Get My Home Pics Off the Internet!

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NOO! So, your new buyer wants their home photos OFF THE INTERNET!  They typically ask their agent (or us) or the listing agent to remove all photos from the MLS to get them off the online sites.  Well, no… removing the listing photos from the MLS DOES NOT achieve the owner’s ultimate goal.  But we do try to help!  FlexMLS has initiated a FANTATIC new feature to help protect the privacy of those moving forward.
  • First, know that access to MLS photos can made available ONLY to brokers, agents and appraisers who are members of our MLS. In the edit screen, you can make all photos private when they are off-market.  This will remove all but the main photo from IDX, syndication and public facing sites.  It will retain the photos only to users of the MLS and assist them in running comparable sales reports that are accurate.

  • To remove photos from the hundreds of websites that the sellers may have used in marketing their home for sale is a tedious task, but the owner can request all sites remove their photos quickly and easily in most cases.  By asking the listing agent to mark them private, they will be removed in the feeds coming from FlexMLS.  If that doesn’t work, the owner can also request any site remove their photos as well
  • For properties under agreement but not yet sold, the listing broker can change the broker distribution to “Seller Directs Listing to be Excluded from Internet” and that removes the listing AND photos from sold searches on all IDX sites, broker websites or public displays that get an MLS feed beyond those mentioned above.
  • Despite the above, if owners find other sites displaying their home photos, they should request to have their photos removed directly from those websites, because likely they didn’t come from the MLS.

Photos are incredibly important to Realtors and Appraisers using them for comps and/or valuations purposes and it diminishes the MLS service to have this historical data removed. Especially when it does not achieve the buyer’s end goal.  We do recommend you change the listing entry to show the listing should be excluded entirely from the internet on the “Broker Distribution” tab whenever asked and encourage the buyer to ask for removal where appropriate.

On a side note, did you know that you can pretty easily get your home blurred out in the Google street view maps as well?

  • Enter your address in Google Maps and change to “Street view”
  • Go to “report a problem” in the bottom right hand corner
  • You will get a page labeled “report inappropriate street view.”
  • Adjust the image so the house is inside the red box.
  • Fill out the form
  • Check back in a few days to see if the image has been blurred.

You can also get license plates and faces blurred. For example, if you want a picture of your business on Google Maps but don’t want the license plate number of your vehicle parked in front on Google, you can get that blurred. You can also get your car blurred out as well if you want.