These are the five questions to ask yourself before getting a pool.
Today I’m coming to you from my backyard; in the video above, you can see that I’m in the process of putting in a pool. So I thought I’d share some tips that I’ve learned through both my pool-building and real estate experience. Here are five questions you should ask yourself if you’re considering adding a pool to your property:
- What purpose do you want your pool to serve? Will the family use it, will you swim laps in it, is it for therapy, or do you need the spa? All these questions can be answered by sitting down and thinking about what’s important to you. We wanted something relaxing and relatively small so it wouldn’t be difficult to take care of throughout the year.
- What kind of pool do you want? There are many different kinds of pools including above-ground, in-ground, vinyl, gunite, and more. Again, it’s crucial to carefully consider what you want and what you’re comfortable spending. I recommend you speak with at least a couple of pool contractors and check their references. That will help you figure out what you want.
- How much space are you willing to designate for the pool? These days, especially in smaller backyards, we often see “spools” or spas/pools. In our case, we wanted a small pool that still left us some backyard space.
“It’s crucial to carefully consider what you want and what you’re comfortable spending.”
- What is your budget? You have plenty of options for how to pay for a pool, including using savings or taking out a home equity line of credit and borrowing against the home since it adds some value back into the property. Before the pandemic, the demand for pools in coastal areas wasn’t very high, but now the demand for pools is great, so they increase the value of homes. We’ll find out whether that demand will stay strong as we move forward.
- How much time are you willing to give to the building of the pool? I can tell you from experience that it will take longer than you think and even longer than you’re told. Be patient, it will take time, and frequently you’ll have a waiting period before you can get in the pool after it’s finished.
If you have questions, are thinking about building a pool, or want to move to a home that has one, feel free to give me a call or send an email. I would love to help you.
