The same detailed photos on an online listing that made you fall in love with a home could be putting your safety at risk long after you finally buy it and move in.
That’s because those images can show details such as entrances that aren’t visible from the road or whether the home has a security system, and that’s information criminals looking for a home to target can exploit, said Daniel Major, owner of Cunningham Security Systems, which specializes in residential and commercial security.
“It gives a window into peoples’ lives and has the potential to be a security concern,” Major said. “If you’re in the business of being a professional crook, that information would all be very useful.”
These photos are yet another way criminals can access important details about peoples’ lives, and comes at a time when more people are becoming cognizant of their cybersecurity. It’s compounded by growing interest in Maine’s real estate market and the use of new technologies such as 3D walkthroughs to help sell properties.
Listing photos may show belongings, such as valuable artwork or high-end furniture, from a previous owner that aren’t there anymore. But the home could still have luxury items that allow viewers to make assumptions about who lives in it now.
“Even a picture of a $20,000 stove gives a pretty good indication that there might be other valuables in the home,” Major said.
Other information included in old listings, such as the home’s size or value, can provide context about its owner, Major said. Some photos may also give clues as to whether the owners are home often or use the property as a seasonal getaway.
“All the information is potentially exploitable,” Major said. “Taking those pictures down is an easy way to avoid that.”
Northstar Protection, a Hermon-based security company, recommends sellers limit posting unnecessary listing photos, such as those that show safes or other storage where valuables are kept, such as jewelry boxes.
And sellers should remember that these photos are available to anyone online, not just potential buyers, Director of Operations Lloyd Hall and President Kim Long said.
The Maine Association of Realtors doesn’t have a policy on how the state’s Multiple Listing Service, which gathers real estate data and displays listings from multiple sources, handles real estate photos after a property is sold, according to Denise Libby, CEO of Maine Listings.
“At Maine Listings, for example, listing photos remain part of the permanent record in the [Multiple Listing Service,] though they are not always displayed publicly once a property is off market,” Libby said.
Individual real estate agencies typically decide what’s done with photos of homes after they’re sold and practices can vary, Libby said. Some companies may choose to remove the photos or limit public access while others may keep them online for marketing purposes.
“Many homes have pictures up online so your odds of being targeted are relatively low, but the more information that someone has, the easier it is for them to break into your home,” Major said.
Photos from inactive listings could also be used by scammers looking to exploit people who are in need of a place to live and feel pressure to act quickly due to the state’s tight housing market.
“Scammers have endless tools at their disposal to trick people,” Major said. “They can even put pictures of different homes together so it’s not obvious that it’s fake.”
Sgt. Jason McAmbley, a spokesperson for the Bangor Police Department, said the department hasn’t encountered a situation in which photos of a property’s interior contributed to a crime.
However, Bangor police “regularly” receive reports of fake apartment listings online. Unfortunately, if someone has given money to the scammer, “they are never going to see it again,” McAmbley said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Boston Division issued a notice in July 2022 warning of an uptick in rental and real estate scams, some of which involve scammers taking legitimate listing photos and reposting them as their own. Victims then inquire about the property and are told they need to pay money in order to be shown or secure the home, then the listing is removed.
In 2021, 42 victims in Maine lost $489,309 to rental and real estate scams like this, according to the FBI.
More than 9,300 people nationwide reported real estate crimes last year and lost roughly $173.6 million in total, the FBI reported.
Major real estate companies such as Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia offer guidance on how homeowners can request for photos of their properties to be removed from their websites.
There’s no reason those photos need to remain online once a house has been sold, Hall and Long of Northstar Protection said.
Aside from asking listing photos to be removed after closing, Major advised homebuyers to change their keys, lock their windows and doors and install a security system with a sign advertising the home has it.
“That’ll prevent most people from even trying,” Major said.
