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I lived in 3 houses with pools (my parents are into it), and the heater cost so much to run that we barely used it when we had it, but solar might be worth looking into if you have enough sunlight. Even when we had direct sunlight and a south facing yard, the water was still pretty cold in June.
We don't want/need a heater, and if we buy a house with a heated pool we'll probably never turn it on; neither of us think that the couple of extra weeks worth of pool use in May is worth what using a heater would cost in electricity! We usually go on vacation in May anyhow (before the 'rush') so we aren't even home during the 4 weeks before Memorial Day Weekend, after which is when we'd come back home and open the pool. And once the leaves start falling (in October) we'd cover the pool up to save cleanup work! So no need/desire for a HEATED pool.
Funny, I always thought the opposite. If you were going to put in a pool, then maximize its use use with a heater. Heaters on LI are fired by gas or propane.
We don't (and won't ever) have children, so being the neighborhood pool-mom won't happen in our case. We just want the pool for our own enjoyment and that of any adult guests we may have. My SO gets physical therapy and water exercises/swimming is one of the things that helps him the most. We're aware of the maintenance expenses and that for lots of people a pool is a negative but for us it's a selling point. The areas we're looking in have lower taxes (for LI anyway!) to begin with, so we can afford a tax hike of $2000/yr or more if that's what having an inground pool would cause. It's just been frustrating that ALL the houses we've liked best within our price range, had no pool. And all the ones we've liked that HAVE a pool, have been at least 30K above the highest we can afford to pay. My SO keeps asking 'If we buy a no-pool one, will we end up spending as much in total after we put in a pool? If so, maybe it's best to bite the bullet and buy one that's already there?' ... So that's why my question here. Trying to find out. Whether we buy one already there, or put one in, the ongoing expenses will be the same, so that makes no difference really. Nobody except Maisy123 has put in a pool lately? :-( Darn.
I have a thought here -- some people qualify for tax deductions if pools are installed for physical therapy purposes (my mother was one of them, but it was 12-13 years ago.) Can you check with your accountant if this still holds true? If so, it might behoove you to buy pool-less and install new.
I have a thought here -- some people qualify for tax deductions if pools are installed for physical therapy purposes (my mother was one of them, but it was 12-13 years ago.) Can you check with your accountant if this still holds true? If so, it might behoove you to buy pool-less and install new.
That's a good idea, I never thought of that. I'll find out. I wonder, though, if that'd be in the same category as when people used to take a deduction for a 'home office' .... it became a notorious red flag for audits. I think people had to provide a lot of documentation about how many square feet the home office was, how many hours it was used for business, and whether or not anything else at all was ever done in that room, etc. The usual IRS hoops to jump through. Though having a doctor's statement that a person needs X amount of hours a week of hydrotherapy exercises might be enough. It's worth looking into, thanks!
I believe that property taxes for a vinyl pool are less then for a gunite pool. It may be that the vinyl is less expensive, or that it is, at least in theory, removable.
On the flip side... if you find a house that you like, BUT it has a pool you can have it removed. Last time I heard it was about $5K, but that was a while ago.
If your SO needs a pool for physical therapy, how about something like a lap pool? Or maybe something a little larger. Maybe your tax bill won't go up as much as a standard sized pool. What is your SO going to do for water therapy when it's too cold to go swimming in your backyard?
BTW, I've heard Garden City doesn't allow pools in backyards. Does anyone know if there's any truth to this?
What is your SO going to do for water therapy when it's too cold to go swimming in your backyard?
Same thing he does now... use the pool in the local YMCA. His logic is that if we end up having to excavate and install a pool from scratch, we might as well put in something that can also be used for diving (which I do, he doesn't). Given the opportunity, he'd much rather use a pool of our own than any 'public' one, and that means he'd only have to go to the Y during the winter months. I don't think there is much difference in the tax bite for a lap pool versus a traditional 8' depth/3' depth combo pool. I'm sure the insurance companies view both the same way as well.
They tend to increase taxes but do not increase reasle of the house. It may help a home if its July and its open and looking nice.
Many clients want an estimate on how much it will cost to remove it.
How much does it cost to remove a pool?
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