Central Ohio Real Estate Market News

One of the homes I put in contract over the weekend was touted as having a wine cellar in the finished basement. My buyers aren’t really into wine but this novelty seemed to hold interest to them as being something “different”.

The listing agent had taken a photo of the room showing the door to the cellar and included that photo along with text mentioning the cellar in the MLS description. In the in-home brochure, she again mentioned the “finished basement with wine cellar”.

When we viewed the home, the door to the cellar was locked, so we had to peek through the small clear portions of the mostly frosted glass door in order to try to see inside. We knew this was the cellar because the design in the frosted glass said, “Wine Cellar”. Inside we could sort of see the wine bottles, the racks they were in, and we assumed there was some means to keep the room a certain temperature.

When we went back the next day for a second viewing, with the buyers’ parents, the door was still locked. The grandfather was excited about the cellar, as he DOES like wine! We submitted an offer on the home and later received a counter offer with the following …

“Buyers understand and agree that the wine, the wine racks and the chiller do not transfer with the sale of the property”.

Well, we didn’t expect the wine to be included with the sale, but we thought the racks and chiller would, although since the door was always locked, we couldn’t be sure they were fixtures or not. But if they’re NOT staying, then you don’t really have a WINE CELLAR do you??

I told the listing agent that IMO she should have disclosed this in her MLS copy and her brochure. Or the seller should have placed a note on the door. I had shown a home in Wedgewood where the seller did just that with a wine cellar where the door was a carved historic door that would not stay, but would be replaced with a normal door. Without the racks and chiller, all you have is a 5×5 room with a frosted glass door. Her response was that just because sellers take a bed out of a room doesn’t mean it’s no longer a bedroom! By the way, having the racks and chiller stay behind was not an option as they belong to the ex-husband and ARE NOT negotiable.

So what do YOU think??

Does a glass door telling you what the room USED TO BE still make it that same type of room? Or is it a dark cubbyhole?

I think when I sell my home, I’ll put a special glass door on my half bath and call it a LIBRARY - just add books & shelves! 

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