Yes, an owner should have the right to opt-out of having a stranger say their house is for sale on zillow. If the owner wants to market privately & does not want it known online that the home is for sale (for whatever reason)their wishes should be respected. Don’t you agree?

Personal privacy, or “right to market as I see fit”, (use whatever term you prefer) should encompass the right NOT to have others say your home is for sale online at Zillow.

It should be practical–if you can flag Q&A, you should be able to block access to the “this house is for sale” option.

“Discussion censorship” is not the issue, it is “publication online”. Zillow is allowing persons other than the homeowner to disseminate to the world, via the internet, that their home is for sale, against the seller’s wishes. Do you not see ANY risk with having “this home for sale” available to anyone online? We do.

Offline Conversation v. online publication

Here is an analogy you may appreciate to show what I mean when I say there is a vast difference between offline converations vs. online publication:

If I know you are traveling out of the country for 30 days, I can pass this on in a conversation…BUT would you mind if I also put it online on my new site: People traveling overseas for extended periods of time:

David G who lives at (what’s your address?)will be traveling across Europe for the month of July.

Can you see the difference now?

As far as I can tell, Google’s policy is in response to personal privacy concerns. As you can see above, Google’s images include people and at that resolution you could argue that those people are identifiable. Zillow’s policy is not to publish this information and to remove personal information that was posted by others at the user or owners’ request. So, with regards to personal information, Zillow is in fact more respectful of our users’ privacy.

Google will opt-you out if you ask. That’s nice of them. They aren’t legally required to do it but they do it– that’s something users respect– a concern for what “they” want, despite what the company can legally do.

Zillow, on the other hand, will not let owners or listing agents opt-out of anything. But you can still ask.

Not being in the real estate business representing homeowners, IMO Zillow is not as sensitive to owners’ rights as we think they should be. Having come from the “buy side” (Remember, B&F were looking as buyers before they founded zillow), it is only natural that the site is “buyer biased”, in our opinion. That’s why there are up to 2 values attached to a home & the owner has no say in the matter. That’s why there is “recorded” questioning of the homeowner—& if the homeowner doesn’t want to answer– heck, let the neighbor answer it —that’s a pro-buyer slant. Now, there is nothing wrong with helping the buyer—but don’t do it at the expense of the owner who may not want to cooperate for any number of reasons (eg: the owner may have been a travel agent put out of business by Expedia and doesn’t want to support zillow in any way)

Some homeowners want their homes marketed discretely—no lawn signs, no ads— yet zillow would allow Joe Blow who finds out it’s for sale to tell the world on zillow, “hey, this guy’s house is for sale. Got any questions, ask me”– that doesn’t sit right with me. I’m sorry, that owner should have an opt-out.