Anyone feel like solving a pool mystery?

[Mdragger88]

They’ve since had to add fencing so when u walk out the door their little boy can’t access the pool. They have a doggy door in all their doors. They have also debated un enclosing that room cuz it really feels like u will step in the pool when u walk out the door & they never use the room - always sit outside but have almost no shade

 

[riny]

They have also debated un enclosing that room

It would be awesome if they changed the back wall into sliding glass panels like you see at restaurants, so you can open it completely and use it as a covered patio in the summer but still have it enclosed for the other seasons. Probably very expensive though.

 

[Justify]

Another weird thing with this house is its price history. So this house was sold on 6/24/2020 for 105K and six weeks later, on August 6, they listed it again for 295K?
Scrolling down, there was pending sale for $105K in 2017, then the house was back on market without being sold (it sold one month later). Then again in July 2019, there was pending sale for $240K, but one week later, the listing was removed without being sold. Probably couldn't pass an inspection for a loan IMO...

 

[JamesW]

Definitely some hidden problems that are not being disclosed.

 

[riny]

This is turning into an unhealthy obsession. @Justify I think you'll understand the history a bit better by looking at this listing from 2017. I don't know what happened to this house (hurricane damage? trashed pre-foreclosure?) but it was almost certainly bought by a flipper.

Interestingly, there are high-res photos hiding there though. You can blow up the green carpet photo and see quite a bit of detail, including some more bizarre tile work:



@Dirk does this change your opinion at all?

 

[JamesW]

People buy the house and immediately sell it. Not a good sign. What are they finding? Probably real skeletons in the closets.

 

[Desert Dog]

Let's buy it and find out!

 

[Justify]

Let's buy it and find out!

Not for 295K. But when the price drops again to 100K, maybe... I always wanted a pet seal...

 

[Dirk]

@Dirk does this change your opinion at all?

Nope. Stickin' with my guess. For some reason unknown, the original "designer" wanted a narrow pool entry very close to the original exterior. (I like the skinny-dipping theory!) But there still would have been room to walk between house and entry, to get from one side of the yard to the other. Somewhere along the way some owner wanted that extra room out back, but was too cheap to fill in the entry. So they left it, and built the room. Because they then couldn't walk around the pool, they covered over the entry, so they could. Or they did both alterations at the same time, and ran the new deck up to the house, leaving the hatchway, and then enclosed the room. One of the pic's looks like the deck runs under that back wall.

I've seen pools half inside, half outside, with a window separating, that you could swim under. But that's not what happened here. They were just trying to maximize interior sq ft, and working around the weird entry. As I mentioned, they couldn't just cover the whole entry, because there'd be no way to clean it. It looks to be 8' long or so, you couldn't scrub that out while holding your breath.

Interesting about the history. Definitely something up...

 

[Newdude]

Not for 295K.

That’s $1.22 per member. Mere PEANUTS !!!!

 

[Dirk]

Can I get my money back if I've guessed right?

 

[JJ_Tex]

Lets buy it and market it as being able to socially distance while swimming. We will be rich!

 

[Newdude]

Can I get my money back if I've guessed right?

I will gladly refund your share. I’ll even double it so you get a ROI.

 

[Dirk]

Hey... wait a minute... oh no no no no... I know where this is going. "Come on Dirk, it's safe. You guessed it, so you get to go first. It's easy! Look, we'll be waiting for you at the other end. Promise. Come on. You can do it."

Ha, nooooo way!

 

[Newdude]

Come on Dirk, it's safe. You guessed it, so you get to go first. It's easy! Look, we'll be waiting for you at the other end. Promise. Come on. You can do it."

Fine. Hold my beer.

 

[Desert Dog]

I looked at the sale history. Looks like they believed the value to be in the $200,000 range. My guess is it would not pass inspection with a pool in the house so it fell out of escrow, twice, because bank will not fund the loan. Along came an investor and paid I think it was $105,000 cash, no inspection required. They did a quick flip and to solve the pool in the house issue, the builder put up a wall and sliding door. I assume that was the fix to skirt the pool issue. Now they can say that is an outdoor room and the pool is not in the living space. They put it on the market just over a month later for $295,000 hoping for a heavy profit. This still does not answer the why they built a room addition over the entry to the pool. Just crazy. The addition can't be permitted. Can't speak for Florida but in CA all you would have to do is say the room is not permitted and is built in the style and function of the home or something like that. Wont effect the loan at all. At least in my experience. Am I saying buy it? No. But for a $1.22? Maybe. What is weird is buyers were not turned off by the pool trap door. Maybe the price was good enough for them to buy it knowing they would have to renovate the pool and fill in the seal tunnel and fix the decking.

 

[Dirk]

Did you find a pic that shows a wall/doorway inside that room? Where the original exterior wall was? I think your explanation of the history sounds dead on.

 

[Desert Dog]

I saw one of the old listing and a pic I think was posted here that looks like this maybe the second time a wall was put up on the "addition" . An old pic I saw did not have the wall with the slider. The exterior wall was there and the hatch. Looks like the flipper added the wall to close that small space and separate it from the rest of the room.

 

[Dirk]

I've heard of some guy, not me you understand, that added 6" to the height of his deck railing to satisfy some crazy safety code, made out of cheap 2x4s and painted quickly to match, to get past the inspection. Then it only took a little unscrewing and a little hole filling to restore the ocean view that would have been blocked otherwise. Some crazy old man. Stuff like that happens all the time... As stated: buyer beware!

 

[riny]

@Dirk you mean like the pool alarm people? They collect a cool $200-300 on every new pool installation for surface alarms and door chimes that are needed to pass inspection. These things are then immediately disabled / thrown away because they do nothing but go off for no reason at all hours of the day and night. It's like a new-pool-owner tax that Lifebuoy/Poolguard/etc. are happy to collect.