I have long said that too many estate agents put far too much information online about their clients’ homes.

This disincentivises prospective viewers from contacting them and arguably calls into question where client best interests lie.

This digital information is like confetti and goes everywhere, creates a security risk to the seller and the incoming buyer may not want their new home to have so much information freely available online. Therefore the estate agent has shot themselves (and the vendor) in the foot.

I strongly feel that so many vendors and estate agents are being unwittingly played. You see, the likes of Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and other property portals all retain information when a property is eventually sold or indeed withdrawn from the market.

These portals all wish to be seen as the best research hubs for prospective buyers and sellers to go to. The only way they can do this, is to display current and former marketing information in full technicolour.

They then analyse and produce research to theoretically give users greater insight, plus secure media coverage alongside this. However at what cost?

In the past few weeks, I have come across several homeowners looking to sell, but they have vast online footprints which they didn’t know about.

In the past few weeks, I have come across several homeowners looking to sell, but they have vast online footprints which they didn’t know about.

Historic photographs, floorplans, price reductions, agent details etc immediately available for anyone who knows where to look, which doesn’t help their cause in trying to sell their home.

All of this takes another turn for the worse when we then overlay Google Streetview and the ability to zoom in high definition on most homes across the UK, plus across any historical timeframe we wish.

All this freely available information online gives too much away upfront and there seems to be no control over it. It stops potential conversations with buyers immediately in their tracks, even though they may have misunderstood what is currently being offered.

Not engaging

Because they are not speaking or engaging with estate agents on a human level, opportunities are being missed, but it is the seller who really loses out. The property sector is above all a people business and technology is just a tool.

So what do you do? Without question you need to run a search against your property online to see what information is out there.

You are then able to apply to each property portal, social media channel and Google Streetview to request that they delete your information. There can be a process to go through and it’s almost as though they make it difficult.

The bigger picture to all of this, is that I feel it marks the beginning of the end for the big portals. With the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence and companies scrabbling over each other to out-do one another, data really is king nowadays.

Artificial Intelligence doesn’t care where it gets its information from, nor is it necessarily choosey which website has the data. As such, what is going to be the point of Rightmove down the line and surely its days are numbered?

Estate agents must bring buyers over to their own websites to engage with them on firmer territory, after all they have the data that Rightmove profits from anyway. Equally to home owners, you need to take control of the situation and your data. You may think that data is king, but when selling your home, it turns out to be the joker of the pack.

Author bio: Alex Goldstein is an independent bespoke property consultant in Yorkshire and London.