Resale with Pool
 

In a recent post about pools, someone posted that it is hard to recover the cost of a pool when you sell. I was fairly surprised by that and wonder if anyone can deny or confirm this. If you have sold a house with a pool, did you recover the cost when you sold?

As I understand it, having a pool narrows the field of buyers so cost recovery is dependent on finding the buyer that wants a pool. If you are not a motivated seller then waiting for that buyer should allow you to wait for that buyer. For those that don't want a pool they will either pass or make an offer based on the house without the pool. I'm not sure there is confirm or deny, it will depend on both the seller and the buyer needs.

In general, you dont return 100% of most upgrades. I saw one report that a pool increases a homes value by 7-10%. So for a 400,000 home, thats $30-40k. So you wouldn’t return the full amount spent on the pool
This article was from last year.
Does a Pool Add Value to a Home? | HGTV

Possible things in TV are a little different.

We're installing a pool for our own pleasure. We're not looking at it as a true investment. Just an investment in our recreation and happiness. We hope this will be our last house so we'll never know if it pays for itself.

2 neighbors on our street sold homes with pools (on the golf course) in a matter of days and more than recovered their investment in pools and this was in recent months during a pandemic!

All houses that are for sale within range of other homes and views and locations and are clean, don't smell bad and don't have odd permanent personal touches sell quickly in The Villages. A friend was shopping for a home with a pool and only found two on the market within the last month. Everyone seems to want a pool and the main pool companies are booked way out.

People want to live here. I know why. I love to live here.

The market here in The Villages is far different than your normal run of the mill market. In most areas, nearly home can have a pool, so the value of a pool is limited by the number of people that want a pool. Here in The Villages, there are only a limited number of homes that have room for a pool, and while there are a limited number of folks that want a pool, there are more people that want pools and homes available with pools.

Go and look at what homes with pools sold for and you'll get your answer. As long as the pool was done properly (ie, fits the space) and is in good shape, it's fairly easy to recover your costs for the pool. This was not true in Michigan, or Georgia, but here in The Villages, it isn't an issue.

Not a simple answer but in our case yes we did recover our cost and then some. But as we found out pool homes were in big demand when we sold this year but that was due to COVID. Couple of years back we thought of moving and the appraisal then would still have brought us a good return.
However a pool does limit your market.

There is currently a shortage of pool homes on the market, at least partially driven by the pandemic. They are selling fast and at a premium. Can't speak for long term, but being someone that recently purchased a pool home, I would say you will absolutely recover your investment if it is done properly.

Another factor is the expectation of one. By this I mean a large golf front or preserve view lot is almost expected to have something special, ten foot walls, pool, some special features.

In those cases a pool will get a greater ROI, if not 100% ( return on investment).

no.

Check and see how long it takes to have a pool installed by T&D and then tell me pools are not in demand. You will definitely recoup the cost, but that is not the reason you put one in. You love it, you put it in. Everyone is worried about recouping the cost. Who wants to sell. We have enjoyed our pool on the golf course for 11 years. We will never give it up, even though we were offered $200,000 more than we paid for the home. Most people who complain about a pool or golf front don't want to pay the extra money. That's fine, but don't make negative comments about them if you have never had one in Florida. We grew up in the North, and had no desire for a pool. Very expensive to maintain compared to Florida, and your season it very short. We can use ours almost all year. Checked the temperature yesterday and with the solar heat, it was 70 degrees.

We tried to buy a pre owned home with a pool at a price that was within our budget, and looked long and hard and could not find one. However, we were able to find a pre owned home with room for a pool, then build a brand new pool, and still came all in well under our budget. Based on that experience, I would say that in the Villages, you would most likely recover your investment if you sold the home.