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It's not the budget. It's what you do with what's already there.
This property in Clearwater, Florida came with two things most buyers would have appreciated and one thing most of them would have complained about.
The pool was great. The existing concrete pad — massive, industrial, taking up a huge chunk of the backyard — was the kind of thing that makes people scroll past a listing without a second thought.
The Funkit team saw it differently. That slab was already there. Already paid for. Pouring something like it from scratch would run $40,000 to $50,000.
So instead of treating it as a problem to work around, they made it the centerpiece.
They painted the court with a bold, colorful design.
The kind of sports court you haven't seen before. Bright, graphic, scroll-stopping.
Then they layered in everything around it.
The pool got an orange and white stripe treatment (painted, not retiled) to match the energy of the space, with lounge chairs to complete the look.
Custom mini-golf, a kids' play area, a fire pit hangout zone, a poolside movie setup, and outdoor games like giant Connect 4 and ladder ball filled out the rest.
The total spend was $50,000. The pool and slab were already there, so every dollar went into design, color, and amenities.
Three weeks after launching, the property had booked $105,000 in future reservations. That's three weeks of booking velocity on a backyard that cost $50K to transform.
The lesson here works on two levels.
One is obvious: if you can find a property that already has a pool, you're saving yourself $80,000 to $100,000 right off the top.
The other is a little less talked about. Properties with awkward features — a weird concrete pad, an unusual layout, something that makes a normal buyer hesitate — often come at a discount.
And sometimes that awkward feature is exactly what you build around. The "downside" becomes the hero shot.
Most people walked past this listing and saw a problem. This investor saw a pickleball court.
If your property has something awkward you’ve been ignoring, that might be the opportunity.
We can usually see it pretty quickly. Book a call and we’ll walk through it with you.
