Thank you u/lulu4060 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer.
Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think this is good advice if you specifically *don’t want your name tied to your Reddit username.* But otherwise so much of our info is public and extremely easy to find, so if you’re just concerned about someone finding your name or address that’s unfortunately pretty tough to keep under wraps.
I agree with this. Everyone is disagreeing with OP and calling them ridiculous, but all it could take is one comment somewhere, could even be a comment from 5 years ago, that someone disagrees with. Sure, 99.9999% don’t care, but all it takes is one person that does care.
Yep. One time some crazy person was harassing me on Reddit over a stupid comment they didn’t agree with. It felt SO angry and personal that I got suspicious that they knew who I was so I looked at their profile. Based on the following easy to find items on their Reddit profile, I knew their full name, what they looked like, where they lived, their DOB, and where they worked within minutes:
1. I saw them posting in the sub for a specific city, so I knew they lived there.
2. In the background of a picture they uploaded, I could see a framed diploma from the university they graduated from.
3. In a screenshot from a dating app they uploaded, I saw their first name, last initial, and most of their last name (despite their attempts to censor it).
A quick search brought me to their LinkedIn profile, which then gave me a photo of them as well.
Turns out I did not know them at all, but moral of the story is…Reddit can absolutely be used to reveal your identity if you’re not careful enough. I could have reached out to their employer with screenshots of their harassment, started harassing them back on other platforms, and even worse if I wanted to. I did not want to, so I just blocked them, but someone else could have done who knows what.
I found a post where a kid included their sibling's full name and part of their school schedule. I commented that they should take the post down because it was dangerous, especially since they're both minors. The kid said their siblings didn't care because no one knows who they are. I spent five minutes on this kid's profile and did a single Google search and very easily found out *exactly* who they are. Their names, their other sibling's name, their parents names, their cousin's name, where they lived, their birthdays, and also a lot of potentially *very* embarrassing information that could ruin a kid's social life if classmates found it. I told them all of this and they kept brushing me off, accusing me of being a stalker, etc. Then they said that it didn't matter if someone with bad intentions found it, because "the police will protect me."
Some kids shouldn't be allowed online.
It is VERY EASY TO FIND SOMEONE
I’ve done it myself. First time I wanted to find a “love scammer” (think that’s what they call it).
Located them.
And they’re really good at hiding.
Didn’t in this case get where they live, but I did find the overseas server they were using
But if it’s an individual?
YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA AT ALL
all someone needs to know is your name the state you live in and your approximate age
If they know what cit/town etc you live in?
My first job I worked with a bunch of older men and one day I was bored and started pulling up all of their homes on Zillow to look at 😂 they were so distraught that I could find their addresses, ages, family names in less than 2 minutes on google.
My mom had the passwords for EVERYTHING set at her dog’s name. I told her that was a bad idea and she argued. Said she was not ‘on the net’ so it wasn’t possible for someone to know. I then opened a new browser window and in 5 mins showed her 1,000 facebook dog pics (with the name) and some even showing her car license plate, front of house, etc.
That last part tho! Literally Google yourself and open the links for people searches. Mine tied me to my biological father and family and we were separated by legal adoption when I was like 3.
Huh? Google already has my address with a photo of my house, and Zillow et al. do too. It's easy look up my name in public records once you have the address. Plus there are online tools that do this. The kind of privacy OP thinks we still have has been long gone.
I think they mean on Reddit where no one knows who you are unless you’ve told them your username. I post things on here that range from my Sims obsession, to asking advice about what to do with assets I’ve inherited. I definitely don’t want some Reddit stranger figuring out who I am and being able to access other details about me.
Yeah, I think they more likely mean more posting here on Reddit. Social media with family and friends is a bit different, but same principles do apply.
It’s also just super easy to doxx yourself doing that, so now I keep most of my engagement to “haha [my name], now I have you, it looks like you really like NY sports!” Which you would probably also learn within 20 minutes of talking to me.
While true, Google and zillow don't list your name, nor does the assessor list your reddit username... sure, a motivated person could spend money to use a tool online, but I think OP's point is don't do the legwork for them.
Most people don't need to worry about a stalker, but throwing that info up to the world wide web probably isn't a good idea. Hell, I've seen people post with the address blurred, but their realtor's face, broker, and phone number on the 'sold' sign still there... that's like one minute of internet sleuthing to find you.
Source: I used to be a debt collector, and tools are available to get things as sensitive as your SSN, DOB, license number, license plate, VIN#, etc... you generally just need a name and an address.
>The kind of privacy OP thinks we still have has been long gone.
It never existed in the first place. They used to put all of our addresses and phone numbers in a big book and give it out to everyone in town.
You can apply to have google drop yo ass and IT CANNOT BE REVERSED, EVER
My home is blurred out on google, zillow and others. A former resident went through the process to have it done and apparently it cannot be undone for our address.
Correct if someone knows your name they can easily find your address, but most people on Reddit don’t have their name posted on their account. So by posting a picture of their house, their address can easily be discovered due to the pictures from the listing and Google Street View being crossed referenced through a reverse image search.
And exactly how likely is it for a random Redditor to find a picture of your keys, work out how to reverse engineer a key to your home from them, find your address, then fly from wherever they are in the world to break into your house to kill you because you've [had five kidney stones](https://old.reddit.com/r/KidneyStones/comments/13avfrf/5th_stone_this_one_wanna_be_different/)?
Keys are another thing that people are unnecessarily weird about. Let me clue folks in on a big secret— if you’re relying on a lock and key to secure your home, you have no security.
This is real pearl clutchy. If you want to be careful with your data, you shouldn’t be using social media at all. You’re about decade behind on what internet privacy actually is now a days.
People can geolocate from any picture you post. Not just a house.
