I know in my little town where we have had heat indexes over 100 degrees this summer it would be nice, but first I guess at 500,000 these are not rentals houses?? I personally would not have a pool at a rental due to safety issues. What if some little tyke drowns? You know they are coming after you. I know houses in my area don’t sell as fast w/ a pool. Some friends of mine put in a $30,000 in ground 5 years ago, decided to move house went on the market January 1 this year and they now live in their new house and the one w/ the pool is vacant. They keep telling me it’s sold, but it is the longest closing process I’ve ever seen.
Most houses in our area sell within 20-30 days, they are at 8 months on this one. Check your area a look at those #'s.
Are homes with swimming pools better investments? - Posted by Hardy Swenson
Posted by Hardy Swenson on August 03, 2005 at 01:19:37:
The homes I’m talking about are in a city that in the summer time has an average temperature in the 90s and often goes over 100. Homes there with nice swimming pools, some including jacuzzi’s, are priced in the mid $500,000 range. Would a home with a nice swimming pool be a better investment than a home without one.
Personally, for me, the homes with the pools especially in that hot weather are a lot more alluring. But is this generally the case. Will homes with pools sell better, appreciate better and make better investments than homes without pools? Not every home in that area has a pool so maybe because they are in limited supply it makes them better investments. But I don’t know for sure. Does anyone have an opinion about this.
My experience, and that of family and friends, with pools is as follows. When we bought in a gated Scottsdale, AZ if the home did not have a pool the cost of putting in a pool was deducted from the price of the home, it was standard to have a pool on these one acre sites. In North Dakota, a pool was a deductin from the price of the home.
A home I sold in the eastern SF Bay area, where temps hit 90 plus all summer, had a mixed reation. I lost some buyers that would have bought if it would not have been for the pool. I Had some buyers trying to reduce the price because of pool maintenance and insurance costs. I finally found a buyer that only wanted a house with a pool.
I had the same experience selling a home in San Diego County, CA. I’m with the poster who stated get in a community with a pool, or become a member of a swim club.
It can be a plus for some buyers and a neg for others.
What are your plans for the property?:
As a rental - move on to the next one
As your residence - maybe but it takes time and $$ to maintain and your own amount of use
As a flip - probably will be a plus in spring to younger families with kids and a neg to buyers middle age facing retirement soon; in the fall it is a neg most cases all the way around
Are you going to rent out this house? Are you going to flip it?
Are you going to live in the house but you’re curious about its value in the future?
Even if you put 10% down–which is $50K–and even if you borrowed for 30 years (which I would personally not do for a rental) your P&I is going to be $2700. With insurance and taxes, I’d guess your payment would be at least $3200 per month.
If you are going to rent it out, you would have to be able to collect at least $4000 per month to have any reasonable chance to cash flow at all. Even with no maintenance or vacancy, it would take you 5 years to get your down payment back.
And pools can go downhill really fast. I’d be VERY reluctant to trust pool care to a tenant. You would probably have to pay through the nose for that.
If you’re looking to re-sell quickly, then yes, a pool is desirable.
If you’re holding long-term, it can be a hassle. You’ll need to take extra steps to limit your liability, and you’ll want the tenant to sign additional disclosures, liability waivers, and they’ll need to obtain additional insurance coverage.
And… you’ll need to monitor their maintenance of the pool… which may be the biggest challenge.
In my area of Tennessee, where it can get very hot, most view pools as neutral or negative. If you have two near-identical homes except that one has a pool, the one with the pool will bring the same or less than the one without the pool. I have heard that from several realtors, although I have no personal experience.