My BIL has two of them now. But he has a separate building out back and plenty of room and money. Plus he works on his car restorations all the time. I used to think I wanted one but now it makes me tired thinking about it. I’ve got 9 foot ceilings but I just couldn’t see taking up the space.
In many cases (depending on neighborhood) it’s actually a NEGATIVE value. I’ve seen homes that are identical in the same neighborhood where one with pool is valued LESS then the on without.
1 Like
I guarantee I’d pass on any house with a pool. The amount of maintenance and expense those things require is ridiculous, and that’s not even getting into the problem that they’re an attractive nuisance and if a neighborhood kid sneaks in and drowns, you get sued.
Heck, I almost passed on the house I have now because it came with a hot tub on the 3-season porch. I decided to buy only because I figured I’d sell the thing… Unfortunately, we got in it just to see what it was like and couldn’t bring ourselves to get rid of it. 
But at least it’s inside, and keeping 500 gallons of water properly balanced and sanitized is a whole lot easier and cheaper than with 20-30 thousand gallons.
I’m planning to put a 4-post lift in my 3rd garage stall so I can get a 4th car in there. But I’m also planning to either sell it or take it with me when I sell the house, which probably won’t be for 20 or 30 years yet. I’m under no delusion that adding the lift won’t make the house harder to sell.
2 Likes
Ah NO. Happened here in NH a few years ago. Neighborhood kid (12yo) went to their neighbors pool when they were at work and drowned. Parents sued neighbor and LOST. The pool owner took every safety precaution as required by law - including a lockable fence. The kid jumped the fence. He’d been doing that all summer. Only this time he dove in and hit his head and died of drowning.
As long as the owner has a fence and follows other mandated laws and what their insurance company says - they’re cleared of liability.
1 Like
First, great. That’s the outcome that should have happened. However, neighbor still had to take time off of work to go to court and defend himself. Unless it was small claims, he had to get himself a lawyer which cost him money (that may or may not have been reimbursed). He had to worry about the outcome of the case from the time the kid drowned until he won the case. Not to mention that he has to remember that his swimming pool had a dead kid in it every time he goes into his back yard, which is going to be pretty upsetting to most people.
I’d also like to note that while there are outcomes that should happen in legal cases, those outcomes are never guaranteed to happen.
BTW, I’ll point out that I said “you get sued,” and you responded with that’s wrong, my neighbor got sued. 
2 Likes
Yes, we have a pit in the floor of our garage that we can drive over to access underneath the cars
Ours isn’t a smooth floor, we have heavy wooden covers for the pit when we’re not using it that are very capable of holding up a car parked on them
It’s worked well for us so far, though for things like oil changes, it’s quicker to just get the ramps out then it is to pull up the wooden covers.
When I was a kid our neighbor had a pit but I don’t know anyone that has one now. They can be pretty dangerous so review requirements for confined space work and provide some ventilation. Also, gas fumes tend to find the lowest point so that would be the pit. No smoking.
I keep trying to think of other uses for a lift, trash masher etc. but can’t think of one.
1 Like
Exactly. When we bought our first house together, it had a 29,000 gallon in ground pool. It was beautiful, with great landscaping. The original owner put it in after they started making oodles of money with their Roy Rogers restaurant franchises. When we bought it from an intermediate owner, we paid nothing extra for the pool. Pool upkeep was hundreds of dollars per year in the 1980s, even though I did all the work myself. Even though it was a super pool, it reduced the market to people that actually wanted one. Most places are like that, although I hear in Florida and Arizona having a pool enhances value.
In our old house we had a pool. Then neighbors on both sides put in pools, then a couple across the road. When the land in back of us developed, we bought the first lot but the covenants forbid pools. Since we were the only owners, we got the covenant changed to allow pools. So first house that was built they put a pool in. By the time we built we didn’t want one. The second folks that bought the first house with a pool filled it in. So all that effort to change the covenants and there is no one that has a pool. I think it only cost us $100 in lawyer fees but really we should have left it alone. Nice with kids but are a real bother.
Eighty degrees here today, I could be in a pool tonight if I had one. I would get a lot more use out of a swimming pool than a snowmobile.
That’s not allowed in many states.
Nothing you can do about frivolous lawsuits. - happens all the time. I was sued a few years ago because the guy in front of me ran a stop-light and I didn’t which caused the person two cars behind me hit the truck in front of her and did major damage to her vehicle. My truck wasn’t touched. But she sued ME and the guy in front of her. Judge threw-out the case, but I had to take time off from work and spend at least 1/2 day in court. Trust me there are THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of those types of lawsuits every year.
And thousands of ambulance chasers to take those cases.
While that might be true, it’s clearly not in my part of Pennsylvania since it was here when we got the house
I can find homes here in NH where it certainly is illegal. But those homes were built before the law was in place so they are grandfathered in.
True to a point, though it’s fairly unlikely that anyone will sue you because their kid drowned in your pool if you don’t have a pool.
I’m in the process of planning an install of a 2 post lift in my garage. 4 post lifts don’t make any sense to me if I’m going to work on vehicles and need to rotate tires, repair brakes, suspension, etc. Fortunately, our garage has 14 foot ceilings, 3 stalls, heat, water and drains. I wouldn’t install a lift if I wasn’t able to stand under a lifted vehicle. I never understood why more people don’t install them if they have the space. Lifts costs less than a lot of refrigerators (not installed of course) and I don’t buy that it will hurt resale if it’s not impacting the daily use of the garage. One of the major reasons we bought this house was the ceiling height in the garage and it’s ability to have a lift installed. I will use it for routine maintenance, repairs and the occasional flip or project vehicle. I hope you go for the install and let us know how it goes.
You’re buying some very nice refrigerators.
It’ll hurt resale because most people don’t do their own car work (and that number is shrinking as cars become more difficult for a generalist amateur to work on).
It’s as though one of us was looking to buy a house that had a commercial kiln bolted to the floor of the garage. Unless you throw pots, you don’t need a kiln so all that thing represents is a big bulky irritant that prevents you from using a big chunk of the garage.
To most buyers, all that lift is, is something that gets in the way, and it’s huge and heavy and is going to cost them money and effort to get rid of.
The nice thing about the 4-poster is that you don’t have to bolt the thing down, which means you can take it out before you sell and not leave big holes in the floor.
Appreciate your thoughts.
I disagree with the analogy on the kiln since we’re talking about a lift in a garage - the very place where you park your cars so every buyer is a ‘potential’ user of that lift. 99.5% of people have no use for a kiln.
Also, It’s easy enough to sell a house with a lift. You may find a buyer that really likes having it and will buy the house because of it. As a seller, you can advertise to potential buyers that you are willing to remove it if they don’t want it. The holes are easy to fill.
Cars may be getting more complex but oil changes are still oil changes and tire rotations are still tire rotations so doing routine maintenance is still within the average person’s grasp.
I guess I get the ease of installation for a 4 post lift but it doesn’t seem to be worth the trade off for not being able to take the wheels off. I’ve only worked with 2 post lifts though.