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Petite spa pools can greatly increase home values.
Hot Tub Conf idential
HEMMED IN BY TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING, ANGELENOS ARE MAKING BACKYARD HOME AMENITIES THE LATEST MUST-HAVES BY ALEXANDRIA ABRAMIAN
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clement weather, the backyard boom equity lines of credit and is showing no signs of slowing for longing to replicate visits winter. to far-flung resorts of the “We’re in 15 cities across the U.S., before-times, Los Angeles homebut Southern California is our biggest owners are driving a boom that is, market,” says Allison Messner, CEO like many other aspects of pandemic and cofounder of Yardzen, a San life, unprecedented. Francisco-based online “This is the busiest I’ve landscape-design service been in 30 years,” says that launched in 2018. Pool, spa, Kerri McCoy, founder of Since April, Messner and outdoor- has doubled her staff landscaping construction firm Derian GC. grill sales are while web traffic has “World events like the increased fivefold. The exploding. 9/11 tragedy and the most common pandemic Great Recession brought request? “The cocktail the construction busipool,” she says, referring ness to a halt. With the pandemic, it’s to the miniaturized swimming pool been the complete opposite.” that’s suddenly huge on Instagram, Across the country, pool construcPinterest, and TikTok. Also known as tion and outdoor-grill sales have a “spool,” a portmanteau of “spa pool,” exploded. Given L.A.’s year-round it allows homeowners without access
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to sprawling square footage to take the plunge. Galvanized metal tanks designed to water livestock, repurposed as reverse-chic, above-ground mini pools, are also a hit. For lockdown-weary home buyers, pools, spools, and spas have morphed into must-haves. “I listed a property in Laurel Canyon in November 2019 for $2.9 million,” says Deasy Penner Podley real estate agent Scott King. “It had a guesthouse, pool, and large yard. We received one offer for $2.8 million, but that was it. We relisted it Memorial Day weekend. I didn’t change anything, and it sold in five days for $3.3 million—all cash.” Landscape designer Patricia Benner says pandemic-era extreme garden makeovers routinely include elaborate firepits, boccie courts, yoga studios, spa rooms, saunas, and massage areas. “Outdoors is becoming indoors,” says Benner, who recently installed a canyon-spanning zipline for a family with small children. “A lot of people want outdoor TV rooms with a fireplace and comfortable seating. I’ve been doing outdoor kitchens for a while, but now they’re including full bars, beer taps, $15,000 grills, and $5,000 pizza ovens. I’m working on a project where we’re creating a wine cellar under the swimming pool.” Meanwhile, homeowners are diving into niche amenities. The Zero Body Bed, a $23,000 device that replicates flotation without water and is typically sold to hotels and spas, is selling out at Snyder Diamond’s Santa Monica kitchen-and-bath showroom. Hansni Thadhani, owner of Manhattan Beachbased Strand Boards, which fabricates outdoor showers from surfboards that start at $2,500, says that since the lockdown, requests from homeowners have “gone through the roof” and sales are up 30 percent. Whether or not the tsunami of backyard gentrification will crash in a wave of depreciation once the travel industry recovers, King remains optimistic about the near future: “Right now, it’s possible to spend $50- to $75,000 on a pool and add three to four times that much to your home’s value.”
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