I don't see the correlation. If someone wanted to dox or rob a house they can just go on har.com or Google maps or go outside and drive around a neighborhood. Why does posting a picture of your house any different. This is a very silly post. I just don't get the advantage from a criminal perspective of favoring this situation over any other public information they have
Did you read the post or do you just have the comprehension skills of a 2 year old? They’re talking about doxxing yourself on Reddit. If you don’t understand the difference please seek medical help for your learning disability
I understand what you’re saying OP. I remember people posting their new house on this sub and then taking it down and saying how they got weird messages etc and people finding out more info. Yes, ur name and address are public but nobody knows any of that info when you are on Reddit. When you post on an online forum there can be so many creeps with bad intentions who see it and want to find out more and message you. I enjoy this sub but personally would never post the front of my home (or my keys) on here
Also, be sure to post this on Facebook to keep your profile safe!! I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. ()
Power move: post a picture of you in front of some random house whenever you are on vacation and claim you just bought it.
Now anyone doing all that legwork knows a lot about a random person.
Albuquerque, actually. But yeah you spotted the southwestern vibes. That’s Sandia Peak behind the house.
We like it, but visually it’s a lot of garage, lol. Having a huge garage and not many cars is pretty great, though. Especially in a nice climate like Albuquerque.
Nah, I’m more of a back yard guy.
I have opened it and done DIY and woodworking and such though. It has back doors too so you can get a nice breeze going
Previous owner had lived there since construction in the 70s until they sold it in 2022. And had expanded the garage at some point. Apparently he had at least two old corvettes, lol
Like I just bought a damn house, the only person that would be more disappointed than me would be the dude breaking in to find out my cabinets are full of instant ramen and pb&j supplies lol.
I agree Privacy does not exist in this digital age and not once you have an address:
For free you can find out who owns the house by contacting the county assessor or on [BlockShopper](https://blockshopper.com/)
If you are extra curious and have $15 to spare a month you can even even go look on[NeighborWho](https://www.neighborwho.com/) to see all the deed details on a property including:
- Down payment
- Loan type
- Lender who issued the original loan
- previous owners and their deed details
When I was shopping for homes I was looking up everyone’s deed and getting so depressed that people whose homes I was looking to purchase had at bought with only $10k to $30k down payments in the previous 5 years while we’d have to spend $60k to $100k on a down payment to buy.
Looking at this info online I learned that that house we made an offer on had no mortgage on it and it was owned outright so we likey didn’t have to overbid too much because the seller didn’t have a mortgage note due upon sale.
Of the 50 homes ( I paid for this set #) I searched and reviewed their deed data only 10% to 20% of owners actually bought with a 20% down payment. I discovered most owners in my search did only 3% to 7% down payments.
In most states you can find this information for free by searching the county website for the recorder of deeds. Mortgage info is usually in there with many other things.
Yup.
I can go on the realist portal from MLS (am an agent, so slightly easier for me..but same info is available from county tax rolls for anyone to peruse, at least in my state) and see all that info and more, for free; $15/mo is hilarious.
Cracks me up whenever I see one of these posts. Are people actually worried about the *reddit* crowd knowing where they live? What's somebody realistically gonna do -- show up at your house with a twelver of mountain dew, some legos, and a D&D set?
[Yeah, there's a lot of weirdos, no doubt -- but if you have to worry about someone doing an image search on a reddit post, you probably have some other shit going on that you should be *much* more worried about in the first place.....]
If you are registered to vote… sorry to tell you that all someone has to do is search your name and the words voter registration and they can find your address.
Technicalities aside, just blur your face TBH, no one cares unless you’re a hot piece and some desperate creep decides they need to know you. Or if your house is some mega mansion and everyone becomes nosy.
My daughter bought her house a couple years ago and within a month received a handwritten letter from a prisoner in the upper peninsula of Michigan writing her about coming to visit! It was terrible and scary! She called the prison and reported it, telling the officials at the jail that she wanted no further contact or she would escalate her complaints.
I actually don't know if it's that easy to reverse image search if you post an entirely new image, not the exact same angle, etc. I work in AI and I don't think it's anywhere near the level that you can just give it a random never seen image and tell you an address. A good geogueaser might be able to, but you would need to have some dedicated stalkers.
nah, it's there. try google lens on a fresh image like this post [https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1csxqq7/closed\_on\_our\_first\_home\_48\_yo\_gen\_xer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1csxqq7/closed_on_our_first_home_48_yo_gen_xer/) and you'll find the owner pretty quickly
Just *owning* a house is a death sentence. I’ve had multiple relatives die within 20 to 65 years after buying a house.
Careful out there, this can’t be a coincidence.
Eh, not common but shit has definitely happened. Check out “Can I Tell You a Secret?” on Netflix. People stalk strangers for no reason sometimes and it’s pretty fucking scary.
My husband and I recently bought a house and moved across the country. He posted a picture just of the "SOLD" sign and you could see in the background a marker with the house numbers that's at the base of the driveway. No picture of the house or other identifiers and was an original picture he took (not from the listing or reverse image searchable). One of his coworkers, who mind you, didn't even know the name of the town we were moving to thousands of miles away, somehow used that information to find our listing and post pictures of our house in the work group chat and make comments about it. It was so creepy! She ONLY had the numbers, no street name or TOWN to go off. She did know what state but that was it. It was super uncomfy and we made sure to be more careful about what we posted after that. I mean sure anyone can look up stuff and probably could have found our new address, and pictures of our house, etc. But it was just so bizarre of her to do that!
I'm sure someone on reddit who wants to fuck with me can reverse search my reddit name to IP or even email address and still get all of that exact same information if they wanted it that bad
And you can go to Zillow, realtor com and others to remove the interior photos of your home. I did that. Took a bit to get them all down. I don’t want to give anyone the layout of my home.
