Successfully selling your home is about more than just location — your property has to stand out from the crowd. But one real estate listing in Glenn Mills, Pennsylvania, now dubbed the “50 Shades of Maple Glen,” house, has raised some eyebrows after people caught on that the spacious and carefully furnished abode comes with an unusual twist — a full-on “red room of pain-style” sex dungeon.
Yup, that’s right. And not only that, but a few years ago, pictures of the sex dungeon were actually featured on the home’s real estate listing, garnering quite a lot of attention.
Refin
People quickly noticed that the home was a tad different than what you typically see on the market.
The five-bedroom, 2.5 bath listing would be nice enough without the ahem unusual amenity. But we guess when you’re asking $750,000 for a home, an above-ground Jacuzzi just isn’t going to cut it. In the listing, which has since been tamed as photos of the sex dungeon went viral, it markets the home as a “one of a kind suburban home with a sexy twist.”
Redfin
The original listing only lightly touches on the ‘sexy twist,’ but the photos don’t lie — this is some Ana and Christian level stuff.
Equipped with what everyone one would need to have a thoroughly festive date night, the sex dungeon includes a sex swing, paddles, whips, and even a bed that appears to have chains coming from the canopy. It is truly the “private adult sexual oasis” that the listing promises it to be. Although if you’re into the rest of the house but aren’t quite up for mixing up your sex life, the listing noted that the room “can be converted back to a typical suburban basement.” Yawn.
Redfin
The owner of the house reportedly was looking for a real estate agent with a little imagination to make the house as appealing as possible.
In an interview with Slate, Pennsylvania real estate agent Melissa Leonard told reporters that the original listing had been viewed more than 500,000 times since it went live, but it was actually Redfin that changed her listing and took the photos of the sex dungeon down. The agent said the owner of the house had reached out to her hoping to get a Realtor “who’s outside the box, who can work with something different.”
Leonard thought she could handle it and told him to send her photos and that she’d look at them when she got home. “He’s like, ‘I need you to pull over,’” she remembered. “So I pull over and I looked at them and I laughed. I laughed! I called him and I’m like, ‘You’ve got this whole little sexual oasis.’”
Better yet, Leonard thought she could sell the unusual listing. “I had a straight face. I said, ‘I can sell this. We can sell this.’ And here we are! We’re on TV, magazines are calling, you’re calling me,” she rejoiced.
Redfin
But not everyone is amused. Apparently the home was being rented out as an Airbnb and now that the secret’s out, neighbors are unhappy.
It was most likely after photos of the listing went viral that neighbors first discovered that there was something strange going on at 1612 Norristown Rd. But before that, Leonard believed that neighbors were “in the dark” that the house was being used as a popular rental, which the owner dubbed “Maison XS.”
Although no one seems to be taking the news lightheartedly. “I think they’re really angry!” Leonard said. “Like, ‘They’re whipping people sexually around in there!’ I’m like, ‘Listen, it’s a lifestyle.’”
In fact, one man came up to her during the phone interview and told her, “We’re very upset about this whole thing,” he said. “We do not want something like this in our neighborhood. Take that off the internet. That’s disgusting. We don’t want that.”
To which Leonard told him, “Sir, if the owner wants those photos on the listing, that’s their choice!”
“People are all over the neighborhood and they’re all saying they’re here to see the sex house!” he exclaimed.
But Leonard assured him that was only because of news coverage and promised to sell the house “as quickly as possible.”
In the end, Leonard told reporters that she feels strongly that her listing’s new-found fame won’t hurt its chances of being sold. “I think that people are gonna like that it went viral,” she said. “It’s gonna bring more people to the house and it’s going to sell faster.”
“There’s no downside,” she added.
