I haven't read through all of them yet (but I'm about to...) and the first thing that pops to mind, ask yourselves if you really WANT a pool. It's never a "need." I have a biased opinion on them, but I will NEVER have another property with a pool. What an absolute nightmare.

My man Dave-o

Spazm sir, I came from the commercial side of it. Had to go to "pool school" once a year to be a licensed operator. My rules were different than a residential pool setting, so keep that in mind. If you plan on doing the work yourself, plan on 1-2 hrs a week of your time. Pool stores have one agenda, to seperate you from your hard earned dollar. Pool chems are fundamentally easy, unless it gets away from you. I used to tell the people I trained that it's like a food server carrying a huge tray of food plates. Everything has to be balanced all the time. If one chem get's out of whack, it starts throwing the other chems off balance too and pretty soon, the whole tray of food goes crashing everywhere. It's 1000% easier to stay ahead of the game then to try to catch back up and rebalance that food tray. We bought chems by the pallet load (back when they were cheap) and it was a relentless gauntlet trying to keep up with all of it. We weren't allowed to use automated pool equipment, so it all hand labor. Every 2 days, each pool required a minimum of an hours work, if there was no problems. Had a kid commit suicide in one, nobody found him until morning. You can not imagine the havoc that created for all parties involved. Both the city and county had to get thier hands in that one. I was in charge of 7 pools and THAT is why I despise them. The insurance is also another good aspect to think about, as someone mentioned. Also figure in water costs if you have a leak or a pipe break underground. Maybe starting with an above ground pool would be a good idea to get a feel for it and you don't dump $75-$100K into a ever hungry hole in the ground. Sorry for any typo's, on my phone along side the road.

Our's was here when we bought the place. We converted it to saltwater shortly after moving in and love the water.

That said....with the clay soils in this area (DFW), a man is a danged fool to have/build an inground pool.
Just don't do it!

I'm open to either option. I would lean towards hiring it out at first at least until I learn what to do and how to do it.