BOSTON — Boston-area Realtors are advising homeowners to be cautious about what images of their homes are posted online.
The sport of scrolling through real estate listings can offer a clear picture of what every square foot of a home looks like in any zip code.
Those pictures can stay on sites like Zillow and Redfin even after a property is sold.
That access now has many home sellers thinking twice about what they are showing.
“Once they’re out there, it’s tough to pull back,” said Mark Ruane, real estate advisor with MGS Real Estate. “Privacy is becoming more of an issue by the day.”
Ruane said it’s becoming increasing difficult to track these images on the internet.
When a home is put up for sale, a listing agent uploads photos to a Multiple Listing Service, known as MLS.
The images end up on real estate sites like Zillow and Redfin.
Those sites then sell leads to everyone else in the industry, spreading those detailed pictures to a global audience.
Ruane said you can get those photos blurred or removed if they’ve already been published.
However, he added that scrubbing those photos from the internet entirely can be tricky.
“These types of platforms are more invasive than ever,” he said. “These third-party platforms are pushing this marketing out to areas we can’t even keep up with.”
Boston 25 News reported on the trend of homeowners blurring their properties on Google Maps earlier this month.
Boston 25 News security analyst Dan Linskey also emphasized the importance of monitoring what’s included in listing photos and descriptions of properties.
He encouraged home sellers to make sure that valuable furniture or artwork is stashed away before photos are taken.
Linskey also offered advice for home buyers.
“I’ve had cases where it listed in the real estate listing that there was a safe, a large safe in the master bedroom built in to keep your valuables safe,” said Linskey. “When someone bought that home, that was a feature they were looking for. By never clearing that off the website, the bad guys know.”
Linskey suggested steering clear of photos that show security features whenever possible.
He said criminals can use detailed images to plan potential break-ins.
“We as consumers and a community have to make sure that we’re taking the steps we can to limit their ability to use technology to harm us,” said Linskey.
Ruane told Boston 25 News it’s important to have these proactive conversations with prospective sellers and buyers ahead of time to gauge what they’re comfortable with.
“Over the last few months, I’ve had clients who have been very sensitive to having their children’s images show up in family photos,” he explained. “We have to be mindful when speaking with our photographers and marketing teams to blur those images out.”
Boston 25 News spoke with nearly two dozen other realtors across the Boston area.
Many pointed to recent instances where home sellers or buyers were vigilant about removing listing photos from the internet after a sale.
“That’s the biggest thing that my clients have been asking for is to remove interior pictures because a lot of scammers can basically leverage where certain things are within the home,” said Dino Confalone, 2021 President of the Greater Boston Association of Realtors.
Local law enforcement in Massachusetts has seen recent cases of criminals using people’s listing photos to create fake ads.
Confalone said it happened with a house he had for sale in Quincy.
“A scammer used all my professional pictures and tried to pretend it was for rent,” he said. “It was really unfortunate because a few people definitely were scammed and sent in the deposit.”
If you already bought a home, Confalone recommends downloading the listing photos to keep them for your records or if you intend to remodel and want before-and-after shots.
He said removing interior images from real estate websites afterward is a good step to play it safe.
Often realtors deal with removing photos for you, so it’s important to follow up.
Real estate experts told Boston 25 News that photos should be left on the MLS system for licensed realtors to use, but not on public sites for everyone to see.
A Zillow spokesperson sent the following statement to Boston 25 News:
“We take privacy and security very seriously. The photos on Zillow come from sources like the multiple listing service (MLS) that real estate agents use to market homes for sale. We always encourage homeowners to claim their home on Zillow, which allows them to change or remove photos and edit their home facts.”
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