Sorry another housing question.
If you were looking at houses... and it had a pool would that turn you off to buying the house?
Bonus points for pros and cons for pool or no pool.
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People really don't have pools where I live. Just not the right climate. I would be concerned about safety, liability, and maintenance.
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They are all liability for me - we live in New England, don't swim, I don't want the hassle or $$$ and it would make me very nervous with pets and littles.
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I think it depends on the geography! How many months of the year can you swim outside where you live? My parents have a pool (they live in the NE) and I think its a negative because they can only use it 4 months of the year. If I lived in California/Texas/somewhere hot, I would think it might be worth having.
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Our house has a pool. It's our dream home that happens to have a pool in the backyard. Some days I wished there wasn't one but it doesn't make me love our home less!
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It would be a turn off but not a deal breaker.
My SIL had a pool years ago and there was a terrible accident at one of my nephew's birthday parties. I'd have a hard time feeling comfortable with that huge danger in the yard. -
We have one and we enjoy it. We live in a warm area and pools are very common.
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Never, never, never. I would enjoy it but would definitely not want to commit to the upkeep and associated expenses.
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We always wanted a pool 5 or so years from now. The house we are closing on next week happened to have one....the yard is big in addition to the pool and the pool is fenced in within the yard so it's sort of perfect. Very excited!
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We live in VA and pools here are a liability. However if we lived in FL, yes to a pool.
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Thanks everyone! I always feel like you guys are pretty evenly split when I ask questions but I love all the comments.
@winniebee: Congrats on the new house!!
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Granted, I grew up and still live in FL but pools are quite common and the norm where I live. Our current house doesn't have a pool but I expect our next house to have one.
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No way. It would turn me off...I'm too freaked out with having littles. Plus all the communities around here are part of HOAs which include community clubhouses and pool access. And I'm not a big pool/beach/water person to begin with. I grew up with a pool in my backyard and maybe went in it twice.
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@BandDmommy: why are they a particular liability there? they're by nature a liability anywhere, I get that! but is there something about VA in particular?
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@Raindrop: thanks!! we live in ME so definitely not needed year round or anything, but we grew up with pools and always wanted one for our children : ) the fact that it's fenced in WITHIN the yard with a wrought iron fence makes it feel much safer to me, though of course we will need to be vigilant!
ETA - there's no such things as neighborhood pools or HOA pools where I live.
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@BandDmommy: I am in FL I wanted a pool ,but we hear so many drowning stories it scares the heck out of me!
Both Grandma's have pools so I think that helps.... lol -
We looked at and put offers on houses with pools because they are quite common in our area (it made me nervous, but I figured we could barricade the damn thing until LO was able to swim really well). We bought one without one, and upon reflection, I feel like we got really lucky. And we all love to swim.
I've written this before, but I see what my neighbors do to keep up their pools, and it has convinced me that they are essentially giant pits of waste--wasted money (for the owners, because maintenance is not cheap), and wasted resources (specifically, your time in dealing with maintenance, because even the pool guy has to be managed once and a while, and then there is the use of clean water and whatever chemicals evaporate into the air, not to mention all the plastic junk people tend to buy to make swimming in tiny, sterilized, concrete holes "fun"). When you take into consideration that a lot of people who have pools don't even use them that often, driving to the beach (if it's reasonably close) or the public pool is almost certainly more budget- and environmentally-friendly. If you want something fun and active to do right outside the four walls of your house, I'd recommend growing a garden.
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We live in Texas, lots of people have pools, including us. I didn't really want one, but am so glad we have one now because DH swims almost every day March-early November and brings the baby out in the pool when it's warm. Definitely worth it for us.
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No because they worry me from a safety perspective. The expense/hassle is a close second. We have a neighborhood pool less than a mile away which seems like the best of both worlds: easy access and no maintenance other than HOA fees.
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@winniebee: we live in planned community. There is a pool on every block, also yards are tiny, so entire backyard would be pool. We looked at 2 houses with pool and passed because such limited time to use pool (it's cold here), too much upkeep and safety issues.
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We live in Texas and it was a requirement when I bought the house as a single woman. I wish we had more yard but wouldn't give up the pool. My DH maintains our pool and probably spends less than an hour a week doing so. Our cost of chemicals isn't high either. We just resurfaced and tiled the pool and it was costly. But we have been here 7 years and the work should last about 15!
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My parents live in CA and have a pool. It's expensive to maintain and rarely gets used.
