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Is having your own pool or hot tub worth it? (2 Viewers)

flapgreen

Footballguy
Looking for our second home and were seriously considering buying a home that already has a pool or getting one put in. The problem I'm encountering is I haven't met a single person who has one who hasn't said it's a huge headache and a money pit. It's making me reconsider it. Are we better off buying a home with a community pool? 

 
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Looking for our second home and were seriously considering buying a home that already has a pool or getting one put in. The problem I'm encountering is I haven't met a single person who has one who hasn't said it's a huge headache and a money pit. It's making me reconsider it. Are we better off buying a home with a community pool? 
We bought a home that already had a pool.  It looks pretty and can be expensive and a lot of maintenance.  We didn't know what we were doing for years and yeah, I think it's costly.  Others here that know what they are doing likely have lower operating costs and way fewer problems.  

As for entertainment, it has been the main activity/party house for us and our friends so all in all, it's been worth it.  

I would say get a salt water generator - so worth it and it doesn't make your skin itch from the chemicals.  

 
We could do that in a neighborhood with a community pool as well. There are several of those near us. I know that's not quite the same but just considering. 
If you're going to add a pool to your existing home, kiss virtually dollar you put into - and all the maintenance dollars you put into afterwards ...

a big sweet goodbye.  

 
I put in a heat pump last year and have been getting much more use out of the pool.  I don't do anything besides dump in chlorine and sweep it.  It's the easiest thing in the world to maintain imo.  If I let it go too long an algae bloom will develop which requires about $20 in chlorine, constant running of the pump, and sweeping/ cleaning filter a ton for a week.  Not the end of the world.

I have heard nightmares about pool installs.  Better off buying with if possible.

Keep in mind which direction a prospective house faces, and how much shade will be on the pool.  A warmer pool can add months to use. 

Get a pool, hang a tv, put the Pinch a Penny steel drums music on repeat, and enjoy life!

 
House before this one we were renting had a pool. Loved it. Our 4 boys and friends used it a lot, convenient, private, totally worth it. It's a bit of work to keep up and if you have an old system, balancing the chemicals can become a challenge if you let it go for a week or two while you're gone. You can't really be frugal with it and do it right, or at least we weren't able to. 

Now we have a community pool in a small neighborhood where everyone pretty much gets along (one of those rare ones where the HOA isn't even evil). I prefer this, but it helps a ton that my kids are now old enough to go to the pool themselves either while I'm at work and Mom can take care of stuff in the house.

If you have kids and want the pool for them, the backyard pool is awesome. The community pool is great when they're old enough to be there with friends and not cause problems. You're taking a risk with the community pool if your neighbors are #######s. Community pool won't work for you if you don't like kids.

 
Bought a house with a pool.  Guy paid a fortune to put it in and got nothing back for it 3 years later.  

Cost to keep it up is variable.  I mean budget maybe a grand a year and if you don't spend it then pocket it long term for a big job like a resurface. 

 
My son and wife want a pool. Im buying a house with a bigger backyard so we can eventually buy a pool. But I'm hoping they change their mind because I don't want one. If we do decide to get one it will be above ground only. Not gonna pay 50k to get an inground pool installed when my wife and I both work. Only gonna use the pool on weekends in summer. Just not worth it. 

 
Very true that in 99.99999% of places a pool adds zero value to your home, so better off to just buy a house with an existing pool if that's your thing.  Let someone else drop the dough.  Their loss is your gain.  

 
Very true that in 99.99999% of places a pool adds zero value to your home, so better off to just buy a house with an existing pool if that's your thing.  Let someone else drop the dough.  Their loss is your gain.  
I was recently house shopping and I noticed several houses listed higher due to the pool than similar houses in square footage without pools. 

 
I was recently house shopping and I noticed several houses listed higher due to the pool than similar houses in square footage without pools. 
They won't appraise for that value.  My house actually had a -10k write down on a 3 year old pool that the owner spend 85k on. 

 
That's the norm.  Pools add no value and in many cases hurt the value.

Outside of a few select places where basically everyone has a pool, they are just dead money
I was looking at houses in the 1600 sq ft range. Most listed in the 600k-700k range all without pools. The two houses we saw with pools were 1500 sq ft and 1200 sq ft. Both listed over 700k. Not saying you're wrong and maybe just delusional sellers but was pretty contrary to popular belief. 

 
I was looking at houses in the 1600 sq ft range. Most listed in the 600k-700k range all without pools. The two houses we saw with pools were 1500 sq ft and 1200 sq ft. Both listed over 700k. Not saying you're wrong and maybe just delusional sellers but was pretty contrary to popular belief. 
I didnt say every pool is worthless or that every pool decreases home value.

But it's pretty widely known that "in general" pools add no value to a home, and in many cases decrease the value.

