When you're trying to sell a home, is a swimming pool a bonus or a burden? Homeowners and real estate experts weigh in.

Sure, we know the recession has sent many houses "underwater," where the mortgage is more than what the property is actually worth. But it also has made plenty of homeowners with backyard swimming holes long for their own bailout from their pool plight.

While the economic costs of maintaining a pool have long been a concern for homeowners, it's a reality that's especially been prevalent during the recession. It's also something that anyone intoxicated with the summer season and currently pondering an outdoor pool should consider before installing one or purchasing a house with one. Many a homeowner has bought into the idea of having a pool and come to regret it.

"My husband and toddler enjoy going in the pool," concedes Charlane Haugsven, a mother of two in Seattle, "but we hate maintaining it. It's a tremendous amount of work and is very expensive to get the chemicals just right. It actually cost us more to do everything ourselves than to hire someone to maintain it."

In fact, Haugsven says that they were spending $100 a month until they found a company willing to do the maintenance for $50 a month. It's those types of stories that one hears that cause someone like Julie Russell, a Quincy, Mass., resident who just sold her home and is in the market for a new one, to not even entertain the idea of having a swimming pool in her backyard.

"When I look through the MLS listings and see a pool listed on the property, it's something that I do not desire," says Russell, adding: "In fact, I will look at properties before I go see one listed with a pool."

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