Please Remove My Home From the Internet
These are all great questions, and seemingly an impossible task, if the owners new what kind of time and energy is put into selling homes these days. Not to mention when others pick up the listing and spread it like wild fire all over the net. In my opinion privacy is one thing, but if a new owner truly wanted to protect them selves, they need to approach the tax records. If you don't know who lives there / owns it currently then photos of the inside of a house will make no difference then the next property down the street. Setting privacy barriers to your phone numbers, addresses, credit reports, ect... is the only way to attack the problem at the source.
Great Topic!!
I sold a property last fall and last week I received a request from the buyer, now the homeowner of record, asking me to remove his home from all my marketing blogs, videos and ads on the Internet.
Who knew Internet Sleuth was a new facet of an agent's job description? Okay, it was easy to switch the YouTube video to private and remove some interior photos (although the furnishings in the pics belonged to my seller and were posted with his consent). A note notifying the new owner of the removal was met with appreciation AND a long list of links where he found photos of his property.
Yikes, some were on personal websites of other agents, some were on sites that pick up listings from the MLS and so on and so forth. Josh, my business partner, removed pertinent photos from our website and numerous blogs. Needless to say it was a time consuming task, but I have to admit we were pretty impressed with the depth and breadth of our marketing efforts. My former listing had worldwide exposure!
I understand the new homeowner's concerns. He feels his privacy is compromised. It was no small feat to locate and eradicate all traces of the lovely listing I once sold. I'm sure we missed a few sites.
Will other buyers cringe when their new home continues to show up on various Internet sites? Will agents soon be required to remove all traces of listings that went viral? What is our obligation to the new homeowner?
Norma Toering & Team RE/MAX Palos Verdes Realty
(310) 493-8333 / Office Phone: (310) 831-0800PalosVerdesLifestyle - Nominated by Relocation.com as one of the top ten Los Angeles area real estate blogs. Ranked by Technorati in the top 1% of all blogs. As seen in the Daily Breeze newspaper.
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