We live in GA and would never buy a house with a pool. -
We have a pool. It's a hassle. We need to have it replastered this year. Ugh. Next house will not have a pool!
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I wouldn't want one primarily from the expense/upkeep perspective. Although I love that Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) have a pool on their lanai that DD can use when she visits.
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Never never never. I'm terrified of the stats about kids drowning in them. Even though people don't have pools around here, I'm still considering shelling out for private swim lessons for LO so she can learn to self-rescue.
I'd love to know somebody with a pool though. Pool parties are fun.
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I never wanted a pool until I had lo. We've been in a house with one for about 5 months now and I'm loving it!
We have a pool fence and we do lessons in our own pool so for rescue swimming, he knows where to go in our own pool.
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Nope, not a fan of a backyard pool for any house we buy. We live in southern California and it's pool weather 6 months out of the year, and it's still not worth it to us.
I'm more turned off by the maintenance part than the safety aspect.
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I had an in ground pool and hot tub growing up and my parents still live there. It Oregon they are rather rare- I'd say less than 5% of homes have them. I really enjoy it since my parents travel a lot and I don't have to take care of it. But it been expensive for them and they have no yard. But our house is on a dead end- so we played out front a lot.
I'd get one in the right situation.
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We have a pool, it is an inground and I was strongly againt it when we put the offer in, so much so that I wanted to fill it in with sand. But, it's turned out to be so awesome and in truth, we don't use many chemicals in it. My husband aerates the water and we have a robo-vac so there is hardly any maintenance at all.
There are no public pools where I live, other than in the high school and at the Y and I know those are just not maintained well.
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If we lived in the right climate, I'd love to have a swimming pool....but I'd be implementing the pool safety laws Australia uses as that is what DH and I are familiar with and they are great! We never worried about pool safety whilst living there as the laws are incredibly strict and fines are huge if you don't follow them. But having experienced that level of care, it blows my mind when I see friends and family members' backyard swimming pools in America without the child safety measures required by law in Australia. I don't think I'd want a pool without those safety measures in place....
That being said, we are in the completely wrong climate for a swimming pool right now so it's a moot point for us.
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We have a pool now that we don't use, so in our next house a pool is on the DO NOT want as a feature!
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@Ree723: what are the Australia child safety laws?
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@winniebee: They mainly have to do with fencing around the pool having to be a certain height, distance between bars small enough that a child can't get through, gate only able to be opened from a top latch (one of those high ones where you have to pull up to open it), fencing has to be completely around the pool unless there is an insurmountable barrier preventing access to one side, furniture has to be a certain distance from the edge of fence so kids can't climb up and over etc. There may be more but those are the big ones that come to mind - basically it just completely prevents a child accessing a swimming pool without an adult present. Oh yes, the other big one - gates have to have the automatic self close so they can't accidentally be left open.
It was just such common sense and I loved it!
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We were actively avoiding pools when house searching. To us it's a liability.
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We avoided houses with pools when house hunting this year. We're in Texas, and in another decade, I'm sure I'll wish we had one. For now though, the risk and expense just wasn't worth it to me. Our neighborhood has 11 pools and 3 water parks included in the HOA, and that's more than sufficient for this stage.
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@looch: I feel like I'm always in the minority when I say that I don't think it's that expensive or time consuming. I'm glad to finally see someone else has the same experience! We also use a robo-vac in our pool and run our pump probably longer than necessary. Our chemical use is pretty minimal as well.
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We live in California in a town with only one public pool, although there is a splash pad. My son LOVES to swim and loves the water so while I feel like there's a safety issue, I sorta feel a pool would be awesome for him. This summer we took advantage of every chance we could use a friend's apartment complex pool or hotel pool and it was so fun for him. We discussed when we were house hunting that if we got a home with a pool, we would get hard fencing around it, regardless of cost. Plus DH loves soaking in a hot tub. Our current house does not have a pool but I think it would be on our forever home list.
As for maintenance, lots of homes are usually yard vs. pool and in that regard I think it's probably comparable - we spend money every month on our landscaper plus money for tree service, flowers, gardening, fertilizer, sprinkler upkeep, fencing, etc.
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If I bought a house with a pool, I'd put a high gate around it and padlock it until my kids were 5 and both skilled swimmers. Then I'd keep the gate to keep out the neighborhood kids.
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@MamaG: I admit that I thought it would be much more work than it has turned out to be.
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We live in California and I would love to have a pool someday.
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44 comments