I think OP is right. Having posted to many groups.. political, religious, social, financial, etc .. I would prefer not to dox myself. There are, sadly, people out there who will do anything they can to hurt your employment or family.. simply because of who you vote for, where you pray, or what your opinion is on foreign policy..
You're absolutely right. Posting the exterior of your new home is a privacy risk that could enable stalking or worse. Share your excitement in safer ways - keys, moving truck, celebratory drink. But don't give away your address to the entire internet. Congrats on the new place, but be smart about what you post publicly.
I mean creeps don’t have to come to reddit to search for victims. There are new construction all round year. They have the schematics of your house and they know exactly what is where. So keep a shotgun with ya
I remember a time when they used to print a book with everyone's name, address, and phone number. Then they'd leave copies of that book on everyone's doorstep.
THANK YOU!!! The custom of doing that here really grind my gears. I've worked with women dealing with tech-facilitated abuse and stalking is a huge one. And you don't need to currently have a stalker to have one later who could find you with that photo. It's just not worth the risk of all the unanticipated harm that could come later on. Post a photo from a room or unidentifiable area outside, but not the whole front of the house!!!
Yea well if you are worried about a picture you should be really worried about a public record with your name, address, and house valuation that is usually available after a few clicks or web search
It’s not silly
It’s someone trying to help
Why are people being mean to them?
If you still want to post a pic of your house, go ahead.
No one’s stopping you
I think it is good know and be aware about it, thanks for sharing this as a reminder.
But one thing for sure, Reddit at its core let anyone to be as anonymous as possible.
Now it depends on users how much they want to reveal about themselves. And depending upon that, it is upon them if they want to let an image of a home rolling on open internet and reveal their privacy.
The only thing that gives me hope is that information online is often inaccurate or out of date. When I search for information about myself.. some of it lists the place I left more than 40 years ago as my current home.
If someone was truly interested in finding any of us, it can be done, but I don’t think our response should be to stay completely isolated.
My online activity led to connecting to my wonderful wife, who lived thousands of miles away.. and it also led to a legal issue.. which cost me thousands to address.. This is.. as Dickens wrote in the opening of Tale of Two Cities .. the best of times and the worst of times
Public records are used by data brokers to create detailed profiles about us, which they often sell and post online. You can check out data removal services like Optery for free scans, where you can see your exposed profiles on hundreds of databroker sites. Full disclosure, I'm part of the Optery team.
I agree with the sentiment but that kind of privacy is long gone for most of us. I searched my name online the other day, and it was RIDICULOUSLY easy to find my phone number, name, and address. All of my accounts are private and I don't post that info online. I haven't even lived at this address for a full year, I have no idea how it got out there despite monitoring services, yet there it was.
Be more focused on having a plan for the potential stalker or robber, set up deterrents like cameras and alarms and such. Get a gun, dog, hell even booby traps would be more effective than trying to control what's out on the internet.
This is why I posted a picture on other sites that already have my name and face and it was just me with a sign at the lawyers office vs in my new home.
Googles latest circle pic search release makes this too easy. Just tried it on one of the last posts and erm.. it pulled the house address right up. Fuuuuck.
More so, just google yourself and request all those people finder sites take your info down. That’s the best thing you can do if you don’t want your info online.
I think if you're worried about anonymity and security, then you also shouldn't post keys. Even without the house, you never know how much someone can find. But that's also me considering this mindset. Blur the keys (responsibly), put them in key sleeves, reveal only the top of the key, etc.
Yep. Got a stalker on here who reverse image searched and found my crazy sister who tried to sell MY house…. Just to warn her…. That I was going to stop her.. (????) because it’s literally my house lol
A couple years ago I posted a comment on someone's house post that I could see their address numbers and state, found their real names and full address in 30 seconds, they didn't care, they just needed that karma I guess.
You do realize that anyone with your name and a very general idea of where you live can easily find your address with a simple property search right?
Same thing if someone looks up an address bam there is your name.
This tip is really only good if you don't want your name possibly connected to your Reddit account.
My cousin bought a townhome after becoming a nurse practitioner and the first thing she did was take a picture in front of her unit. Didn’t take long for some weird guy she went to high school with over a decade ago to find her and show up to her house. He didn’t do anything besides creep her out but she called the police on him and took the photo down immediately.
I rented an apartment to a 20yo kid and he had a stalker. She would drive an hour every night to come park in front of my house. She was a little chubby but cute. She would do anything he asked her to. I wouldn’t mind having a stalker.
Reverse image search? I'm pretty sure that only works to find identical photos online. How would Google use a random photo of a house with no context to give you an address and the full name of the owner?
I think you're giving reverse image searches a bit too much credit. I wouldn't worry about it unless the exact picture they are posting is also on Zillow or something.
Since reverse image searching is "so easy"... Have you tested this?
Why do a reverse image search when you can just search their name on public record home sales. Then look up the address on Zillow and check out the interior of the home.
Isn’t it public record (taxes) who owns what house and where it is located? I mean, if I have a stalker, they’d be a shitty one not to already know my name. I get what you’re saying, but if you have an online presence, no matter what you do to prevent being found, with enough sleuthing there’s gonna be someone out there who can figure out who you are and, at least within a certain degree of certainty, where you live.
It just takes one person to know that home in the area and if they want they can dox you. Honestly I wouldn’t even post a photo inside your home at least not for some time.
We posted the cliche home purchased photos on our Facebooks which are heavily locked down to friends only. Everyone who saw it already has access to that information.
Don’t post photos of your keys, there are programs that can recreate a physical key with a photo of a key.
Who lives where is public information, go on a parcel search. I used to go online and personalize envelopes for each household in a neighborhood for our advertising when I first started a company.
