good points south..in thinking about what you said:

-pool was never a consideration for us..honestly, the house sold us..fortunately our kids were young enough at the time to make a pool worthwhile, but first thing i saw was dollar signs and challenges in our market to resell down the road if i was transferred.

-you make a good point on the condition. while our pool looks great, the owners did nothing around the house including with the pool what had the worst neglect was the pool shed (i called it the doghouse, it was so small) and the heater..not so much neglect, but it's age..it looked good outside but was old old..we bought the house in late august when it was pretty warm and didn't need to run it much at all. inside, it was dying..and not knowing anything about pools, i didn't have a clue at the time. that alone is a sizeable expense to replace.