You learn the truth about an Ottawa house in February, not in June.

When the driveway is ice and the windows are fogged up, a home stops pretending. That is exactly why winter, if you know what to look for, can actually be the smartest time to buy.

This is not a basic checklist about “check the furnace” or “look at the roof.”
Here are the quick winter tests I walk my own Ottawa buyers through that you will not usually find in a generic Google search.