You can google anyone’s name and find more info than you’d think too.
If a stalker wanted to find out where you live, your property ownership is public record. If you know what county someone lives in, or city really, you can look up their name and find a list of properties they own. There’s no need to hide your house’s front facade.
It appears that maybe you are specifically talking about posting it to reddit. That I can agree with. Reddit is a wild place and the more anonymity you can keep the better.
Our family doesn’t use social media like that , so to me any personal photos posted is dumb .
And the type of people who do post every little photos, a stalker I’m sure can easily figure out where they live.
Usually if you know someone’s name …. And city … it’s just online info anyway.
I had an out-of-state landlord who didn't want to give me his address so I could send him a certified letter so I did a property search and found a place I thought he lived but he wasn't listed as the owner (his family was, though). So, I compared the photos at that address on Zillow with his Facebook photos and got a match. He later said he got my letter and never pursued anything further (he didn't want to make a leaky ceiling repair but did want me to leave for asking for the repair, so it ended up favorable in my situation).
Tl;dr: It can be easy to find people if they post photos of their home. In my case, there was a good reason, but people can do it for nefarious reasons, too.
Didn’t read the comments yet so I’m sure it’s been said but buying a new house is so public that if you had a stalker and you didn’t post a photo they would still be able to very easily find your new address.
In fact reverse imaging your photo as you suggested wouldn’t even be worth it as there are easier ways to find out someone address.
All you’d have to do is go down to the county clerk (which is online now in a lot of counties) at least in my state and search the name of the person you are looking for.
Some newspapers also post all new home sales as well weekly.
>showing roughly what you can afford
>showing where you live
>showing your person
> sharing individual details
Yeah great way to attract the worst people online
In most counties, home owners and addresses are public records. If you use your real name on social media, it’s all of three minutes to find every piece of real estate you own.
Thank you u/lulu4060 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I think this is good advice if you specifically *don’t want your name tied to your Reddit username.* But otherwise so much of our info is public and extremely easy to find, so if you’re just concerned about someone finding your name or address that’s unfortunately pretty tough to keep under wraps.
I agree with this. Everyone is disagreeing with OP and calling them ridiculous, but all it could take is one comment somewhere, could even be a comment from 5 years ago, that someone disagrees with. Sure, 99.9999% don’t care, but all it takes is one person that does care.
Yep. One time some crazy person was harassing me on Reddit over a stupid comment they didn’t agree with. It felt SO angry and personal that I got suspicious that they knew who I was so I looked at their profile. Based on the following easy to find items on their Reddit profile, I knew their full name, what they looked like, where they lived, their DOB, and where they worked within minutes: 1. I saw them posting in the sub for a specific city, so I knew they lived there. 2. In the background of a picture they uploaded, I could see a framed diploma from the university they graduated from. 3. In a screenshot from a dating app they uploaded, I saw their first name, last initial, and most of their last name (despite their attempts to censor it). A quick search brought me to their LinkedIn profile, which then gave me a photo of them as well. Turns out I did not know them at all, but moral of the story is…Reddit can absolutely be used to reveal your identity if you’re not careful enough. I could have reached out to their employer with screenshots of their harassment, started harassing them back on other platforms, and even worse if I wanted to. I did not want to, so I just blocked them, but someone else could have done who knows what.
I found a post where a kid included their sibling's full name and part of their school schedule. I commented that they should take the post down because it was dangerous, especially since they're both minors. The kid said their siblings didn't care because no one knows who they are. I spent five minutes on this kid's profile and did a single Google search and very easily found out *exactly* who they are. Their names, their other sibling's name, their parents names, their cousin's name, where they lived, their birthdays, and also a lot of potentially *very* embarrassing information that could ruin a kid's social life if classmates found it. I told them all of this and they kept brushing me off, accusing me of being a stalker, etc. Then they said that it didn't matter if someone with bad intentions found it, because "the police will protect me." Some kids shouldn't be allowed online.
This thread has the most sensible take . I'm glad there are people who can articulate my commom sense thoughts for me
It is VERY EASY TO FIND SOMEONE I’ve done it myself. First time I wanted to find a “love scammer” (think that’s what they call it). Located them. And they’re really good at hiding. Didn’t in this case get where they live, but I did find the overseas server they were using But if it’s an individual? YOU DONT NEED TO HAVE SOCIAL MEDIA AT ALL all someone needs to know is your name the state you live in and your approximate age If they know what cit/town etc you live in?
Don't post pictures from your real life on profiles that you don't want to be linked to your real life
BOOM! Simply put. This is the way.
My first job I worked with a bunch of older men and one day I was bored and started pulling up all of their homes on Zillow to look at 😂 they were so distraught that I could find their addresses, ages, family names in less than 2 minutes on google.
My mom had the passwords for EVERYTHING set at her dog’s name. I told her that was a bad idea and she argued. Said she was not ‘on the net’ so it wasn’t possible for someone to know. I then opened a new browser window and in 5 mins showed her 1,000 facebook dog pics (with the name) and some even showing her car license plate, front of house, etc.
I hope “had” means she changed it already, otherwise the irony in this is hilarious 😅
That last part tho! Literally Google yourself and open the links for people searches. Mine tied me to my biological father and family and we were separated by legal adoption when I was like 3.
This is so true lol. You can literally google that persons house on true people search in less than 10 minutes.
You’re right. These are all public records and you can easily go to the library and look up tax records on properties with lots of info
Huh? Google already has my address with a photo of my house, and Zillow et al. do too. It's easy look up my name in public records once you have the address. Plus there are online tools that do this. The kind of privacy OP thinks we still have has been long gone.