 
I was looking at houses in the 1600 sq ft range. Most listed in the 600k-700k range all without pools. The two houses we saw with pools were 1500 sq ft and 1200 sq ft. Both listed over 700k. Not saying you're wrong and maybe just delusional sellers but was pretty contrary to popular belief. 
Also, this seems to be quite the small sample size, and there could easily be other factors contributing to the pricing of those homes.

 
Also, this seems to be quite the small sample size, and there could easily be other factors contributing to the pricing of those homes.
I know I wasn't really disagreeing with you per se, just giving some concrete evidence of what I saw. Imo those houses were listed higher due to the pool as nothing else about them were anything special. But I agree, not a large sample size. Most of the houses listed with pools were out of our price range. 

 
We are going to get one.  It’s in our next 2 years plan.  We live in Nebraska and can only get maybe 6 months usage at max per year.  That doesn’t matter though to us.  We love pools.  Our kids love to swim.  We love hosting parties.  We would use it all the time.  Won’t get our $ back out of it, but I’m ok with that.  We will earn that back in enjoyment.  Public pools suck.  Overcrowded and dealing with everyone else sucks.  

 
shadyridr said:
I was looking at houses in the 1600 sq ft range. Most listed in the 600k-700k range all without pools. The two houses we saw with pools were 1500 sq ft and 1200 sq ft. Both listed over 700k. Not saying you're wrong and maybe just delusional sellers but was pretty contrary to popular belief. 
Wow. I'm glad I live in the Nashville area. Looking at a 3500 Sq ft  all brick home today with a community pool. Only 360k. 5 years old 

 
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I got my pool built in 2011 when my 3 boys were 7, 5, and 1.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.  we use it virtually every weekend and half of the weekdays during the summer.  My oldest is in 9th grade now and him and his friends will use it all of the time, which is another bonus as I can keep an eye on them.  our backyard was useless before it because it'd be so hot and muggy back there.  I got a bar by the pool and I host family gatherings for fathers day, july 4th, and any other time we're getting together and the weather is nice.  I have friends over a few times a year too.

Maintenance is maybe an hour a week and that's if I manually vacuum.  If I use the autovac, its maybe a half hour.  the only chemicals I use are chlorine and some muriatic acid.  I will pay a company to close the pool and that'll cost me $300, but I open myself.  total maintenance might be $1000/yr until I need to get it resurfaced in another 5-10 years.  personally, I wouldn't let the maintenance or costs scare you off.  yes, I may not get the money back I put into it on resale, but I don't care.  its not an investment but something to make things enjoyable for the whole family.

I hate public pools because I generally don't like people and their screaming kids.  hard pass

 
When my mom built her retirement home, they added an in ground pool. They don’t have much going on other than playing golf, so it’s been ok. She has to fish out lizards from the filter every other day, but’s it been fine otherwise. 

We have one in the neighborhood.  Personally I’d rather just put in a hot tub with a tv on the back porch. 

 
ghostguy123 said:
Where do u live?
That and how much disposable income you have are the real questions.  Still, if you live somewhere like Florida, you are probably going to get the most mileage out of a pool.  The problem with a community pool is that you typically are facing some unfun HOA restrictions/dues.  

 
That and how much disposable income you have are the real questions.  Still, if you live somewhere like Florida, you are probably going to get the most mileage out of a pool.  The problem with a community pool is that you typically are facing some unfun HOA restrictions/dues.  
HOA in the neighborhood we just looked in is $37 a month so not a big deal. Looking into the rules, too. 

 
When we bought our house 10 years ago we always knew we were putting a pool in. We put in a 27’ above ground pool in with a pretty large deck (odd shape, 16 x 20). We initially put it in for our son... and us. As it turned out, he rarely used it despite our constant encouragement,  just wasn’t interested. Now, despite that, we don’t regret it. Both of us love being in the sun and we spend a lot of our free time on the deck and swimming. I would do it again though it never got the use we anticipated.

We have a salt water system and it’s mostly maintenance free. Our use window is only about 3.5 months in the northeast but I still think it was ultimately  worth it. Depends what you like I guess.

 
flapgreen said:
Looking for our second home and were seriously considering buying a home that already has a pool or getting one put in. The problem I'm encountering is I haven't met a single person who has one who hasn't said it's a huge headache and a money pit. It's making me reconsider it. Are we better off buying a home with a community pool? 
You will get your money worth if you have young kids plus  get one with a jacuzzi tub attached.  Live in northeast and pool open may to October with tub getting more use than pool....it’s a great spot to have conversations with your kids as confine area with no phone...

 
Yes you want a pool. Great for relaxing, entertaining and looks. Get a Lab and he'll swim all summer with you. 

And a pool does nothing negative for you other than limiting buyers when you sell. 

 

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