Location, location, location.

Both are in very good neighborhoods. The house with the pool has a much bigger lot, but the other property has more nice to haves like mudroom, nice laundry room, better pantry, pot filler, etc.

Geographic location makes a difference. If you are in Southern CA and definitely in FL, then a pool can make sense and is usually expected at a certain price point. If these houses are in the northeast, then pools don't make as much sense.

This home is in Alabama

I definitely hadn't thought of mosquitoes.

Do you have any house photos or links? Which house is bigger, and has a nicer style? Pool is very expense to build these days, it’s nice to have.

Determine which you will spend most of your time in; pool or house. Then determine the important features of your choice that will make your life better/easier.

I bet the pool loses.

I live in west TN. My neighbors have a pool and their monthly electric bill goes up by $500 in the summer when the pool is open.

Buy the house that you feel is perfect. Move in and make friends with someone that has a pool.

I’m in Texas and would always choose a pool before house. Unless I could build one on the perfect house lot of course. We maintain it ourselves which brings down the cost. If you stay on top of it, it’s not that much work (IMO).

Or maybe neither of those.

I had a pool, small ( with house) , didn’t really want the pool but like the house figured we would make it work. Kids were about 16 and 11. Pool was lovely but only warm enough for me just 3 mos of year and that was in mid- South. Log of maintenance & then covered for 6 mos of year. We did hav some pool parties, kids birthdays but adults generally didn’t swim at gatherings. Of course ours was not made for diving, slide so maybe that made it less interesting . I worked so did not want kids having pool get- togethers without an adult, so would have been better if they went to a neighborhood pool with lifeguard. . Pool was right outside back door and I would have been worried with small children, though there are safety measures available.
So , a lot of that goes into it. Kids and ages, will they use it or do they do other things, how your family does casual meals or BBQ, how you have adult friends or family over, will the adults use it, how great or big is the pool ( laps, or just a quick dip) and hardscape, are there trees dropping leaves in it. It can be a lot of work to have it just to sit around it and you need shade plus sun to enjoy. In houses I would pay more attention to how house connects with a good patio or deck , screened porch or ways to add or update those easily.
I wouldn’t have one now , but I could see the appeal if pool and hardscape and great landscaping were beautifully laid out with house, kitchen or a pool room or something. Or if you’re seeing a beautiful lot in other respects, view and landscaping and there happens to be a pool in it. But some pools are just kind of out there.

I wish the OP had said how big the two lots are - how can we advise about comparing a lot described as "smaller" to a lot described as "perfect"? Is it 1 acre vs 10 acres? Is it 5000 s.f. vs. an acre? Or what?

My friend who has a pool and has 5 acres, so space not an issue, just recently told me something similar to @maddielee's comment. She mentioned it because the pool needs re-lining after only 5 or 6 years which is expensive and a PITA. Her home insurance is also higher due to the pool. And her dog loves swimming in it, but gets skin issues when he does it, so it requires constant monitoring of the dog.

I'd rather have the smaller lot with no pool. Smaller lot means less landscaping costs and watering costs. Probably lower property taxes too.

@M Miller - the lot without the pool is .28 acres and the one with pool is .6 acres. So roughly half the size.

My 2 cents...

You are never going to be able to get decent advice on this because opinions on pools are bimodal. Some people love their pool and find the maintenance acceptable for the enjoyment they get out of the pool and wouldn't have a house without a pool. Others would prefer not to have to bother with a pool.

I wouldn't use metrics like how much time you spend in your house vs. your pool. If that were a good metric we would all spend $60,000 on our mattresses and $1,800 on our kitchens.

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To some extent this also goes for lots. If you enjoy spending time outside then a large lot can be incredibly rewarding and even nice houses can start feeling like prisons when you want to be out but there is no "out" to really go to.

@bry911 - those are great points. I was coming at it more from cost and maintenance issues for which I personally have low tolerance. But I just remembered I have a friend who has 2 small children. He said it was a game changer to move into a house with a pool because the kids were occupied and active during the summer as compared to their previous house which had a yard but no pool.

That’s why I mentioned working outside the home. I was not able to use the pool for weekday summer kid activities. But if I were SAHM it would have been different.
“ size of lot” is of interest but a lot depends on topography how well utilized for your purposes.

Figure out how much $$ the pool house will cost for maintenance every year, and how much you will spend to do renovations to make the house perfect. Is it worth it? I would be in the pool a lot if I lived in AL. Does the perfect house have a community pool nearby you can join?

Well, I adore a private pool, so that question would be a no brainer. Pool first, house last. but I hate public pools, really anything with anyone else. I don't use public gyms. or parks, or even pools. I am an introvert. I would not care about the cost of running it. It would be worth it to me.