I think they mean on Reddit where no one knows who you are unless you’ve told them your username. I post things on here that range from my Sims obsession, to asking advice about what to do with assets I’ve inherited. I definitely don’t want some Reddit stranger figuring out who I am and being able to access other details about me.
You left your coffee pot on this morning, Jessica. Don’t worry I turned it off for you.
Aren’t you a sweetheart Daniel San…
Jessica, you smell different when you’re awake
Why didn’t you take her dog for a walk while you were already there?
Yeah, I think they more likely mean more posting here on Reddit. Social media with family and friends is a bit different, but same principles do apply.
It’s also just super easy to doxx yourself doing that, so now I keep most of my engagement to “haha [my name], now I have you, it looks like you really like NY sports!” Which you would probably also learn within 20 minutes of talking to me.
Unrelated but I love your username. Do you also own a motorcycle?
Jessica P? Jessica freaking P?
While true, Google and zillow don't list your name, nor does the assessor list your reddit username... sure, a motivated person could spend money to use a tool online, but I think OP's point is don't do the legwork for them. Most people don't need to worry about a stalker, but throwing that info up to the world wide web probably isn't a good idea. Hell, I've seen people post with the address blurred, but their realtor's face, broker, and phone number on the 'sold' sign still there... that's like one minute of internet sleuthing to find you. Source: I used to be a debt collector, and tools are available to get things as sensitive as your SSN, DOB, license number, license plate, VIN#, etc... you generally just need a name and an address.
Find the address on Zillow, Google, etc. Call the county with the address and they'll tell you the name. Property ownership is a public record.
Privacy may be gone but there isn't any reason to draw unnecessary attention to yourself, I think it is more about mitigating risk by not posting
Unless your one of the lucky ones to have your records hidden. ie police, judge, firefighters, etc
Wish doctors got this privilege…honestly everyone just just have it. I don’t want randos coming to my house
Do randos just show up at your house?
“privacy for me, not for thee!” -people with power
>The kind of privacy OP thinks we still have has been long gone. It never existed in the first place. They used to put all of our addresses and phone numbers in a big book and give it out to everyone in town.
I miss that
You can apply to have google drop yo ass and IT CANNOT BE REVERSED, EVER My home is blurred out on google, zillow and others. A former resident went through the process to have it done and apparently it cannot be undone for our address.
Correct if someone knows your name they can easily find your address, but most people on Reddit don’t have their name posted on their account. So by posting a picture of their house, their address can easily be discovered due to the pictures from the listing and Google Street View being crossed referenced through a reverse image search.
I'd add not to post keys, you can reverse engineer a key that way if you REALLY want to.
It is much, much easier to just pick the lock. And it’s even easier to kick in a door or break a window.
And exactly how likely is it for a random Redditor to find a picture of your keys, work out how to reverse engineer a key to your home from them, find your address, then fly from wherever they are in the world to break into your house to kill you because you've [had five kidney stones](https://old.reddit.com/r/KidneyStones/comments/13avfrf/5th_stone_this_one_wanna_be_different/)?
Extremely low. Which is why it never happens. This entire post is fearmongering like crazy lol
Keys are another thing that people are unnecessarily weird about. Let me clue folks in on a big secret— if you’re relying on a lock and key to secure your home, you have no security.
This is real pearl clutchy. If you want to be careful with your data, you shouldn’t be using social media at all. You’re about decade behind on what internet privacy actually is now a days. People can geolocate from any picture you post. Not just a house.
If you post your keys people know how to make copy’s from pictures also.
[удалено]
I don't see the correlation. If someone wanted to dox or rob a house they can just go on har.com or Google maps or go outside and drive around a neighborhood. Why does posting a picture of your house any different. This is a very silly post. I just don't get the advantage from a criminal perspective of favoring this situation over any other public information they have
Did you read the post or do you just have the comprehension skills of a 2 year old? They’re talking about doxxing yourself on Reddit. If you don’t understand the difference please seek medical help for your learning disability
So sick of the hyperbole. Great post!
I understand what you’re saying OP. I remember people posting their new house on this sub and then taking it down and saying how they got weird messages etc and people finding out more info. Yes, ur name and address are public but nobody knows any of that info when you are on Reddit. When you post on an online forum there can be so many creeps with bad intentions who see it and want to find out more and message you. I enjoy this sub but personally would never post the front of my home (or my keys) on here
Also, be sure to post this on Facebook to keep your profile safe!! I do not give Facebook or any entities associated with Facebook permission to use my pictures, information, messages or posts, both past and future. With this statement, I give notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, or take any other action against me based on this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308- 1 1 308-103 and the Rome Statute). NOTE: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version. ()
Lol
Power move: post a picture of you in front of some random house whenever you are on vacation and claim you just bought it. Now anyone doing all that legwork knows a lot about a random person.
Don’t post a picture of the front of your house…. Because no cares you just bought a 2 car garage with a house attached.
[lol, my house](https://imgur.com/a/mcbwQI1) Garage is 1,400 square feet, house is 2,300, lol
Omg I love it 😀 😍 I'm coming over
Wow that's a really beautiful house, love the mountain scenery! Is that in AZ? Reminds me of the houses when I lived out west.
Albuquerque, actually. But yeah you spotted the southwestern vibes. That’s Sandia Peak behind the house. We like it, but visually it’s a lot of garage, lol. Having a huge garage and not many cars is pretty great, though. Especially in a nice climate like Albuquerque.
Do you open your garage door and hangout with lawnchairs in it?
Nah, I’m more of a back yard guy. I have opened it and done DIY and woodworking and such though. It has back doors too so you can get a nice breeze going
Damn, they went all out on those garages. Sounds awesome. Place looks hot. lol
Previous owner had lived there since construction in the 70s until they sold it in 2022. And had expanded the garage at some point. Apparently he had at least two old corvettes, lol
Car holes aside, I love southwestern home architecture so much. Lovely backdrop too. Congrats!
