with a furnace that craps out and you have frozen pipes!
@Doug Hogan I agree things slow down but you can't stop business just because of weather. We have had siding replaced in February. In some cases, you will get better deals if you buy when its freezing. Do your rehab and have it ready to go when the Spring market hits.
This is great. Thank you all for the feedback. I'm brand new to investing and relatively new to the midwest, so I wasn't sure how the harsh climate impacted construction. This helps a bunch!
@Doug Hogan Work can certainly slow down in the winter time but it should not come to a complete halt. There are outside tasks that can be completed during the winter months, the contractor just has to play the weather. There may be a day here or there where they are able to do a roofing, siding or window job.
In terms of the inside, just make sure that the pipes don't freeze and that you have a continuous heat source if you are doing things like painting and flooring. Typically I will replace or repair the HVAC before we start ANY job in the winter, that way we have confidence that the property's heat will be reliable and we won't have to worry about pipes freezing. Another thing we do is have materials delivered early (something like flooring or trim) and have them sit in the house to get to the same temperature as the inside. This helps the installers work with the material a little bit easier and it also helps make sure the material is installed at the same temperature of the house, creating less of an issue with expansion/contraction later on.
@Doug Hogan we have excavated basements in December, framed houses in February and we do roof jobs in winter all the time.
Winter in Milwaukee is not an ongoing snowstorm for 3 months; most days are just cool and dry or cold and dry, good working conditions actually. Of course you can have rain or snow, but heavy rain will also halt your construction during summer. And our last winters had several weeks in the 40s if not 50s in Jan and Feb. (But also some weeks with minus 20).
The only thing that you really can't do for a while is exterior paint. And landscaping, planting and seeding grass will have to wait. But most of the work on a flip is interior anyway and it usually takes 12 plus weeks, so you can try and wrap up exterior still in November (special low temp paint) or wait until April.
Make sure you have heat, if necessary bring in space heaters.