Would you buy a house with a pool?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering, what do you people do when you go to a resort with the pool with your toddlers? Or do you never go to such places at all unless your kids are 7 ??

The two situations are in no way comparable

1. most resort pools have lifeguards
2. if there is no lifeguard- like in a hotel pool- there is usually a fence around the pool as a separate enclosure
3. I watch my children in a resort- there is no opportunity for them to wander off
4. I don't feel responsible for other people's children at a resort pool in the way that I would at my house.

2. why not put a fence around your own pool, a lot of homes have them.
3. Why would this be different to watch your kids at your house if you can so successfully do this at a crowded resort pool.
4. Why on earth do you have to be responsible for other people's kids? Don't they have their own parents to watch them? Just deny access to kids to the pool if parents are not with them, but in case of pool parties or playdates with parents present, it's their friken responsibility to watch their kids, just like they would at a resort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am wondering, what do you people do when you go to a resort with the pool with your toddlers? Or do you never go to such places at all unless your kids are 7 ??

The two situations are in no way comparable

1. most resort pools have lifeguards
2. if there is no lifeguard- like in a hotel pool- there is usually a fence around the pool as a separate enclosure
3. I watch my children in a resort- there is no opportunity for them to wander off
4. I don't feel responsible for other people's children at a resort pool in the way that I would at my house.

2. why not put a fence around your own pool, a lot of homes have them.
3. Why would this be different to watch your kids at your house if you can so successfully do this at a crowded resort pool.
4. Why on earth do you have to be responsible for other people's kids? Don't they have their own parents to watch them? Just deny access to kids to the pool if parents are not with them, but in case of pool parties or playdates with parents present, it's their friken responsibility to watch their kids, just like they would at a resort.

A pool is an attractive nuisance. You will be sued and it won't be funny.

[Anonymous]

Not in this area. Season to enjoy an in-ground pool is too short and maintenance too high. I also would not have one with small kids. Now an indoor pool...that's another story! I actually saw a house with an indoor pool in Arlington (!) when we were looking a few years ago. Loved the idea but didn't like the flow with the rest of the house and there was no yard because of the addition to house the pool.

[Anonymous]

I would love to have a house with a pool. From what I read, it adds nothing to the value of a home, on average (i.e., house with a pool should cost the same as other homes in the neighborhood).

Off point, but I had a friend who bought a house that was discounted because it had a non-functional pool. She thought she could just fill in the pool with fill - wrong! You have to hire a crew to dig it out, and it cost more the remove the pool than to install a new one. So if you don't like pools, don't think that you can easily remove it.

[Anonymous]

Never. I almost drowned in one as a child. Knew a family who lost a toddler in one. Not in a gazillion years.

[Anonymous]

We did. There's a fence around the pool. There's an alarm on the fence. The kids got swim lessons as soon as they could float. Refresher swim lessons at the start of each season.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tons of maintenance and insurance costs.

Not true. We put in a pool two years ago. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons, they've already been stated above. We happen to love pools, swimming, our kids are older, and my DH has an aversion to public pools (too many chemicals, kids who vomit and pee in the pool, etc.)

I'll just talk about insurance and maintenance. If it's a new pool, the maintenance is actually quite low. Ours is a salt water pool. We never put chemicals in it except the first day it is opened in the Spring. Then we have to put in chlorine to kill any bacteria that has grown over the winter. After that, we only add salt, and usually only once or twice during the season. So we never have to buy or mess with chemicals. To clean the pool, we have a little robot called a Polaris, that is on a timer and turns on for about 3 hours per day. That cleans out any and all leaves, debris, etc. Only if we have a big storm do I have to pull out the skimmer to take out larger things that might fall in during a storm. We've had a pool company service it bi-weekly that past two years, but there is really so little to do that I'm not going to hire them again this year. You can really do it all yourself. We also have a heater which allows us to use the pool from May to October. We also have a spa attached that we use longer in the season. We have a remote control that controls everything - heater, lights, waterfalls, filter, Polaris, etc. It's really cool.

I would imagine an older pool will be more maintenance, but if it's new, chances are it's salt water. Our pool company said almost all the pools they put in today are salt water and they are much lower maintenance than chemical pools - and much better for your skin.

The addition of the pool and attached spa added about 200.00 per year to our homeowner's insurance. So no big deal for us.