0.28 acres is a very small lot, 0.6 acres is better.

Pool is personal preference. Only you can decide. But you can always add a pool even on 0.28 acres.

Imagine if you gave up the ”perfect house” for the larger lot/pool house, would you have regrets? Or vice versa? Can you walk through the homes again? Sometimes that can help. Is one closer to work or school or shopping?

@rockybird - the one with no pool/ small lot is 7 minutes from the school. The larger lot and pool is 14 minutes from school

To me perfect lot is different from location , since I think of location in terms of desirable neighborhood- which has many factors & different for each person, whether property & resale value, walkability commute, which depends on where you work/ go to school; street issues - busy, vs cul de sac, traffic patterns, commercial real estate encroachment.
Perfect lot is more something I assess by privacy , which definitely can be associated with size but not always, level or hilly, gardening opportunities, existing mature landscaping if desirable type, options for outdoor living.
And house being perfect as - is, certainly floor plan is key, or house with great ability to do reasonable updates. I’m not good at remodeling but also have seen “ surface” perfect houses that look shiny but aren’t as livable.
These are all things that can be considered if one has the luxury of time to assess & compare & also compare to any third options.
In the previously hot pandemic real estate market, things moved so fast that it was hard to get to see and grasp even some of these factors before a house had 5 full- price + offers.

@HU-457756048 house with pool is in an older subdivision with less traffic, but further commute.

I was ready to say the house with the pool and larger lot. You can change things about a house. It's not easy to change the size of a lot. I also know that our pool was one of the few things that allowed us to stay sane during the pandemic. Since we weren't doing vacations or restaurants we retreated to the pool every weekend and some evenings. It also allowed us to entertain our adult children and my parents outdoors a few times in the summer. Our large lot was another important thing for us that we really came to appreciate more than any other time.

Now that I've read the perfect house is closer to schools and a shorter commute, I'd probably go for the perfect house and save your money for a pool in the future.

I would always go with the perfect house.

Also, house with pool is on a cul de sac street. The other house is on a thru street.

It’s lihe a scavenger hunt— bit by bit the details are revealed!
So “ location “ is involved, and perhaps heavily, such as if the through street is busy, dangerous, noisy. It still gets back to whether you’re pool- people, no-pool, or I- could-do-pool under the right circumstances- for me, even having moved away from pool, I now know more about what I would want or reject in a house- with- pool, same as one learns more about home ownership over time. Plus there is still idea that usually you would not be limited to just A or B, as in, do you want to keep looking.
Are you moving from OOT and in a short buying window? That can be rough, since then have very limited time & inventory and ofttimes don’t know all the neighborhoods and traffic patterns ( RE agent should though ). I have family members who moved every few years for work transfers. Then you have to make the best choice and think about whether you’d be likely to want to sell & move in a few years vs will stay & put time & $$ into personalizing a house & property.

@HU-457756048 - we are moving from out of town and in a short time. We have narrowed down between these two houses. My husband and son want the one with pool, while I am leaning towards the one without.

How old is your son? Might you have more kids? Living on a cul de sac off of another dead-end street has been great for letting my kids bike, skateboard, etc without much worry. My kids have enjoyed endless hours in our pool, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time and money to maintain it (at least it feels this way as a couple who both work outside the home). Still, I’ll say it’s worth it since we’re in FL.

@jaja06 my son is 12 years old. No other kids in our future. I don't think my husband realizes the work involved. We both work from home.

My recommendation is that you make a list of the pros and cons of each house and have a family conversation about it.

I think we are missing details here and getting confused. Like you reference your commute but then say you work at home. So do you commute to the office a couple times a week?

@User sorry I meant the commute to my son's school.

Ok so I would look at it as 10 commutes a week and multiply the extra time per commute times 10. That’s the true amount of time. And then consider if you can use half that time (like after dropping off or before picking up) to make a work phone call so that the time is recouped. Or if you can tie in some number of trips you would have done anyway. Maybe you can see then how big a deal the commute really is. And consider who does the commute. Is it just you? Can you split with your spouse?

Our neighbors put in a large in-ground pool, with a diving board. They used it ALL the time, and loved it. They had 2 kids, and the pool was the gathering spot for the neighborhood, kids and adults. But the house was not designed with a pool in mind, and to get inside to use the bathroom required either going around to the front of the house and through the garage, or dripping through the living room from the back door. Neither was ideal.