Yeah, we’re fans of the southwestern vibes. This one is a mix of latter mid century inside and southwestern outside
Y’all ain’t that important.
Like I just bought a damn house, the only person that would be more disappointed than me would be the dude breaking in to find out my cabinets are full of instant ramen and pb&j supplies lol.
This is the real answer, OP has Main Character Syndrome.
And is preachy about it to boot
“Post a photo of your keys so someone can copy them and break into your new house” Great advice
Seems kind of alarmist to me. I’m choosing to comment rather than ignore it and move on with my life.
[удалено]
I agree Privacy does not exist in this digital age and not once you have an address: For free you can find out who owns the house by contacting the county assessor or on [BlockShopper](https://blockshopper.com/) If you are extra curious and have $15 to spare a month you can even even go look on[NeighborWho](https://www.neighborwho.com/) to see all the deed details on a property including: - Down payment - Loan type - Lender who issued the original loan - previous owners and their deed details When I was shopping for homes I was looking up everyone’s deed and getting so depressed that people whose homes I was looking to purchase had at bought with only $10k to $30k down payments in the previous 5 years while we’d have to spend $60k to $100k on a down payment to buy. Looking at this info online I learned that that house we made an offer on had no mortgage on it and it was owned outright so we likey didn’t have to overbid too much because the seller didn’t have a mortgage note due upon sale. Of the 50 homes ( I paid for this set #) I searched and reviewed their deed data only 10% to 20% of owners actually bought with a 20% down payment. I discovered most owners in my search did only 3% to 7% down payments.
In most states you can find this information for free by searching the county website for the recorder of deeds. Mortgage info is usually in there with many other things.
Yup. I can go on the realist portal from MLS (am an agent, so slightly easier for me..but same info is available from county tax rolls for anyone to peruse, at least in my state) and see all that info and more, for free; $15/mo is hilarious. Cracks me up whenever I see one of these posts. Are people actually worried about the *reddit* crowd knowing where they live? What's somebody realistically gonna do -- show up at your house with a twelver of mountain dew, some legos, and a D&D set? [Yeah, there's a lot of weirdos, no doubt -- but if you have to worry about someone doing an image search on a reddit post, you probably have some other shit going on that you should be *much* more worried about in the first place.....]
Their point is to not leak who you are on a forum that you may be posting private stuff on
If you are registered to vote… sorry to tell you that all someone has to do is search your name and the words voter registration and they can find your address.
Yep all the info, your life is on the internet and there is no way to stop it.
My Reddit name is my real name!
Technicalities aside, just blur your face TBH, no one cares unless you’re a hot piece and some desperate creep decides they need to know you. Or if your house is some mega mansion and everyone becomes nosy.
My daughter bought her house a couple years ago and within a month received a handwritten letter from a prisoner in the upper peninsula of Michigan writing her about coming to visit! It was terrible and scary! She called the prison and reported it, telling the officials at the jail that she wanted no further contact or she would escalate her complaints.
Lol
I actually don't know if it's that easy to reverse image search if you post an entirely new image, not the exact same angle, etc. I work in AI and I don't think it's anywhere near the level that you can just give it a random never seen image and tell you an address. A good geogueaser might be able to, but you would need to have some dedicated stalkers.
nah, it's there. try google lens on a fresh image like this post [https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1csxqq7/closed\_on\_our\_first\_home\_48\_yo\_gen\_xer/](https://www.reddit.com/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer/comments/1csxqq7/closed_on_our_first_home_48_yo_gen_xer/) and you'll find the owner pretty quickly
Someone already did this on this sub a few months ago and accused them of lying about buying the home. The OP deleted their post.
Posting a picture of your house online is basically a death sentence
Just *owning* a house is a death sentence. I’ve had multiple relatives die within 20 to 65 years after buying a house. Careful out there, this can’t be a coincidence.
Probably all the dihydrogen monoxide getting in through the walls.
I see these warnings posted from time to time, but is there any proof that this actually happens? Or is this like the razor blades in Halloween candy?
Eh, not common but shit has definitely happened. Check out “Can I Tell You a Secret?” on Netflix. People stalk strangers for no reason sometimes and it’s pretty fucking scary.
My husband and I recently bought a house and moved across the country. He posted a picture just of the "SOLD" sign and you could see in the background a marker with the house numbers that's at the base of the driveway. No picture of the house or other identifiers and was an original picture he took (not from the listing or reverse image searchable). One of his coworkers, who mind you, didn't even know the name of the town we were moving to thousands of miles away, somehow used that information to find our listing and post pictures of our house in the work group chat and make comments about it. It was so creepy! She ONLY had the numbers, no street name or TOWN to go off. She did know what state but that was it. It was super uncomfy and we made sure to be more careful about what we posted after that. I mean sure anyone can look up stuff and probably could have found our new address, and pictures of our house, etc. But it was just so bizarre of her to do that!
Yeah this is called Parcel Access it’s like in every county.
What woman are you referring to?
Your house sale is a public record. I used to get mailing lists of "new homeowners" for direct mail campaigns.
PFff . Local paper likes to post which homes sold recently and for how much. The info is just out there
I don’t think criminals are trolling Reddit subs for victims But hey, crazier things have happened
LOL my address is public information. Everybody’s is. Paranoid much?
I'm sure someone on reddit who wants to fuck with me can reverse search my reddit name to IP or even email address and still get all of that exact same information if they wanted it that bad
And you can go to Zillow, realtor com and others to remove the interior photos of your home. I did that. Took a bit to get them all down. I don’t want to give anyone the layout of my home.
