Now I’m going to go over just some things to consider when owning a home with a pool and these are more cons.
A lot of people that are looking for a pool, they don’t really know what they’re getting into. They’ve never had a home with a pool. I can tell you that we’ve owned homes with pools. The house that we have right now has a pool and there’s days that I wish I didn’t have a pool. At the end of the day, we love our pool and we get a lot of enjoyment out of it. But again, there’s days that I wish I didn’t have a pool.
Some of the reasons to think about in terms of the cons of owning a home with a pool are the maintenance and cost behind it. So in the summer months, when it gets hot out, your water consumption is going to go up. Water in Tucson’s not getting any cheaper. During the summer months, June, July, August, September your water bill’s definitely going to be going up because your pool’s going to evaporate about a quarter inch per day during the summer months.
So just anticipate. You can do a little bit of research, go to the city of Tucson and just Google city of Tucson water costs. You can do some calculations to get an idea as to how much more it’s going to be from a water consumption based on the size of your pool.
Consider cleaning and chemicals when owning a home with a pool. So you can do one of two things. You can hire somebody to do everything for yo, or you can do it yourself. It’s going to take some of your time and then you’ve just got to be able to be on top of having the chemicals and things that you need in order to keep the water in good shape. But there’s the daily brushing and cleaning, cleaning out the filters and just staying on top of it.
But the big challenge, especially for us is when we go out of town, especially in the summer months and we get monsoon rains. It can really create havoc on your pool in terms of the leaves and just algae and bacteria. In the summer months, when temperatures rise and the water temperature goes up, you’re going to have to really stay on top of your pool because the algae and bacteria really starts to grow and can get out of control if you’re not on top of it.
In the summer months, you’re going to want to brush and clean your pool daily and also check the filters and either backwash. A lot of pools these days have self-contained systems. So there’s no backwashing, but they’ve got filters that you’ve got to take out and clean every probably three to four months. But the better job you do taking care of the filters, the cleaner your pool is going to be.
The big deferred maintenance items. If they go down and break, you need to stay on top of it, whether it’s the pool motor, your creepy crawly. Those are the two major things.
Another big expense if it should ever happen, and we’ve had this happen before where there’s a crack someplace in your pool and you’re really losing water, which can happen from time to time.
If you’re buying a home, it’s also important to do a water check just to make sure it’s evaporating properly because I’ve dealt with clients before that have bought a home and after the fact they realize there is a leak in the pool that they didn’t catch when they bought it. Which can create a huge expense in terms of having to tear all the plaster out and then get to the bottom of where that crack is, get it fixed. So just something to consider.
At the end of the day, having a pool’s great. A lot of people really don’t know what they’re getting into. So you really want to think about it and just make sure that you’ve got the budget to be able to afford a pool and stay on top of the cleaning and the deferred maintenance at the end of the day so it doesn’t cost you more money and will maintain or increase the value of your home. Because if you go to sell a home and you didn’t stay on top of the pool and the pool’s a mess, it actually brings down the value of your home. So just make sure that you can afford it and budget for the added expense when it comes to home ownership and owning a home with a pool,
