Buying a house with a pool?

[Isaac-1]

Through an odd situation that I will leave out for now my wife and I are probably having to buy a new house fairly soon.

Anyway we have looked at a few potential houses online, there are not many potential houses on the market that meet our basic requirements (maybe 6-10 possibilities looking at online listings, 2 or 3 of which have in ground pools)

Which brings me to my next question, things to put on the check list to look for regarding the pool / pools?

Right now the prime candidate house out of the list is a 1960 construction mid 20th century modern ranch layout house with a modern pool in the back yard (would guess around 10 years old based on style and signs of aging in the photos of the tile coping and concrete, certainly not less than 3-4). It does tend to look a bit like an oversized bath tub to me, I don't know the exact size by would guess 12x28 or there about.

So what should I look for when I go to look at the house in a few days? I suspect pool is plaster or gunite

thanks Ike

 

[RobbieH]

It is almost impossible to tell you what to look for, as there are as many people that like one type of pool or one type of equipment better than another as there are types available. Some like gunite better than vinyl pools, some like DE filters better than sand filters, and so on. I'd suggest looking through pool school and determine the differences, then get what's right for you. Or, more importantly, get the house you like, then work with the pool that is installed. Have a good pool inspector look everything over - typically a home inspector will have some basic pool knowledge, but may not be an expert.

Is it a ranch or a mid-century modern? I'm joking about this because I see them listed all the time like now. They are not the same, but the agents feel they can get more for a mid-century modern. This is true, but agents very rarely know the difference. FWIW, I am in my third ranch home, grandparents are in a mid-century modern. There is a pretty big difference, actually. It sounds like you indeed have a MCM you are looking at, if so I wouldn't call it a ranch.

Don't worry about the age of the pool so much. You can see the age of mine in my signature line.

 

[Isaac-1]

I already know a fair bit about pools and equipment, at least with liner pools. Not so much with plaster/concrete/gunite, etc. Was just looking for some thoughts on things to keep an eye out on.

Going to look at the house in about 8 hours, it has some mid century modern elements to it, although I would not call it an all out example. Does have the low pitch roof, with matching low pitch cathedral ceiling which spans the living room along with dining area and kitchen, partition divider walls, wrap around split level pass through counter in the kitchen, also the large picture windows with the right triangle panes near the peak of the ceiling.

 

[Melt In The Sun]

You've been around here long enough that I bet you can spot any big issues!

 

[Isaac-1]

Thanks, but not so sure about that, lots of stuff to keep an eye out for while looking at an older house with pool, etc. It was not until an hour after we left that house (looked at a couple of others, including one 2 doors down the street) that we realized we did not see a laundry room in it anywhere. The pool did look ok, 15x28 ft not sure about the depth, not covered looked good a few cracks in the gunite decking, but they were away from the pool, equipment pad looked fairly conventional, Hayward sand filter, variable speed Hayward pump, plus a other brand booster pump, none of it new, but may still have a few years left, also an SWG.

Ike

 

[Swampwoman]

Did you like the house?
If the pool is in good shape and you like the house, or if another house offers the right combo, my only suggestion is asking if the vendor has records of the pool construction and repairs, etc.

When we purchased this foreclosure last year, nobody knew anything about the pool of course. But I was able to dig up info by locating the owner previous to the foreclosed folks, and was able to locate the original builder, the landscaper, and the drainage guy who'd all cooked up the water management schema given our unusual site features. If I hadn't, I'd never likely even had known that there was a sump under the deep end that was designed to be pumped via the pool pump (with the other lines closed) during heavy rains to prevent
hydrostatic problems.

So that information was handy for sure!

Good luck in your house hunting!

 

[Isaac-1]

We did like the house, but it would need some work, not only to do away with the olive drab and chocolate brown paint, but the bathrooms would need to be remodelled as well as few other things. Everything is in good shape, just not right for us, for example the bathroom vanity height is very low (about 26 inches) and my wife and I are fairly tall, so that would have to change, etc.

 

[RobbieH]

Don't know how it is around there, but 50's houses around Dallas usually don't have a laundry room. In fact, the laundry us usually in the kitchen.