“This house makes money. This house will pay half your mortgage.”
That’s the bold claim of one Emily Pulver, a homeowner in South Jordan, UT, just outsideSalt Lake City. She is selling her six-bedroom, 3.5-bath home, listing the property at $1,575,000 in a town where the median selling price currently hovers around $600,000.
But Pulver and her agent argue that her home offers an amenity few else can: a built-in business.
Over the past couple of years, Pulver has rented out use of her
<p>It all began years ago when, after 15 years of living at the property, Pulver’s then-husband wanted to build “a huge pool.”>
“I was, like, absolutely not,” says Pulver. “Obviously, that didn’t happen.”
They ended up building a 25-by-55-foot saltwater pool, complete with a fountain, a grotto with a fireplace, and a waterslide. But by the time it was finished, a lot had changed.
“We had barely finished the pool in early 2024 when he moved out.”
Pulver and her husband began divorce proceedings, and soon, money became an issue. At the suggestion of her pediatrician, she explored renting out the pool on Swimply.
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“I just thought, maybe I’ll make a few hundred dollars here and there to help get me through this time,” Pulver said. But almost immediately after listing it, she started “killing it” with bookings.
“It rescued me immediately,” she explains. “The rental got so busy, I couldn’t keep up with it. I made three times as much the second summer as I did the first.”
Pulver not only maintained a perfect 5-star Swimply rating across 70 reviews, but the pool’s earnings—combined with rent from her finished walkout basement—covered a significant share of her mortgage.
While her exact earnings are unknown top hosts on the platform typically earn over $40,000 per year, with some making over $100,000
How do you sell a home with business potential?
Pulver put the home on the market this spring as part of her divorce agreement. To her, the pool and its earning potential should be a major talking point with buyers.
“I feel like people need to know that it’s an option,” she says. “I’ve got all my records. I can prove to you that I’ve made this much money.”
According to Pulver, while she did work hard for her five-star reviews, renting the pool out is a straightforward affair that doesn’t wear on your property. Renters have access to a bathroom without entering the home, and she has rented it out both while she’s on the property and away for work.
“If you want to make <a she says. "It doesn't interfere, and the pool doesn't take the wear and tear that Airbnb might take. It's meant to be used, and it's big."
Pulver says that whenever she does cross paths with potential buyers, she mentions the pool’s capacity for revenue. Her agent, Austin Bailey, does the same.
“I bring up the Swimply income opportunity during showings because it’s a unique feature of the property,” Bailey says. “I’ve approached this listing a little differently by marketing it as both a beautiful home and an opportunity for buyers looking for an income-producing property.”
Can the pool business be appraised?
While the income potential for the home sounds great on paper, not every buyer will have Pulver’s ability or capacity to turn the pool into the money-making machine she’s created.
The pool, fittingly called The Utah Jazz Pool, makes headlines. But according to other agents, that might be all Pulver and her team can ask of it.
“Appraisers do not calculate residential real estate by commercial capitalization rates. Appraisers calculate on comparable sales,” says Greg Field, a real estate agent and solar energy strategist in Tempe, AZ.
“The appraiser values the physical asset: the custom saltwater pool, the grotto, the water slide, and the pickleball court. Appraisers will not bump the price by $100,000 because the current owner is running a successful attention and get people through the front door for those open houses,” says Field. And some of those potential buyers, he says, will be a niche group who want subsidized mortgage payments, to help cover high interest rate costs.
In essence, the pool can be a marketing tool, not a pricing tool, especially if liability issues or concerns about maintaining the rental long-term get in the way of the next owner actually using it.
The home without Pulver
Perhaps the biggest issue with trying to use the pool as a pricing tool is the fact that Pulver will no longer be the one running it. Pulver says Swimply doesn’t allow her to transfer the Utah Jazz Pool account to another person—and she wouldn’t want to.
“I kind of own these five-star reviews,” she says. “I’d be happy to run it for someone, but I don’t want to turn it over, because I feel like I worked hard for that.”
The reviews on the pool page speak to that: Many cite Pulver as a “wonderful host” and that “customer service and communication was impeccable.” Whoever buys the home next may know that they won’t be able to match Pulver’s acumen.
Bailey, her agent, says the property is priced “very competitively” for everything it offers.
“We originally listed the home at just under $1.8 million and have adjusted the price based on market feedback. At the current price of $1.575 million, I think buyers are getting a great deal,” Bailey says.
Pulver, for her part, says the search for the right buyer or investor continues. She’d be interested in staying attached to the pool as the manager. But if she can’t, she wants the right buyer to know that this property is worth more than what they’ll buy it for.
“I don’t know how to price it like this, but I’m telling you right now, there is value,” she says. “The financial records are all there. There is incredible value.”
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Eric Goldschein is a reporter covering real estate, personal finance, and travel trends. He previously served as content lead at Orchard, and his work has appeared in NerdWallet, Fundera, Business Insider, and other outlets. Eric lives in Brooklyn, NY, where he is saving up for a home of his own.
