How to remove my house from Zillow: what you can change

You can't fully remove your house from Zillow. Zillow, Redfin, and similar sites build a page for nearly every home using public records, and that page stays up whether or not the home is for sale. As the verified owner, though, you can claim the home, correct its facts, and ask for photos to be taken down. If what really bothers you is your name or phone number showing up next to your address, that usually comes from somewhere else: people-search sites and data brokers. You can opt out of those.

What a Zillow or Redfin page is built from

A property page combines a few sources:

• County records, such as tax assessments, lot size, and sale history.
• Listing data from the MLS (multiple listing service, the shared database real estate agents use to publish listings), if the home was ever listed.
• An automated value estimate, like the Zestimate, calculated from the facts above and nearby sales.

The underlying records are public, so these sites don't offer owners a way to delete the property page. That's the part that stays. You do have some control over how the page looks.

What a verified owner can change

Claim the home

Search your address on Zillow or Redfin and look for an option to claim the home as its owner. The wording and menus change over time, so check each site's current help center if you can't find it. You'll go through a verification step to prove you own the home, and then you get owner tools for that page.

Correct the home facts

Once you've claimed the home, you can update details like bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, and renovations. This can change the automated estimate, but these sites generally don't let owners delete the estimate itself.

If a fact is wrong in the county record, fixing it on Zillow won't fix the source. Contact your county assessor's office about the record. For anything that affects your property taxes, talk to your county or a tax professional.

Remove or replace photos

This is the change most owners care about. Interior photos can show your layout, entry points, valuables, and security equipment to anyone.

• Photos you uploaded as the owner can usually be managed or removed through the owner tools.
• Photos from a past listing often come through the MLS feed, so the listing agent or their brokerage controls them. The old listing usually shows the brokerage name. Contact that agent and ask them to request removal. You can also contact the site's support and say you're the verified owner.
• If you just bought the home, the photos probably belong to the seller's listing agent. Your own agent may be able to help you reach them.
• If you're selling now, ask your agent before closing to request photo removal once the sale is done. It's easier to arrange at that point than months later.

If the home is currently for sale

Taking an active listing down goes through your listing agent. If you listed it yourself as for sale by owner, you can usually end the listing from your account. Either way, the property page itself stays up afterward.

What stays no matter what

Even after you claim the home, expect these to remain:

• The address and the property page
• Sale history and tax history from public records
• The automated value estimate

Your name and phone number are a separate problem

Zillow and Redfin pages are mostly about the home. If you search your address and find your full name, phone number, age, and relatives listed with it, that's almost always a people-search site. Wholesalers (people who lock up a property cheap and flip the contract to another buyer) and skip tracers (services that match a property to the owner's phone and email) rely heavily on these sources.

You can opt out of many of them yourself. Each of the following has a public opt-out form. Usually you find your listing, submit its link, and confirm by email:

• Whitepages, Spokeo, FastPeopleSearch, and TruePeopleSearch, people-search sites that show names, phone numbers, and address history.
• BeenVerified, which has a separate property records section, so check both.
• ATTOM Data Solutions and Cotality, property data companies that compile ownership records and sell them to businesses.

A few tips that save frustration:

• Use a separate email address for opt-out confirmations.
• Write down each site and the date you opted out.
• Check again every few months. These sites often re-list people when new records come in.

If you'd like to see where you're listed before you start, the free exposure check shows where your details currently appear. Step-by-step instructions for individual sites are in the removal guides.

Keep an eye on the public record itself

You can't hide the property record, but you can watch it. Many counties run free recording alerts that email you when a document is recorded under your name. Two details decide whether an alert ever goes off. Many programs match your name exactly as you type it, so register each variation separately: a maiden name, a middle initial, a trust name. Some also make you create an account before you can subscribe. Search your county recorder or clerk's website for "recording alert" or "fraud alert." If something unexpected gets recorded, contact your title company or a real estate attorney.

The takeaway

Your home's page on Zillow or Redfin is built from public records and isn't going away. You can still shape it by claiming the home, correcting its facts, and getting interior photos removed through the owner tools or the listing agent. Your personal details are a different matter. They mostly come from people-search sites and data brokers, and opting out of those (and checking back now and then) usually does more for your privacy than anything you change on Zillow.