It might be harder for us to sell our house, but we plan to be here a long time so we'll have enjoyed our backyard immensely before we have to face that challenge.

Good luck - it's a personal decision. We love having our pool but understand that there are people who wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole!

So in addition to the $200 increase in your HO insurance, how much did the above bolded statements cost you? And I assume you have a fence too so that's extra, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tons of maintenance and insurance costs.

Not true. We put in a pool two years ago. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons, they've already been stated above. We happen to love pools, swimming, our kids are older, and my DH has an aversion to public pools (too many chemicals, kids who vomit and pee in the pool, etc.)

I'll just talk about insurance and maintenance. If it's a new pool, the maintenance is actually quite low. Ours is a salt water pool. We never put chemicals in it except the first day it is opened in the Spring. Then we have to put in chlorine to kill any bacteria that has grown over the winter. After that, we only add salt, and usually only once or twice during the season. So we never have to buy or mess with chemicals. To clean the pool, we have a little robot called a Polaris, that is on a timer and turns on for about 3 hours per day. That cleans out any and all leaves, debris, etc. Only if we have a big storm do I have to pull out the skimmer to take out larger things that might fall in during a storm. We've had a pool company service it bi-weekly that past two years, but there is really so little to do that I'm not going to hire them again this year. You can really do it all yourself. We also have a heater which allows us to use the pool from May to October. We also have a spa attached that we use longer in the season. We have a remote control that controls everything - heater, lights, waterfalls, filter, Polaris, etc. It's really cool.

I would imagine an older pool will be more maintenance, but if it's new, chances are it's salt water. Our pool company said almost all the pools they put in today are salt water and they are much lower maintenance than chemical pools - and much better for your skin.

The addition of the pool and attached spa added about 200.00 per year to our homeowner's insurance. So no big deal for us.

It might be harder for us to sell our house, but we plan to be here a long time so we'll have enjoyed our backyard immensely before we have to face that challenge.

Good luck - it's a personal decision. We love having our pool but understand that there are people who wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole!

This is a sarcastic joke, right? Laundry listing out all the machines, services, power used per day for maintenance and then forgetting to list out what the home insurance markup is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tons of maintenance and insurance costs.

Not true. We put in a pool two years ago. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons, they've already been stated above. We happen to love pools, swimming, our kids are older, and my DH has an aversion to public pools (too many chemicals, kids who vomit and pee in the pool, etc.)

I'll just talk about insurance and maintenance. If it's a new pool, the maintenance is actually quite low. Ours is a salt water pool. We never put chemicals in it except the first day it is opened in the Spring. Then we have to put in chlorine to kill any bacteria that has grown over the winter. After that, we only add salt, and usually only once or twice during the season. So we never have to buy or mess with chemicals. To clean the pool, we have a little robot called a Polaris, that is on a timer and turns on for about 3 hours per day. That cleans out any and all leaves, debris, etc. Only if we have a big storm do I have to pull out the skimmer to take out larger things that might fall in during a storm. We've had a pool company service it bi-weekly that past two years, but there is really so little to do that I'm not going to hire them again this year. You can really do it all yourself. We also have a heater which allows us to use the pool from May to October. We also have a spa attached that we use longer in the season. We have a remote control that controls everything - heater, lights, waterfalls, filter, Polaris, etc. It's really cool.

I would imagine an older pool will be more maintenance, but if it's new, chances are it's salt water. Our pool company said almost all the pools they put in today are salt water and they are much lower maintenance than chemical pools - and much better for your skin.

The addition of the pool and attached spa added about 200.00 per year to our homeowner's insurance. So no big deal for us.

It might be harder for us to sell our house, but we plan to be here a long time so we'll have enjoyed our backyard immensely before we have to face that challenge.

Good luck - it's a personal decision. We love having our pool but understand that there are people who wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole!

This is a sarcastic joke, right? Laundry listing out all the machines, services, power used per day for maintenance and then forgetting to list out what the home insurance markup is?

She did list insurance markup..... It's the other stuff she skipped. Anyway just reading the post you can tell this is a multimillion dollar home were talking about - heated, remote controls, waterfalls?!?, attached SPA? .... What the fuck? Are we at a Westin? clearly not your average joe.

We have a pool. It's about $3,000 a year to maintain. That's bi weekly servicing, cleaning, opening, closing, heating, est electric, periodic repairs, etc.

