Dream pools: 5 homes with luxury setups for summer splashing

As Long Island heats up over the next few months, these properties with dream pools sold just in time for the summer. And having a place to splash around outside is still a selling point for plenty of prospective homebuyers, even in such a competitive market, local real estate agents agreed.

“I think these days, a lot of people are looking for pools, ever since the COVID lockdown,” said Kunal Sewani, a broker for Signature Premier Properties. He recently listed and sold an expanded Cape-style home in Massapequa, featuring a round in-ground pool with brick pavers and a detached garage nearby for storage.

With home prices still climbing across the Island (the median in Nassau County hit a record $790,000 for single-family home sales that closed in May, with Suffolk following behind with its own record $651,000), it’s more cost-effective to buy a house with a pool rather than install one yourself, Sewani added.

Serhant broker Michael Jordan Sadis added, “Whether [buyers are] looking for a pool or not, if you give it to them, they’ll be ecstatic it's there.”

Sunbathing in Southold

This “really beautiful, happy, sunny home” was renovated top to bottom and closed in June, at $1.75 million. The annual property taxes are $13,079.

“The house was listed in the fall, so all winter, the pool was closed,” said listing agent Kristy B. Naddell. She worked alongside buyer’s agent Alexis Meadows, and both work for Douglas Elliman Real Estate. “When everything was in bloom, people could really experience the backyard oasis, and see what this property is about.”

Prospective buyers being able to look at the pool and landscaping as the weather got warmer is what moved the sale along, Naddell said. The in-ground, heated saltwater pool is 18-by-44 feet.

It included an electronic pool cover, surrounded by a travertine patio, which is “stone that looks beautiful and does not get hot, which is a huge plus,” Naddell said.

Michael Dominici is the owner of Long Island Pool and Patio in Coram. To install a pool of these dimensions with electrical work, and 800 square feet of travertine patio would cost between $80,000 and $85,000, he said. An automatic safety cover of that size would total an additional $18,000, he added.

Many of these features are on display in his store's showroom, and he advises Long Islanders to get a sense of what any pool equipment looks like before installing it: "I highly recommend homeowners visit their local pool companies, whoever it might be," he said.

In this area of Long Island, pools are essential to many homebuyers, said Naddell.

“Particularly out on the North Fork, where it’s seasonal for the most part and there are a lot of second homes, I think it’s a major selling feature, especially at this price point,” she said. “If they don’t have a pool, they want the option to put one in.”

Take a dip in Melville and Huntington

Within 15 days, a house in Melville swam off the market for $1.45 million. The annual property taxes are $18,212.

“The seller was an interior designer,” said real estate agent Sana Aminzada, of Serhant, who co-listed the property with Sadis. “He had Venetian plaster throughout the house, and a lot of marble accents. That same marble was outside by the pool.”

There are also hand-painted murals, French doors and custom shutters and windows inside, she added.

Outside, another showstopping setup: The in-ground saltwater pool is surrounded by a marble surface on one side (which pops with a classic checkered pattern across the patio), and lush grass on the other. The pool reaches 5 feet at its deepest point, said Sadis, and shares the space with a hot tub and outdoor shower.

As for doing it yourself, Sadis said getting a shallow lap pool is "more cost efficient, and provides more of a Hamptons look to your yard."

This outdoor space was a “wow” factor for many Long Islanders who came to see the house, the agents said.

“The common feedback we received was that no one felt like they were in Melville,” Aminzada said, “because it was not a typical home. They thought they were either in the Hamptons, or on the pages of Architectural Digest, because the home was just curated so flawlessly and was so very different.”

Recently in Huntington, another one of Sadis’ listings went into contract within 13 days. The four-bedroom, 3½-bathroom modern Colonial was listed for $1.999 million, with annual property taxes of $28,746.

The in-ground pool included a waterfall feature, built-in hot tub, an electronic cover and a bluestone patio. The pavilion nearby contained an outdoor kitchen with a barbecue, a gas fireplace and plenty of space for seating.

When potential buyers entered the house and saw the backyard from the kitchen window, “it was a rush to get outside,” Sadis said.

Built in 2001 with a gut renovation completed in 2020, the property also had a feature Sadis had never seen in his listings before: A panel inside the house that controlled the pool temperature, waterfall, hot tub jets and even the lighting.

In (and on) the water in East Patchogue

With waterfront views from the pool, this house sold for $1.595 million in May. The annual property taxes were $31,123.

The house, at the end of a cul-de-sac, contains four bedrooms and 3½ bathrooms, sitting on a 2.86-acre lot. Some notable features include a primary suite with a waterfront balcony, walk-in closets and a jetted tub.

“Everybody who looked at it, loved it,” said listing agent Tammy Ramsay, of Ramsay Realtors. The house was on the market for a week. “I was getting phone calls up until the day that it closed.”

A heated L-shaped pool is the star of the backyard. There is also an outdoor shower and a hot tub right off the deck.

Although there's shrubbery, swimmers could catch a glimpse of Patchogue Bay while in the pool, Ramsay said. The property was ideal for someone who desired all kinds of water access.

“It was a very secluded, very large piece of property,” she added. “There was a private beach at the end of the road, and water views from every room.”

Jump into Jamesport

Potential homebuyers were most blown away by the outdoor features of this property, said listing agent Donielle Cardinale, of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty.

“The outdoor space, the amount of property, the large outbuildings: Those were the things that are harder to find anywhere else,” she said.

The house sold for $2 million in December, with annual property taxes of $22,674. Sitting on a lot just shy of 12 acres, the property includes a renovated home with four bedrooms and 3½ bathrooms, along with an 11-stall horse stable and two equipment barns.

Then, there was the pool. Its shape featured curves and bends, waterfalls and a built-in bridge. The area also had a fire pit, a bar for serving drinks and a hot tub.

“There was one of two reactions from people,” Cardinale recalled. “If people were looking for a typical, simple, rectangular pool, this was not for them or a little more than they could digest. But those that could wrap their head around it, thought it was really amazing. It felt like you were on vacation at a resort somewhere.”

This “all-inclusive entertainment oasis” overlooks fields of farmland, she added. And on Long Island’s East End, this kind of setup is ideal for homebuyers looking for some elevated relaxation.

“It’s an expectation of buyers in this day and age for a home on the East End in particular,” Cardinale said. “This is where they're coming for their downtime, and they want it all.”

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.