I’m about to modify my “prepare for the photographer” check list with regards to children’s rooms and spaces. Nothing is more precious to us than our children. Their safety and well being are not only our responsibility but for many they represent our reason for being.
Those that know me well know I’m a bit OCD’ed about room prep, visual noise and composition in the images I produce. I try to set a stage that captures the spirit of the property and what it feels like to live there. In doing so there is a fine line between revealing the spirit of the owner vs the property and it’s appeal to buyers. I try to avoid shooting obvious things like a huge safe in the corner, that priceless work of art or antique, that jewelry collection, even an owner’s diploma (at least not make them readable) etc. Why the caution? you ask. Because I don’t want make it easy for the bad guys to go shopping on Zillow I answer.
Now …enter stage right the world of virtual crime, social media and identity theft. Then …enter stage left the real and imagined threat of the child predator.
By it’s very nature a real estate listing, when presented on a web site like Zillow, will provide a virtual store for the bad guys. View the listing images and you see inside the home. Click on the map and view the property from the air along with the surroundings. Click again and you virtually drive down the street. But wait there is more. Click on the data source link Zillow presents they link you directly to the county assessment web site. There, find the owners names even the bank that holds their mortgage. On Zillow you find the school district and the very schools children attend. Go to those school web sites and find every bit of information about that school and furthermore look through the yearbooks and images of students along with specific student’s interests. I can go to LinkedIn and find the occupations of the owners, where they work and even the chance the husband or wife might be on the road on a business trip.
Glance at the images to the left (I won’t reveal the location of the property but I will tell you it has been sold for several years and they no longer live there). What do they reveal to you at first glance? Obviously the names of of two young girls. After that you can guess their ages and even an interest in dance there is much more that can bee seen but I don’t want to go into that. It’s way to creepy for me but not the bad guy. I think you get the picture.
Holy Cow Batman this is getting strange. So let me get right to the point… Predators and scammers are given an advantage when they can garner profiling information from a photograph of a child’s room. Most importantly their names and ages and interests. With that they can narrow the field of targets to the most promising and vulnerable.
Look here to see what I mean virtual-kidnapping-phone-ransom
So what am I asking of you as my Realtor clients? Please add to the check list owners should remove the names of the children from the wall of their rooms. They should also try to clear out as much as possible anything that shows the activities they participate in and any pictures of the children.
On my part I’m going to do my best to avoid taking images that might identify anything about the child, but that will be hard. You might even consider not shooting children’s rooms or I could just shoot the view out the window or that nice seating area along with the window. Just how far you go, or what you do to prepare the room or tell the parents how to prepare the room, is up to you. As for me if there is a child’s name on the wall I won’t shoot it unless I’m specifically requested to do so by the realtor.
This is all of course mere more food for thought. Perhaps it’s just me. You be the judge.