[Doobs41378]

Originally Posted by MeredithMan

Hey JTRF--

Congrats on finding what sounds like a great property. Some of the things you're inquiring about we have at both our primary home and at the lake, so here are some numbers to consider:

Pool: We have an inground pool at our primary home. We pay our guy $650 in the spring and $650 in the fall to uncover/cover, get ready for the season/winterize. I do all my own vacuuming and chemicals during the summer. Chlorine and chemicals are typically a few hundred bucks per season. So for me, it's about $1600 per season to run the pool, but again, I do my own maint. I've received flyers from pool maint companies that charge anywhere from $2-4K per season for everything.

Plowing: At our primary home, we are on a private way with 3 houses. The road and driveways are plowed by the builder who built the little development. It's probably close to a 1/4 mile from the beginning of the private way to the end of my driveway. The plow guy charges us $75 per plow, based on a certain number of inches. The rate goes up the more snow there is. Our plow guy at the lake follows a similar scale, although his base charge is about $40.

Lawn Maint: We have a good sized yard at our primary home, and that runs $75 per mow. We have a lot of planting beds around the property and that is a several $K annual expense to edge and mulch. As a result, we did it one year and then scuttled a lot of the planting beds...too expensive to maintain.

House Checker: At the lake, we have company who does winter house checks from Nov-Apr. They go through the house once per week for $15 per visit. Reasonable and well worth it.

Gopher/Handyman: Suggest you do as much of this as possible yourself. If we have workers that need to come out to the house, we time the appointment so we are there to let them in

Don't know if you're into boating, fishing, watersports, wintersports, but if you are, there are a "boatload" of expenses that will come up with these as well. Ex: Putting the dock / mooring in and out each year; buying and maintain the boat; buying all the sports gear and toys; the list goes on and on....

Hope this helps. Please PM me if you have any further questions or would like any more detailed info.

Great post. I will just say that $650 is a lot of money for your opening and closing/ removing cover etc. Our pool company ( out of MA ) just upped their price to $280 each time I believe. $50 more if they clean the cartridge filter in the winter.