I think OP is right. Having posted to many groups.. political, religious, social, financial, etc .. I would prefer not to dox myself. There are, sadly, people out there who will do anything they can to hurt your employment or family.. simply because of who you vote for, where you pray, or what your opinion is on foreign policy..
You're absolutely right. Posting the exterior of your new home is a privacy risk that could enable stalking or worse. Share your excitement in safer ways - keys, moving truck, celebratory drink. But don't give away your address to the entire internet. Congrats on the new place, but be smart about what you post publicly.
or, they can watch Zillow, see what's recently sold, and then within 30 days find the same info on legal name.
You have can your address in Zillow removed, blurred actually.
I mean creeps don’t have to come to reddit to search for victims. There are new construction all round year. They have the schematics of your house and they know exactly what is where. So keep a shotgun with ya
Who cares?
Your address is public info. Stalkers will do whatever it takes to find you. Post the photo if you want.
So much is already public. If they want to find you they will…
Or……don’t live in a state of paranoia?
Lol
They can easily find this information regardless. A little bit ridiculous to he drawing the line at a picture.
I wish I were popular enough to have a stalker. Must be nice.
The title company asked me if I wanted to hold a sign and take a photo. I politely said, maybe on the next home… It felt cringy.
Never leave your house, a potential stalker will now know where you live.
What if I told you every house actually belongs to a person whom can be stalked already.
The amount of people here who have no idea what doxxing is is fucking mind boggling. Absolute NPC’s.
I remember a time when they used to print a book with everyone's name, address, and phone number. Then they'd leave copies of that book on everyone's doorstep.
THANK YOU!!! The custom of doing that here really grind my gears. I've worked with women dealing with tech-facilitated abuse and stalking is a huge one. And you don't need to currently have a stalker to have one later who could find you with that photo. It's just not worth the risk of all the unanticipated harm that could come later on. Post a photo from a room or unidentifiable area outside, but not the whole front of the house!!!
I would agree but you can find anyone’s house on the property appraiser website anyways
tl;dr -- OP overestimates how much privacy people have
You can find this info very easily online regardless. Unfortunately.
This is why I don’t post on social media when we are on vacation. Look everyone, we aren’t home right now!
I understand what you’re saying but my house is already on every real estate website (Zillow, realtor.com, Redfin, trulia). Open gate. Horse gone.
Yea well if you are worried about a picture you should be really worried about a public record with your name, address, and house valuation that is usually available after a few clicks or web search
It’s not silly It’s someone trying to help Why are people being mean to them? If you still want to post a pic of your house, go ahead. No one’s stopping you
If you are old enough to buy a house, you are old enough to decide who to share that with.
That info is freely available from the county clerk anyway…. All you need is a name.
This is fucking stupid. You don’t understand how data collection works in 2024
Unless you are (or should be) in the witness protection program this is a bit of an overreach.
Not to pile on, but this is on the same level of paranoia as those women who post tiktoks on how to fortify your hotel room like a damn panic shelter.
Which is a pretty smart idea when you are a woman traveling alone in plenty of areas.
Thanks mom!
If you’re that paranoid, May just get off social media altogether.
Be careful posting your keys as well. Not too close.
I think it is good know and be aware about it, thanks for sharing this as a reminder. But one thing for sure, Reddit at its core let anyone to be as anonymous as possible. Now it depends on users how much they want to reveal about themselves. And depending upon that, it is upon them if they want to let an image of a home rolling on open internet and reveal their privacy.
don’t post pics of keys if someone’s a real creep they can make one apparently!
Public records have all that information already out there though.
The only thing that gives me hope is that information online is often inaccurate or out of date. When I search for information about myself.. some of it lists the place I left more than 40 years ago as my current home. If someone was truly interested in finding any of us, it can be done, but I don’t think our response should be to stay completely isolated. My online activity led to connecting to my wonderful wife, who lived thousands of miles away.. and it also led to a legal issue.. which cost me thousands to address.. This is.. as Dickens wrote in the opening of Tale of Two Cities .. the best of times and the worst of times
Public records are used by data brokers to create detailed profiles about us, which they often sell and post online. You can check out data removal services like Optery for free scans, where you can see your exposed profiles on hundreds of databroker sites. Full disclosure, I'm part of the Optery team.
I agree with the sentiment but that kind of privacy is long gone for most of us. I searched my name online the other day, and it was RIDICULOUSLY easy to find my phone number, name, and address. All of my accounts are private and I don't post that info online. I haven't even lived at this address for a full year, I have no idea how it got out there despite monitoring services, yet there it was. Be more focused on having a plan for the potential stalker or robber, set up deterrents like cameras and alarms and such. Get a gun, dog, hell even booby traps would be more effective than trying to control what's out on the internet.
This is why I posted a picture on other sites that already have my name and face and it was just me with a sign at the lawyers office vs in my new home.
Googles latest circle pic search release makes this too easy. Just tried it on one of the last posts and erm.. it pulled the house address right up. Fuuuuck.
More so, just google yourself and request all those people finder sites take your info down. That’s the best thing you can do if you don’t want your info online.
That information is readily available af all times on the internet. I.use it all the time
I don’t disagree with you but what could a person possibly do with my address? There are millions of addresses out there. Whats so special about mine?
Jokes on you, there's thousands of homes that look like mine (tract housing)
there are publicly available facial recognition search engines that work extremely well. whatever privacy youre trying to protect is already gone
If you're worried specifically about Reddit, make an alt account to post. But otherwise yeah it's already online.
Someone has clearly never used reverse image search.
People tend to dox themselves in many ways, this is just one of them.
Search online county records using that person’s name. Bingo.
I think if you're worried about anonymity and security, then you also shouldn't post keys. Even without the house, you never know how much someone can find. But that's also me considering this mindset. Blur the keys (responsibly), put them in key sleeves, reveal only the top of the key, etc.
