Summary
If you’re selling your home, you want pictures posted online to advertise it. However, if you just bought a home, those pictures are no longer necessary, and they can give criminals valuable intelligence about your home’s layout and valuables. If there are photos of your home still available on sites like Redfin or Zillow, here’s how you can get them removed.
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If you’re selling your home, the listing will include photos, videos, floor plans, and more. But if your home is no longer for sale, there’s no reason to have all those photos available online. Here’s how you can get them removed from popular websites.
For Personal Tech Media, this is Two Minute Tech. I’m Jim Herman.
Your home’s photos and floor plans are more than just a privacy issue. For example, if someone is targeting your home for a break in, that information provides intelligence to make the job easier. Or if someone is looking for nearby homes to target, seeing the price you paid and some recent interior shots might make them think you’re wealthy and more likely to have items worth stealing.
When your home goes up for sale, your realtor will upload all the information to the multiple listing service. The MLS will then distribute that information to realtors, websites, and others who subscribe to the service.
Only a licensed agent can make changes to an MLS listing. When you purchase your home, ask your agent to close the listing.
However, closing the listing through MLS won’t remove the images from websites like Zillow or Redfin. They will keep those photos online unless you ask to have them removed. To start the process, you must claim your home on each site. Links to begin that process will be available on the show notes page.
Then, once you’ve claimed your listing as the owner, go to the dashboard. Once in the dashboard, you’ll see an option to hide or remove your home’s photos.