Once I schedule a showing, there is one detail I always check.

I check whether the refrigerator is included.

Because whether people realize it or not, this is a real buyer concern.

At some point—usually late at night when everything starts to feel uncertain—this question comes up:

Does the refrigerator stay with the house?

In South Carolina, the answer is simple, but not always expected.

A refrigerator does not automatically convey with the home. Unless it is specifically written into the purchase contract, the seller can take it.

That is where the confusion begins.

When you walk into a home and see a refrigerator sitting there, nothing about it feels optional. It looks like it belongs. It feels like it stays. Most buyers assume it is included.

But that assumption is not always correct.

If the refrigerator is not included, the buyer now has a decision to make. They can request that it be added to the contract, or they need to be prepared to purchase one immediately after closing.

A refrigerator is not a small expense. It is one of those purchases that shows up right after you have already spent a significant amount of money on the home itself.

There is also the practical side that people do not always think about. Moving a refrigerator is not simple. It can damage flooring, and it becomes one more thing to manage during an already busy move.

The other issue I see—and it happens more often than it should—is simply forgetting to include the refrigerator in the contract.

Everyone assumes it is staying. No one writes it down.

And in real estate, if it is not in writing, it does not exist.

That can turn into a costly mistake for everyone involved, including the agent. What could have been handled with one clear line in a contract becomes a problem that has to be solved at the last minute.

Part of the reason this keeps happening is because what is common and what is contractual are not the same.

In today's market, it is almost a coin flip whether a refrigerator is included with the home. Some sellers leave it. Some take it. Without clarity, buyers and sellers can walk away from the same home with completely different expectations.

This is not really about a refrigerator.

It is about paying attention to the details that most people overlook.

The small things—the ones that feel obvious—are often the ones that create the biggest problems if they are not addressed early.

I do not like surprises in a transaction, and my clients do not either.

So we talk about these things upfront, even when they seem minor.

Because clarity does not complicate a deal. It protects it.

Bonnie Wicks, licensed as Bonnie Jean Wicks Bertalot, is an Associate Broker with Carolina One Real Estate serving Mount Pleasant, Charleston, and surrounding Lowcountry communities.