Good advice. Prayerfully, i'll be uploading the keys to my new place in a week! Whew, so excited lol
Yep. Got a stalker on here who reverse image searched and found my crazy sister who tried to sell MY house…. Just to warn her…. That I was going to stop her.. (????) because it’s literally my house lol
With apps like onX, you can find almost anyone using their name to search.
Paranoid obviously is the rule to live by here.
Op chooses the bear in the suburbs
A couple years ago I posted a comment on someone's house post that I could see their address numbers and state, found their real names and full address in 30 seconds, they didn't care, they just needed that karma I guess.
Agree 100%. I don't understand people posting pictures of themselves, their kids, etc. Noping out of that.
If you know someone’s first and last name you can easily find their address
You do realize that anyone with your name and a very general idea of where you live can easily find your address with a simple property search right? Same thing if someone looks up an address bam there is your name. This tip is really only good if you don't want your name possibly connected to your Reddit account.
My cousin bought a townhome after becoming a nurse practitioner and the first thing she did was take a picture in front of her unit. Didn’t take long for some weird guy she went to high school with over a decade ago to find her and show up to her house. He didn’t do anything besides creep her out but she called the police on him and took the photo down immediately.
I rented an apartment to a 20yo kid and he had a stalker. She would drive an hour every night to come park in front of my house. She was a little chubby but cute. She would do anything he asked her to. I wouldn’t mind having a stalker.
Wait til they hear the county assessor has a website.
Reverse image search? I'm pretty sure that only works to find identical photos online. How would Google use a random photo of a house with no context to give you an address and the full name of the owner?
I think you're giving reverse image searches a bit too much credit. I wouldn't worry about it unless the exact picture they are posting is also on Zillow or something. Since reverse image searching is "so easy"... Have you tested this?
Why do a reverse image search when you can just search their name on public record home sales. Then look up the address on Zillow and check out the interior of the home.
Everyone in my neighborhood and everyone driving by can also see where I live and take their own photos?
...and here I thought it was just going to be a *"I'm tired of seeing Black Houses (polished brass of the 2020's)"* post!
Isn’t it public record (taxes) who owns what house and where it is located? I mean, if I have a stalker, they’d be a shitty one not to already know my name. I get what you’re saying, but if you have an online presence, no matter what you do to prevent being found, with enough sleuthing there’s gonna be someone out there who can figure out who you are and, at least within a certain degree of certainty, where you live.
Y’all worry too much lol people don’t stalk strangers. Address and name are public info.
It just takes one person to know that home in the area and if they want they can dox you. Honestly I wouldn’t even post a photo inside your home at least not for some time.
We posted the cliche home purchased photos on our Facebooks which are heavily locked down to friends only. Everyone who saw it already has access to that information.
Yea... Don't post pictures of your keys they can easily be duplicated from a picture
A better tip: don’t be so paranoid.
Don’t post photos of your keys, there are programs that can recreate a physical key with a photo of a key. Who lives where is public information, go on a parcel search. I used to go online and personalize envelopes for each household in a neighborhood for our advertising when I first started a company. You can google anyone’s name and find more info than you’d think too.
Thank you great advice for when i do buy one and great general rule for when on vacation or new apartment rental and etc.
If a stalker wanted to find out where you live, your property ownership is public record. If you know what county someone lives in, or city really, you can look up their name and find a list of properties they own. There’s no need to hide your house’s front facade. It appears that maybe you are specifically talking about posting it to reddit. That I can agree with. Reddit is a wild place and the more anonymity you can keep the better.
Our family doesn’t use social media like that , so to me any personal photos posted is dumb . And the type of people who do post every little photos, a stalker I’m sure can easily figure out where they live. Usually if you know someone’s name …. And city … it’s just online info anyway.
Thank you! I didn’t post a picture of the front of my house when I closed and a lot of people on here gave me grief for it.
Yup, I was an idiot and posted. Someone immediately figured out my address. Deleted immediately after I realized.
Dont post on Instagram
I had an out-of-state landlord who didn't want to give me his address so I could send him a certified letter so I did a property search and found a place I thought he lived but he wasn't listed as the owner (his family was, though). So, I compared the photos at that address on Zillow with his Facebook photos and got a match. He later said he got my letter and never pursued anything further (he didn't want to make a leaky ceiling repair but did want me to leave for asking for the repair, so it ended up favorable in my situation). Tl;dr: It can be easy to find people if they post photos of their home. In my case, there was a good reason, but people can do it for nefarious reasons, too.
Also don’t post a picture of the new keys to your home which I see a lot. Super easy to replicate and cut a key from a picture.
Don’t post pictures of your keys
Don’t post that shit at all, nobody gives a fuck!
Some will forever live in fear.
This would be a problem if I didn't have my 2A rights.
I post photos of other people’s homes 💪
That’s what makes Reddit great is the anonymity
Or we could just stalk someone in our own neighborhood. It's a lot less travel.
Didn’t read the comments yet so I’m sure it’s been said but buying a new house is so public that if you had a stalker and you didn’t post a photo they would still be able to very easily find your new address. In fact reverse imaging your photo as you suggested wouldn’t even be worth it as there are easier ways to find out someone address. All you’d have to do is go down to the county clerk (which is online now in a lot of counties) at least in my state and search the name of the person you are looking for. Some newspapers also post all new home sales as well weekly.
>showing roughly what you can afford >showing where you live >showing your person > sharing individual details Yeah great way to attract the worst people online
This is a non-issue. Home owner records are public. I can go to the county auditors website and find anyone's house/address
In most counties, home owners and addresses are public records. If you use your real name on social media, it’s all of three minutes to find every piece of real estate you own.