Will an inground pool cause a property to appraise for more?

[Joe S.]

So we have a property that we’re almost through with the rehab on. It has an inground pool that we were thinking of filling in due to the liability and maintenance issue. If we fill  it in prior to appraisal will it affect the appraisal?

[Jay Hinrichs]

my experience with with pools is:

if this basically lower end properties were their are few pools  B/C the cost to build one today would be half the price of the home it almost had negative value Not sure what an appraiser would do in those instances since it would be an anomaly basically.. I remember one particular one on a property i funded in Vickburg MS and the pool was huge but the value of the home was still under 100k  so the pool added no value and it was a tough house to sell no one wanted to maintain it.  and it was too hard to fill.

In Kokomo IN I had another one were we filled it.. again starter house no one really had pools there and filling it was the better play.  So depends on the neighbor hood.  If its just a rental and a refi and the pool is functional and not a hazard I would not spend the money to fill it.

In my Vegas stuff pools are an asset for sure and I suspect in Texas too.