The owners of a notorious Pennsylvania home that went viral earlier this year after pictures of its basement sex dungeon were posted on Redfin and Zillow have pulled the property off the market and turned it into a erotic retreat.
In February, Coldwell Banker agent Melissa Leonard listed the Colonial-style home in the Philadelphia suburb of Maple Glen for $750,000. She put up photos of the house as well as its most interesting feature — a basement decked out with whips, chains and all things worthy of a “50 Shades of Gray” film set. While gaining a lot of attention, the photos of the dungeon were soon flagged as “inappropriate content” and pulled from Zillow and Redfin.
“I felt that I had to put the pictures in the way it was so someone would not walk in and be surprised,” Leonard told Inman back in February. “[A buyer] may like it or they may decide to take it out. It’s only furniture.”
But as first reported by realtor.com, the attention the home received prompted its owners to reconsider selling it. They pulled it off the market and turned the entire house into a rental for BDSM enthusiasts, the overlapping acronym for bondage and discipline, dominance and submission and sadism and masochism.
The owner told realtor.com that weekends in the property are fully booked through the retreat rental company Maison XS for the next six months.
Gary Schempp
While Leonard’s trick of putting up the dungeon photos ended up backfiring and not getting her the commission, she said it helped earn her a reputation as a star marketer and bring in other clients.
“It comes up at parties,” she told Realtor.com. “I’m glad I did it, and I don’t regret anything.”