Hot tubs: Are they worth expense?

Buyers of a house with a hot tub might require it be removed before closing.

WASHINGTON POST

WASHINGTON — If the home you’re buying comes with a hot tub installed on the patio or deck, you have several options:

a) Insist on an inspection to make sure it’s in good working order;

b) Make sure it’s cranked up to 104 degrees and ready for a soak on moving day;

c) Tell the seller you don’t want to be bothered with a hot tub and that you would like it removed before closing;

d) Sell it for cash and a year’s worth of really fresh fruit.

Omid Rokni, 27, went for the fruit. A more conventional choice would have been a straight cash sale, of course. That’s what he had in mind when he posted an ad on Craigslist recently asking $500 for the eight-person outdoor Jacuzzi hot tub. (He might have set the price a little low; the ad drew 35 responses in a day.) Last week he struck a deal with a Virginia farmer who promised some cash, a year’s worth of farm produce and, not least, the ability to haul the tub away promptly.

Rokni and his fiancée, Jennie Kline, 28, had acquired the hot tub as part of their purchase of a townhouse in McLean, Va. They are planning to renovate the place, Rokni said, and would rather put their money toward that than toward the upkeep of a hot tub that they estimate they would use once a month, at most.

“They’re just a lot of work and a lot of maintenance,” Rokni said. “They can be more of an expense than a luxury.”

Take a deep breath, please, before setting waterlogged fingers to keyboard and dashing off testimonials to the joys of your low-maintenance hot tub. In the real estate market, one person’s luxury can be another’s nuisance. And hot tubs fall into a funny middle ground.

For example, is an above-ground, portable hot tub a fixture that should convey with the home, or is it personal property that can be taken by the seller? Technically, even though above-ground spas can be big enough to hold hundreds of gallons of water, they are considered portable. They are not plumbed in to the house, but are filled with a garden hose. (It can take 550 to 600 gallons of water to fill a 7.5-foot square tub that holds five to seven people, according to Pete Peterson, co-owner of dealer Ace Spas.) But most are hard-wired into the home’s electrical system, which would be an argument that the tub is a fixture that should stay after the sale. And many homeowners build their backyard deck around the tub, or top it off with a pergola or gazebo for privacy, making it seem more permanent.

In practice, who gets the hot tub is addressed in the sales contract. And these days, that means that if the buyers want it to stay, it stays. If they want it removed before closing, it disappears.

You can’t count on a hot tub being an asset that home buyers will pay for, no matter what the salesperson tells you.

If buyers object to a hot tub, they can simply add language to the contract requiring that it be removed before closing. It would be a very foolish seller who says no.

Unlike a swimming pool, which can turn off at least as many buyers as it attracts, a hot tub is not likely to diminish a home’s value, Maloney said, because it can be removed.

Although a hot tub technically is portable, few homeowners choose to load it up on a truck and have it hauled to their next home. “I can’t imagine any seller who wants to move it,” Maloney said.

Before you buy a home that has an outdoor hot tub, make sure your purchase contract allows you to have a special inspection from a spa or pool inspector. Danny Patkus, owner of American Home Inspection Service in Chevy Chase, Md., said he inspects the wiring from the house to the spa. He looks to make sure it has a dedicated circuit and that the proper ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) outlets are used. (Those ultra-fast circuit breakers are required whenever electricity is used close to water.)

When you’re budgeting for that new home, don’t forget the extra operating expenses associated with keeping a giant kettle of water on the simmer throughout winter. According to the Energy Information Administration, hot tub and pool heaters, which it lumps into the same category, consume an average of 2,300 kilowatt-hours per year, nearly twice as much as a refrigerator. Peterson estimated that a typical spa would add about $28 to $40 to your monthly electric bill, plus about $100 per year for chemicals to keep the water clean. You’ll also need to drain and refill the water a couple of times a year.

Just be prepared for the next owner of your home to wonder if it’s worth all that for a good soak.