Please Remove Pictures Of My Home From The Internet

Tere:

I have had several buyers contact me about removing sales information about their house from the internet.  They don't seem to understand that even though I have take the listing off trulia, zillow, realtor.com and other similar sites the listing was syndicated, not by me, all over the net.

Tere, great post, well said if we do our job properly the Listing will be on at least 200 internet portals and who knows how many more...it is part of life today you can not turn the clock back to the 1970's PERIOD!!

There is nothing new about this buyer’s concern. Nothing will be resolved until there is a judicial decision regarding this issue. Of course, unless it is a Supreme Court decision, nothing would be settled on a national basis.

 My opinion: they have no basis to sue for the remove of photos of the house of the previous owner.

Removing all of your traces in the internet is like removing all your footprints in the sand. You know it's possible but you have to work on effective strategies to do so. It will take time, money, and constant effort to do it successfully.

I agree with Phyliss #11.

Tere, happened to me once for my listing when buyer's agent requested me to remove the pictures. I did oblige for the items that were under my control --- but most of the things, as you suggested, are out of our control...

"The Internet is an ink, not a pencil..."

I'm not sure of the legalities involved, but the information in "sold" listings is vitally important to appraisers in order to accurately value properties utilizing as much information about comparable sales as possible.

I feel sorry for the people losing their home but many are shocked that their financial troubles are public record. Here the lis pendens is recorded and then it is habnd delivered. Sometimes I beat the other guy there and am the one to inform the owner that the bank has started foreclosure proceedings against them.

Once the listing agent checks the syndication box for Zillow and Trulia, they don't even OWN the content anymore.  Ask Mr. Buyer to go sue them, the new owners of the content and photos. 

The next big lawsuit? You should point the lawyers to the trulia/zillow leeches. You cannot control what  they steal.

Wow, this poor buyer is going to have a tough time living in the twenty first century if they actually think that this is possible.  Its a whole new world, time to get used to it and enjoy the easy access to information and ignore the fact that we do live in a fishbowl.

"...And can you un-ring that bell while you're at it? Thanks!"

Leave it to people to complicate a un-complicated situation....Photos of a house? Move on already

There is a great YouTube video on this, but I can't remember who it was ..... ARG?   Anyone? 

I had a guy who went nuts over this....and the only thing we couldn't get off was a picture of a chair.

It still lives on....on ZILLOW!

Very interesting, I have removed the phone numbers of the home owner from the listing after the listing expieres but never the photos

It might be something that has to be added into contracts, stating that the marketing of a home was requested by the PREVIOUS owner.  The agent who was under contract with said previous owner was never employed or retained by the current homeowner and is therefore under no obligation with respect to marekting that took place  when the hom was owned by someone else. This is a no-go as far as a lawsuite.  Tell these buyers to move on with their lives and be grateful that the listing agentwas willing to do anything at all.  To be honest, I wouldn't have been so generous because this is just peevish nonsense. 

I guess if a huga amount of people complain, then maybe someone will research on how to do this. But then, there have people who have claimed that there are old, unflattering, or incorrect and illegal information about them on the internet and they have been unable to remove it.

Tere - Interesting idea.  I'm wondering what the damages would be.  The problem is defending yourself from litigation is expensive.