Taking listing photos down

Request to remove listing photos

“Can you please remove all of this listing images and videos of the house from the internet?” I’ve been asked this question by buyers who have settled on homes I’ve listed. They cite “privacy and security” reasons. So far, I’ve accommodated their wishes. However, I don’t like to. Why do I bristle at this request?

Why I don’t want to remove them

1. What is the buyer actually concerned about? That someone could find pictures of the house they bought and see the PREVIOUS owner’s decor/furnishings in it? So what? Anyone that interested in where you live can find a way to look up your address and drive by.
2. These pictures belong to me. I paid for them and the buyer has no right to control where they are posted/available.
3. Images of past listings enable me to demonstrate to other potential sellers how I would showcase their properties online. It seems unfair that a buyer, with no proprietary rights to the pictures, should be able to hinder my ability to show the quality of the photography/video and different online methods I use to market my listings.
4. When buyers and sellers are attempting to value a property (sellers when they list and buyers when they submit offers), they need to compare the subject property to similar ones. We refer to these other houses as “comps” (comparables). If everyone insisted on removing the images from the internet, it would be much harder to truly determine which properties were more or less valuable. How would you know if a certain house were more or less dated? Had weird flow or small room sizes? Was full of rich architectural details or had vinyl fake wood flooring? The answer: you wouldn’t. I bet that the buyers who ask to have the pictures removed would be annoyed if, when considering an offer, they couldn’t find any images of supposedly similar properties. Similarly, sellers need to have something to compare their homes to when setting a listing price, for all the same reasons.

How I will deal with the request going forward

I have no desire to be difficult or unaccommodating; as I mentioned, I’ve always previously complied with the request. The more I think about it, though, the more I feel that my reasons for not wanting to are sound. I am curious whether the public agrees.The next time I am asked to remove the images, I think I will send this post to the buyer’s agent in an effort to explain why I do not want to remove the pictures.