Scoping out someone’s home online is right up there with scoping out exes on social media when it comes to secret practices lots of people engage in without actually admitting it. Oftentimes this can be a fairly harmless snooping endeavor — perhaps you want to know what your neighbor paid for their home so that you can sell yours at a reasonable price when the time comes for you to put your house on the market. Other times sites like Zillow and Redfin satisfy a curiosity you may have about someone — do they really have three fireplaces on the second floor? And the envy ensues.
Innocent online pastime or not, there’s no denying that having the details of your home splashed across various websites can feel like an invasion of your privacy. If it’s a step too far into the creepy zone for your liking, there are some ways you can try and maintain your privacy by pulling this information from sites like Zillow, Redfin, and more. Here’s what tech experts have to say.
Take precautions from the start
To protect your privacy on these sites, Kelvin Wira, Founder of Superpixel, suggests being mindful of the information you provide when you are working with a real estate agent or directly with the site. If you are putting your home up for sale, you should always be cautious about the information you share. “Avoid sharing personal details such as your full name, address, or phone number,” Wira says. “You may also want to consider using a fake name or email address when creating an account on these sites.”
Contact the website
Maybe that ship has already sailed and you’ve provided real estate websites with an abundance of home info and photos. If you now want them removed, there are a few things you can try to do. The first step is to contact the site’s customer service team and request that the photos be removed, according to Wira. “Be prepared to provide some form of identification to verify that you are the homeowner,” Wira says. “You can also ask the real estate agent who originally listed your property to remove the photos. If you are still unable to get the photos removed, you can try contacting a lawyer to see if there are any legal options available to you.”
Create your own profile
You can also take matters into your own hands by creating your profile at zillow.com and searching for your address to find your home’s property page, says Ben Tibbits, the managing director at BroadbandDeals.co.uk. “Under the More drop-down tab, click Verify your ownership and answer a few questions. Once you’ve claimed ownership, you can start removing photos from Zillow,” Tibbits says. According to Tibbits, these steps will help you remove the photos of your home from Zillow’s website:
• Log into your profile
• Click on your profile icon, then select Your Home from the menu option
• Click on the tile for your home to load the property page
• Click on the Edit Facts icon from the Owner View of the property page
• To remove a photo, click on an individual photo and click Remove Photo
• Remove all your photos, then select Save Changes
“And if all else fails, contact Zillow’s help desk,” Tibbits adds.
Understand there may be limitations
Unfortunately, you may not be able to control what sites like Zillow and Redfin do with your home information once it’s already up. “It’s important to recognize that there may be limitations to how much privacy you can expect on real estate sites like Zillow,” Wira says. “Once your home has been listed for sale, photos and information about your property become part of the public record. This means that anyone can access this information, including potential buyers, real estate agents, and even data aggregators who may use the information for their own purposes.”
