Home Buying in the Snow – Grand Rapids, MI style

I often hear from my fellow REALTORS across the warm part of the country – they wonder how on earth we can actually show homes, hold open houses – and help buyers and sellers – when it is snowing in Michigan!
Here are the secrets: Everyone dresses warm (not too many home visits in shorts and flip flops) with boots, hats and gloves. We all drive front wheel or 4 wheel drive vehicles – many homes are vacant and have not been plowed out – so we have to have cars that can make it up steep driveways and over plowed in sidewalks.

We really appreciate sellers who have photos in their homes or on their websites of the home in summer, fall and spring – so we can actually tell if there is a lawn under the snow. We plan for a little extra time between showings to account for slippery roads and snow related dressing.

The good news is that everything looks beautiful after a fresh snowfall.  We can put up with the boots, hats, shovels and plows to live in a lovely City and State (Grand Rapids, MI) that has so much to offer.  While we have our boots and hats on we could go snowshoeing, skiing, snowmobiling and any other variety of sports that us “Northerners” have cooked up – before we head inside for some hot chocolate or mulled wine and a pot of chili.

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