I agree that a list of pros and cons for each house might help you decide. I would make 2 lists: one to compare the houses, another to compare the yards. Consider not just pool maintenance, but yard upkeep: mowing, landscaping, raking. What about parking? Will the pool see year-round use?

Good luck with your decision!

@AnnKH I think my son will try to use it year round.

Cul-de-sac gets lots of extra points over a through street with 0.28 acre lots.

Even without the pool (which I would love to have, a larger lot on a cul de sac, in an older more established neighborhood (meaning mature landscape, probably more privacy), would win out over the "perfect" house. Depending on the age difference and some other things only you can tell, the older home might be better quality than some of the things that are being built now. I don't think pot fillers are all they're cracked up to be, lol. You still have to carry large pots of boiling water to the sink to drain them.

And the story about replacing liners (for a vinyl liner pool) every 5 years and dogs having skin conditions seems apocryphal and not typical.

@User - I don't think that you know the meaning of the word apocryphal. My comment where I described my friend's feelings about her pool was entirely true. I also never said "every 5 years".

Edited to add: I just saw that @User's profile page has been removed.

No matter how perfect the house is I would not want to be on a busy through street. That would be a deal breaker. I would also be hesitant about having a pool because I wouldn't want the maintenance, but out of the two I would take the pool.

Is the school his middle school or his high school? Only a couple of years of middle school left for him.

Among my ”wants” was ”walking distance to at least one of the kids’ schools”. So, we were a block from the younger one’s elementary school, but a 10-minute drive to the middle and high schools that we had kids at for 13 years.

We have a 20'x40' liner inground at our weekend place, the original liner lasted 13 years (previous owner built the pool). We replaced the liner 5 years ago, it's still in very good condition. Pool liners have different thickness and qualities. The thinner, cheaper liners don't last long. So not all liners are the same. Now we are thinking about building a same sized liner inground pool at our primary home, had a couple estimates this summer ( without a heater and gas line), this year's price is $60,000-$70,000, next year might go up more. It's cheaper to buy the house with a pool than putting in a pool later. It's not expensive at all If you maintain the pool yourself, a pretty easy task everyone could do it.

I think OP's son will win the pool price. Enjoy the pool! :-)

Which house will most likely increase more in value and be easier to sell if you ever need to sell?

Buy the house you like and tear out and fill in the pool if it comes with one. A win/win situation. Most places I've lived the value of a property goes up when you get rid of the pool; most people see them as an expensive liability. No one I know who has pulled one out has regretted it.

The home you buy is such a personal choice that it is nearly impossible for the experience of others to translate into helpful advice.

Here are my thoughts, my kids grew up in a house that we never really fit in. It required work up front to even make it livable for us and it was always far too small for the things we owned. However, it was a neighborhood full of professor's kids who were all around the same age as my kids and gave them access to close friends who valued education and diverse experiences. If I made a list of pros and cons, the house wouldn't have finished in the top ten, but we knew it was the right house for our family even if it wasn't the perfect house for our living.

This is why advising someone on a house is so difficult. All the checklists, comparisons, pool discussions, commutes, etc. are about a quantifying something that is difficult to quantify. Pick the house that allows you to have the best life possible in your house. Odds are, you already know which one that is but have some reservations. I understand that, I certainly had a lot of reservations about our last home and am surprised I wasn't talked out of it, but no regrets now.

As for pool maintenance... this is a point that I feel is getting overblown on this thread. Pools require a modest amount of regular maintenance and they really don't like neglect. I am slightly sensitive to freshly cut grass (asthma) and so I employee a company to do yard maintenance and did my own pool maintenance (when we had a pool). Even with the super-deluxe fancy mowers, my neighbors spent more time maintaining their yard than I did my pool. It really wasn't that much time. You should be aware of the time required to maintain a pool so you can make an informed decision about the costs and benefits, but don't forget to put that maintenance into perspective.

Finally, in most areas, well maintained pools do add value. Certainly, in a few northern areas they don't add value, but in most Southern states pools will add between $25,000 and $50,000 to a home's resale value. You could argue that pools are usually a bad investment as they rarely add value in excess of their cost, but that is the case with many improvements.

I’d probably choose neither house, based on what you described. However, to answer your question: I would pick the house on the cul-de-sac. Never a house on a thru or busy street. As far as pool maintenance, I’ve had a few homes with pools, as do my kids. I don’t mean to sound flippant or entitled, but having a pool guy is not that expensive. Plus, he brings the chemicals, which is huge if you have kids or pets around. No chemicals laying around to worry about.

If I lived in Florida, the pool would win. If I lived in Vermont, the other house would win.

Over the yearsbought 3 homes. All were bought for setting.

So…..what house was the choice???