Should interior home photos be made public years after the sale?

Posted by Gary Hoeferkamp, February 9, 2023

There has been some publicity lately about all the interior photos and floor plans floating around the internet after homes are sold and closed, namely on Zillow and other public real estate sites. There is a privacy concern by the new owners, and rightly so. If you search on Zillow and find a recently sold home, you can see all the interior photos, which sometimes include floor plans and features you may not want the public to know.

I just pulled up several of my past sales on Zillow, Realtor.com and Redfin, and found that all 3 sites are still showing the full slate of interior photos, ad remarks and details of the home as I advertised them. Zillow has all the photos going back 4.5 years, plus the ad remarks and some data longer than that. Redfin has them going back 9 years. Realtor.com has my last 15 years of listing photos! Wow, I had no idea, as once I sell a home I do not go back and look at photos on those websites. I do, of course, review previously sold homes in our MLS (Multiple Listing Service) for valuation purposes, and having those photos are crucial to ascertain condition.

I just sent a message to our local MLS, called MARIS, about this and I feel that we should require all public real estate websites to remove all interior photos as soon as the house closes, as the privacy and safety of the new owners should be respected. I also told them that we, as Realtors, need to retain the photos in our MLS with controlled access for agents and appraisers to review for past sale comparisons for at least 2 years. Right now our MLS retains all photos for 4 years, at which time they delete all but the main exterior shot, for storage cost reasons. The fact that all 3 of those public websites keeps advertising the interior photos longer than our own MLS keeps them is just crazy.

I also told our MLS - new gripe here - that we, as an industry, need to change the term "master" bedroom and bath, as most of the public has already moved on to more current terminology. We need to agree on "primary", "main", "first" or something that makes sense.

If you are on one of my auto listing feeds for certain search criteria, tomorrow will begin a new look and option to the listing emails that you receive. You can now have them texted, but you need to sign up once you are inside the portal.

Here is an update on local, existing home sales activity as of today:

• Manchester had 2 homes available and 19 under contract
• Ballwin had 13 homes available and 29 under contract
• Kirkwood had 10 homes available and 25 under contract
• St Peters had 8 homes available and 61 under contract
• Arnold had 8 homes available and 29 under contract
• Florissant had 77 homes available and 84 under contract

The ratios run from 1.1 to 10 pending sales for every 1 available. Adding the total of these 6 areas is 2.1 pendings to every 1 available. My last comparison of these areas in early Jan was 1.2 to 1 (and 2.8 to 1 in late June) with the available home supply DOWN 23% from January. Take out Florissant, and the inventory dropped 43%! That indicates a market rapidly going back toward a strong seller's market. All 6 of these areas changed substantially, some dramatically, from trending toward a balanced market back to the seller's favor. Although this is typical for early spring, for buyers to come out ahead of sellers, it was a bit questionable with the increased mortgage rates - now dropping - and all the talk of potential recession, which was just countered with a very strong jobs report for January. At this time, I now expect a high demand spring -- buyers get out there now before the bigger rush, and sellers get ready to maximize your sale price over the next 3 months.

I am looking to add a full time, licensed agent. Perfect for someone wanting a small office culture with easy broker access and many learning/ sharing opportunities!

I have 2 listings coming in the next 2 weeks, a 1.5 sty on 4.5 acres in Wildwood and a main level condo in Manchester with 2 car garage, watch for notices as they hit the market!