Pools Don't Scare Me...And They Shouldn't Scare You

[Jesse Hinaman]

My partner and I recently picked up a great flip property in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Sacramento (Land Park). Before purchasing the property, my biggest concern was the pool that was de-plastering and chipping away in chunks. I knew this was going to be a big ticket item and set aside a large budget number for it.

To make things worse, I began watching videos on YouTube that compiles the entire process of demoing and re-plastering a pool. After watching these 5 man crews working for what seemed to be over a week straight, I thought to myself this could potentially be a 5 figure ($$,$$$) repair cost.

My partner called out all the local re-plastering companies and got three separate bids. Now before I go into the actual numbers, I want to provide a disclaimer to anyone who pulled this post up from a specific search regarding pool replastering, that we quoted the pool work during the dead of winter when these contractors were hungry for work...I get the feeling that we got competitive numbers that were probably 30% lower than peek season pricing.

With that said, the cost to do a deep clean and freshen up of the pool deck, re-grout all the pool deck joints, repair some tile work, new pool light, demo and re-plaster the entire pool, plus some bonus inlay tiles in all the steps cost us $4,750. The work itself took 4 days, and the upgrade was well worth the money. Pools are very highly desired in the hot Sacramento summer climate, and pools in this historic neighborhood are hard to come by and make that much more unique. Definitely a nice selling feature in our soon to be listed property! Take a look for yourself below...

I would like to hear other investors experience with in-ground pool repairs. Any comparisons good or bad. As investors, the better we can understand the numbers behind these not so common rehab items, the better equipped we can be when negotiating the work.

More updates on this project to come ;)