Most buyers begin their home search online. They run a quick search on sites like Zillow or Redfin, and for the most part, they can see much of the same basic listing information that Realtors can see.

But some of that information may soon be less visible.

Bright MLS, the primary MLS used by real estate professionals throughout Northern Virginia, DC, and Maryland, recently announced new options designed to give sellers more control over how their listings appear on public websites.

Sellers will have two new choices:

Photo suppression: At the seller’s request, all but one exterior photo can be hidden from public-facing websites.

Price suppression: Sellers can choose not to display the listing price publicly.

The complete listing information will still be available to real estate professionals inside Bright MLS. So an agent may be able to see the full photo gallery and listing details even when someone searching on a public website cannot.

My first reaction is that I like sellers having more options. There are situations where someone may want additional privacy or may not want the inside of their home displayed across the internet.

At the same time, real estate marketing is largely about making it easy for buyers to understand a property and become interested in it. Photos and pricing are two of the biggest pieces of that process.

For buyers, this is another reminder that the information available on public real estate websites may not always be the complete picture. Working with a Realtor could become even more important if you want access to everything available inside the MLS.

It is an interesting shift in how real estate information is being shared with consumers, and I’ll be keeping an eye on how this affects the market.

Would you ever hide your home’s interior photos or asking price from public websites? I would be curious to hear what you think.