When choosing whether or not to do any home improvements there numerous concerns to weigh. Budget is a big one. Can you afford to renovate your kitchen or replace the gutters. How does the improvement stack up to the rest of the house aesthetically? Then there’s whether or not your improvement is a good investment. With a kitchen or bathroom the answer is almost always a resounding yes, assuming you don’t completely blow the budget. With outdoor improvements it’s not always so obvious. Because of this, we’re often asked is an inground pool a good investment? The answer might surprise you.
Is An Inground Pool A Good Investment For Home Flippers?
It’s commonly said that you will never get the money back from your pool once you put it in. And if you’re thinking strictly in real estate investing terms, you’d be correct. There is virtually no reason to build a pool if you’re flipping a house. However, there is more to the math than simple real estate investment terms.
Is An Inground Pool A Good Investment For Homeowners?
When considering whether an inground pool is a good investment, you must also include the annual costs of vacations you will no longer take. Once you can open your back door and enter paradise, do you really want to leave? Do you rent a lake house or beach house every summer for a few weeks? Do you fly to the islands? These getaways will become less frequent once you develop your backyard into your own private resort. Once you’ve lived with a private pool where you control the water chemistry and know how well maintained it is, public resort pools become far less appealing.
How To Determine If A Pool Is Worth It
This kind of thinking requires you to also include the travel time going to a vacation house or resort. How much time do you spend in transit when you could just get home from work on a Friday and spend the weekend at home? How much is your time worth? Maybe you’re the kind of person that doesn’t take vacations and instead works a lot and saves. This is great for a while, but eventually you’ll need a break. If you have a busy schedule, what is easier than taking a break in your own backyard?
Reasons To Not Build A Pool
Obviously you can see that we are biased toward developing your backyard into your own private resort. However, there are reasons why you might not want to do much more than some basic landscaping. First, if you plan to own your home for less than five years you may not want a pool. There’s no sense developing your own private resort for a few years.
Second, if you aren’t sure whether you would use a pool, you may not want to put one in. It sounds basic, but you really ought to try it out. Rent an Airbnb or Swimply with a pool for a weekend in the summer and see if you and your family would use and entertain around a pool. Pools aren’t for everyone.
Is An Inground Pool A Good Investment Summary
In the end a pool can be a great investment, but only if you plan to use it regularly. Keep in mind that using a pool doesn’t mean you are swimming in the pool. Most time spent by a pool happens on the patio surrounding the pool. There’s something magical about being next to water, entertaining your friends, and staring into the glassy abyss. Building a pool is a big cost, but it can be a good investment also if the math works out for you and your family.
