Pool Financing

13 years ago

Hello folks,

My wife and I have been dreaming of an inground for quite some time - and we finally decided that now would be a good time. However, we have been disappointed, but not entirely surprised, at the lack of available "non-equity based" financing options that are available from lenders.

We have excellent credit ratings (both of us) but haven't been able to find decent financing (especially in the NE part of the US, where we live). We're in SE PA.

I suppose SOME of you may have paid cash, LOL, but I am guessing that MOST of you have financed most, if not all, of the expenses for these projects.

If anyone on the board has any possible suggestions for lenders in the NE - I would be very appreciative if you would pass them along to me.

Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions.

Tom

Featured Answer

garageworksguy

13 years ago

Looked into it this past fall when ours was built, but the numbers did not add up well, even with our excellent credit numbers. So we just paid it full with cash. I actually enjoy it a little more knowing that it's paid for and not a huge monthly note....would stink to have to write that check in the winter months.

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Comments (7)

zuggy333
13 years ago
I suggest checking your local credit unions. Typically, credit unions are more liberal in their lending practices.
mixman1
13 years ago
Home improvement loan is your best bet. Plus the interest is tax deductible.
If you don't have the equity to secure the loan, it might not be the wisest choice to proceed. There are an awful lot of people in this country that ended up in foreclosure because they borrowed more than they could handle.....of course, a lot of them were deceived as well, but just think it through with the worst case scenario in mind....
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paradigmdawg
13 years ago
Like mixman1 suggested, we did a home improvement loan. I guess in the economy it is a crap shot. The first bank I talked to (that is known for doing pool loans) didn't even want to discuss it. He just said he couldn't do it and never even looked at my credit or anything. The next bank was painless and pre approved me in an hour and had the money to me a 2 weeks later.
paradigmdawg
13 years ago
Hey garageworksguy,

Good to see you again. My large monthly pool note is all of 210 bucks. I guess to be fair, I did pay for 20k of the pool out of pocket and upfront.
lookingforapool
13 years ago
I tried Lyon Financial and was approved. However, I did not end up using them because I got a better interest rate from a local credit union.

Good Luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lyon Financial
bobinbaltimore
13 years ago
When we started last fall, no one was lending for pools. Even Lyon Financial had stopped taking applications due to the credit crunch. We have great credit and could have done an unsecured signature load for a good bit of it, but at interest rates higher than we could justify or were comfortable with. In the end, we paid cash for most, but also decided to put one of our paid-off cars back in hock through a local credit union, which infused another $17,500 so we weren't pool-poor during the process. This worked well since the interest rate is low (3.9%), there are no pre-payment penalties in MD, it's a secured loan so it won't lower your credit score much, and we have no plans to replace that car for several years anyway. Turned out to be a great way to take the edge off the cashflow crunch, but without using unsecured credit or eating away at home equity (which is highly variable these days).

Another approach that worked well for us was starting in the fall, but finishing in the spring. This allowed us to break the project across two budget/tax years over the course of about 7 months. To be sure, it didn't lead to instant swimming gratification, but I'd rather swim in a pool I know is basically paid for day 1. A little patience can buy a lot of comfort and flexibility. We had no surprises with the pool itself, but ended up spending about $8K more than we expected on a rather substantial retaining wall along the way. $8K isn't a kings ransom for some folks, but we really were trying to keep to a budget, so the extended timeline allowed us to work that it without messing up the rest of our financial picture.

Good luck with your project!

Pool Financing

garageworksguy

Comments (7)

zuggy333

mixman1

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