How to Get Pool Financing

January 16, 2010 – 12:53 am

When looking to add a pool to either a new or old home, you may want to consider one of many great pool financing options. By financing a pool you have several advantages including improving the value of the home—which is why it’s easier than you think to get financing for a pool.

In looking for someone to lend you money for your swimming pool, remember first and foremost that you are truly adding value to your home and as such there are several great different types of loans and financing options available to you. Some of the most common forms of financing for swimming pools include the following:

    FOR NEW HOMES

If you are building your home now then you have a very big advantage if you include your pool as part of the home mortgage. Doing this can be good for several reasons:

1. You will only have one loan. Instead of worrying about your mortgage payment and your pool loan, they will be together as one bill. This option is the less-hassle option.
2. You will generally get a better rate if you include the pool finance upfront with your mortgage versus taking out a home improvement loan later down the road.
3. The general contractor on your home will take care of all the fine details, and can make sure the pools piping and pump systems work flawlessly with the rest of the houses plumbing.
4. You will have much more flexibility with where you put your pool along with the design of the pool. This can affect your pool financing costs as it should lower the initial upfront cost of the pool installation—it’s much easier to dig where there are no existing trees, shrubs, and lawn.

Another option if you are building a new home is to get a second loan, either a home improvement loan after the home is build, or a home equity loan. The rate on this loan may be higher (and probably will), but that does not mean that this is a bad option. The reason is that most mortgages are 30 year mortgages, and some people don’t want to be paying down their pool loans for the next 30 years. So, if you take out a second pool financing loan then you may pay a larger interest rate, buy you may be able to pay the loan off in 15 years, saving you thousands and thousands of dollars in interest costs even though you are paying at higher rates.

    FOR OLD HOMES

If you already live in and own your home, then your options will be slightly different, but only slightly. First you will need to decide which type of pool you will be getting—above or in ground. Of course, it doesn’t really matter if you are looking for above ground pool financing or in ground pool financing to the bank in terms of the rate that you will get, but it can have a great effect on the overall cost of the pool, as above ground pools are obviously much cheaper than their in ground counterparts.

The first option you should look at is refinancing your home. This will give you many of the same advantages as listed above (potential for lower rates, etc.), especially if mortgage rates are lower than they are now. With this option, however, be sure to find a pool financing company that will add the future benefit of the pool to your home’s value in order to maximize the loan potential.

A second option would be a home improvement loan or a home equity loan or line of credit. Again, as discussed above, these loans generally do cost more, but you also can make them for shorter amounts of time.

Either way you go, with pool financing (or any type of financing for that matter), make sure you know what the current market interest rates for pools financing are and make sure you understand all your options when talking with your lender.

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