8 Helpful Tips for Selling a House With a Pool

When trying to make a sale on a listing, focal points and extravagant features are often the unique selling points of the home, and are often deciding factors during a sale. Features like a pool are always appreciated by potential buyers, as they make the listing seem more enticing to them. With that pool in mind, you are not just selling a home, but marketing a lifestyle that involves leisure and outdoor fun, which is an attractive quality to customers who value those ideals, wish to host guests in their home, or have growing families. But the fact of the matter is that maintaining a pool is a lot of effort, which may often dissuade customers from making that purchase. So, as a real estate agent, how would you go about selling a house with a pool?

In this article, we shall be discussing some helpful tips that can help you convince customers into buying a home with a pool, and help you make that lucrative and ever-important sale.

When you find a home with a pool for sale, the first instinct you should have is to make it clean and appealing. Make sure that the pool and the surroundings are clean and free of any dirt or debris. This also means that you should thoroughly clean the pool yourself, balance the water chemical levels, or invest in a professional cleaning service and get any repairs in the tile work,  vinyl, or pipes repaired. Furthermore, you should also consider doing a deep cleaning and vacuuming of the pool and draining all the water if you have a pool that has been neglected for a long time. The cleaner and well-maintained the pool is, the more appealing it will be to buyers as they will be able to visualize swimming in those crystal clear waters.

Just like any focal point in a listing, a pool also needs to be captured attractively in different lighting and during different points of the day to showcase how it adds value to the listing, and along with how it fits into the natural flow of the home. Taking various photos and videos of the pool will also help the buyers get a better idea of what it looks like in reality, and how it ties the whole home together as a key feature.

As we mentioned earlier, pool selling is not just an external feature of your listing, but a key element in a potential lifestyle you are marketing to your clients. The pool should be marketed and staged as a center for entertaining guests and conducting fun outdoor activities with friends and family. Stage the pool in such a way that it seems like the perfect setting for socializing with people at dinner parties and relaxing on a pleasant, sunny day. Try adding elements like outdoor kitchens, fire pits, lounge chairs, outdoor coffee tables, poolside bars, etc. However, staging all these extra features may often be very time-consuming and costly. Hence, it is much more viable to use a virtual staging software like Styldod that will help you effortlessly and cost-effectively stage and make your pool’s images more attractive and eye-catching.

Pool selling needs to be done very strategically, as you shall need to alter your marketing aids like flyers, brochures, and online adverts about the listing to highlight the various key benefits of the pool, which will specifically target clients who have particular lifestyle needs. Families with growing children, individuals who appreciate a leisurely lifestyle and like entertaining guests, etc., should be targeted specifically with your marketing approach, especially in your online adverts and listing notices. Furthermore, you should market the pool as something that can be used all year round, how it always enhances the market value of the home, and how it is a viable investment.

Alleviate some of the apprehension in the hearts of your buyers by addressing safety concerns. Whether it is adding a fence and enclosure around the pool, or installing self-latching doors, railings, and alarms to prevent any unplanned or unnecessary use of the pool, these measures can help alleviate the worries of families looking to buy the home, especially if they have growing children.

Listing a house with a pool during peak pool season can help increase its value on the listing market, as it will seem more appealing to buyers at that moment. If you are located in an area that is warm all year round, then the pool will function as a great addition to your listing, but if you are in a colder region, then marketing a listing during warmer months will make more sense and affect the perception of the potential buyers as well, and help the home sell faster.

Keeping regular and updated documentation readily available for buyer perusal will help increase the level of transparency you have with your clients and help them get a clear idea about the current condition of the pool, and the related asking price for the listing. These documents include everything from pool service records, any equipment or structural repair bills, chemical treatment receipts, equipment warranties, etc. This promotes a responsible and open transfer of ownership of the listing and its attached pool, preventing any further issues in the future.

As safety is of paramount importance to your customers when you are selling a house with a pool, obtaining a pool safety inspection certificate goes a long way in helping ensure that homebuyers are reassured about your listing’s pool meeting all the standard safety requirements and regulations, and convince them to invest in the home with peace of mind.

Another bonus tip you can implement is offering practical incentives to buyers like a pool equipment warranty or even a poolside furniture allowance, included in the asking price. These additional incentives can help tip the scales in your favor and convince the buyers to take the deal and also make your listing carve a niche for itself in a highly competitive real estate market.

1. Can I stage the pool area myself?

Of course, you can! Most of the tips listed above can be executed by anyone, including an agent like yourself. You may need to coordinate with the original homeowners for certain documents and such.

2. What if my pool needs significant repairs?

If the pool needs significant repairs, then ensure that you invest in a professional service that will conduct all the repairs before putting the listing on the market. This may increase your initial investment into the listing, but you can adjust that amount into the asking price when you officially put the home with pool for sale.

3. How often should I clean the pool while the home is on the market?

You should be doing regular pool maintenance at least weekly or right before the showings if the home is already on the market.

4. Can I include pool furniture in the sale?

If you have invested in new pool furniture for staging and revamping the pool area before the home went on the market, then you can include that in the sale as an additional perk.

Buying a home with a pool is often a much-debated decision in the minds of homeowners, and if you follow these helpful tips, you will be able to tip the scales in your favor and make that ever-important sale on a listing with a beautiful pool.