[Anonymous]

A house in my neighborhood in Vienna w a pool went under contract this week in 3 days. Clearly some people want pools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tons of maintenance and insurance costs.

Not true. We put in a pool two years ago. I'm not going to debate the pros and cons, they've already been stated above. We happen to love pools, swimming, our kids are older, and my DH has an aversion to public pools (too many chemicals, kids who vomit and pee in the pool, etc.)

I'll just talk about insurance and maintenance. If it's a new pool, the maintenance is actually quite low. Ours is a salt water pool. We never put chemicals in it except the first day it is opened in the Spring. Then we have to put in chlorine to kill any bacteria that has grown over the winter. After that, we only add salt, and usually only once or twice during the season. So we never have to buy or mess with chemicals. To clean the pool, we have a little robot called a Polaris, that is on a timer and turns on for about 3 hours per day. That cleans out any and all leaves, debris, etc. Only if we have a big storm do I have to pull out the skimmer to take out larger things that might fall in during a storm. We've had a pool company service it bi-weekly that past two years, but there is really so little to do that I'm not going to hire them again this year. You can really do it all yourself. We also have a heater which allows us to use the pool from May to October. We also have a spa attached that we use longer in the season. We have a remote control that controls everything - heater, lights, waterfalls, filter, Polaris, etc. It's really cool.

I would imagine an older pool will be more maintenance, but if it's new, chances are it's salt water. Our pool company said almost all the pools they put in today are salt water and they are much lower maintenance than chemical pools - and much better for your skin.

The addition of the pool and attached spa added about 200.00 per year to our homeowner's insurance. So no big deal for us.

It might be harder for us to sell our house, but we plan to be here a long time so we'll have enjoyed our backyard immensely before we have to face that challenge.

Good luck - it's a personal decision. We love having our pool but understand that there are people who wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole!

This is a sarcastic joke, right? Laundry listing out all the machines, services, power used per day for maintenance and then forgetting to list out what the home insurance markup is?

She did list insurance markup..... It's the other stuff she skipped. Anyway just reading the post you can tell this is a multimillion dollar home were talking about - heated, remote controls, waterfalls?!?, attached SPA? .... What the fuck? Are we at a Westin? clearly not your average joe.

We have a pool. It's about $3,000 a year to maintain. That's bi weekly servicing, cleaning, opening, closing, heating, est electric, periodic repairs, etc.

Jeez, I'm the PP being ridiculed above.

Yes, I mentioned the insurance cost.

Yes, I did leave out the cost of opening and closing the pool (sorry - forgot). but the 3K per year that my nice friend above states is about what we pay as well for opening and closing and bi-weekly servicing. As I said in my earlier post, we will skip the servicing this year as we can do it ourselves.

No, this is not a sarcastic joke, or a Westin Resort, it is our home, our backyard, where we spend all of our time in the nice weather.

Heat, Polaris, lights, and remotes are pretty standard items on new pools. Yes, we have a high-end pool - and you can begrudge us that. But I was just trying to list out all the things that will need to be maintained.

Put your claws back in, I was trying to thoroughly answer the OP's question about the realities of owning a pool. And my main point was, that even with all the bells and whistles, a newer pool is very low maintenance, and doesn't cost as much as all the know-it-alls on this board seem to think.

Good luck with your house-hunting OP.

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone - It's OP. Well, your very thoughtful answers helped us a lot. DH, especially, is grateful, because hearing from people who almost drowned as children and that it truly costs about $3K EXTRA per year (on top of HOA dues, where there is already a pool), set me back. I don't need a pool after all!!

[Anonymous]

NP here. DH and I just bought a house with a flat 1/2 acre backyard. I have dreamed of having a pool all my life, and would love to put one in.

For the PP's who have put in newer pools, what did the total cost run you? We're looking for something very simple and modest, but definitely salt water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP here. DH and I just bought a house with a flat 1/2 acre backyard. I have dreamed of having a pool all my life, and would love to put one in.

For the PP's who have put in newer pools, what did the total cost run you? We're looking for something very simple and modest, but definitely salt water.

We put in a pool 3 years ago. Total with landscaping & fence was $85k. We're in FFX County.

[Anonymous]

Pool is a dealbreaker for me because I have two kids. Danger element from birth through youth through stupid pre-teen and teen years. I would be constantly worrying about safety. NOT relaxing.

And don't want to be responsible for someone else's kids, either, to be honest!