We like the house, but we don't want the pool (Tampa, FL)

[phonelady61]

Originally Posted by Orion99

Every word in this post is the opposite of reality.

Have you or do you live in florida orion ? if not then you are the one who is wrong . I have lived in florida and I know for a fact after having live in a house in florida with a pool that everything I state is true and a most definite reality .

[KonaKat]

Originally Posted by mia12

We went to an open house yesterday, and we really liked the house. It is located in a small and very well kept neighborhood, where people know each other very well, and care for each other. The house in question was foreclosed some years ago, and three very nice older ladies from the neighborhood (who are also part of the HOA board I think), bought the house and rented it out. They were absolutely wonderful to us (I know, they need to sell!), especially to our little daughter, and I can honestly say that we fell in love with them more than with the house. We don't have relatives close by, and it seemed like we finally found the right neighborhood to settle in. This would be our first house ever.

However, I think the house is a bit too expensive for us:

- the asking price is practically equal to the absolute upper limit of our buying budget, and it looks like in our area it's a seller's market right now, so I don't think we would be able to lower it too much (zillow estimates, although not very reliable, are higher than the asking price)

-the property taxes are a bit too high, although we would probably benefit from a homestead exemption

-the roof is 25 years old (it's the original one), and I imagine that we would have to replace it at some point

- the house has a somewhat outdated kitchen, and we would probably want to replace some things

- we would need to buy our own appliances, apart from fridge, range/oven and dishwasher

- and last and actually the most important thing: the house has a pool (gunite), but we don't need it, nor do we want to spend any money and/or time taking care of it. The community has an olympic size pool, and we would be happy to use that. We would rather invest that money in our daughter's education and our retirement accounts, than spend it on maintaining the pool.

What should we do? Should we pass on the house? Or should we buy it, but remove the pool? Would this also lower the homeowner insurance? I've heard it could be more expensive to remove a pool than installing one, and also, we wouldn't want to provoke any issues with ground stability, since we are in Florida and I am afraid of sink holes.

I appreciate any input...

Move on. Buy a house you can afford that doesn't have a pool. Disregard all nice "little old ladies" who just loooove your children. They want to "choose their future neighbors"? Add Fair Housing violations to your red flag list. I would run as fast as possible from such a neighborhood!