Privacy Policy

This site, mikewatsonrealtor.com, is operated by Mike Watson, a California licensed real estate salesperson, DRE #01712313, affiliated with Keller Williams Realty. Throughout this policy, "we" and "I" mean Mike Watson.

Keller Williams Realty is the responsible broker for this real estate practice and maintains its own privacy practices covering brokerage records and transaction files. This policy covers this website and the tools hosted on it.

1401 West Rancho Vista Blvd Suite B, Palmdale CA 93551
(661) 733-2196 · mike@avwatson.com

Information you give us directly

When you request a home value estimate, ask about a property, request a seller net sheet, send a message, or otherwise fill out a form on this site, we collect what you type into it. Depending on the form that means:

• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number, when you choose to provide one
• A property address, when the tool you are using is about a specific home
• Anything you write in a free-text message or comment field

Account information

Some tools require an account. If you have one, we store your email address, your display name, and your preferences. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are stored as salted hashes. We never see or store your password in readable form.

Activity inside your account

If you are signed in, the site records how you use it so that saved searches, alerts, and recommendations work. That includes your saved searches and alert frequency, homes you favorite, listings you open, and feedback you submit after a showing. If you are working with me as a client, I can see this activity. That is the point of the tool, and it is worth knowing up front.

Information collected automatically

Like nearly every website, this one records basic technical information when you visit: IP address, browser and device type, the pages you view, the time of your visit, and the site or search that referred you. This is collected through Google Analytics and through ordinary server logs.

• To answer you. If you send a question or request a valuation, I use your contact information to respond.
• To deliver the thing you asked for, such as a home value report, a net sheet, or listing alerts matching a search you saved.
• To provide real estate services if you become a client, including sharing information with the parties a transaction requires.
• To keep the site working: diagnosing errors, preventing spam and abuse, and understanding which pages are useful.
• To comply with California real estate law and record-keeping requirements.

We do not sell your personal information. We do not rent or trade contact lists, and we do not hand your information to unrelated companies for their own marketing.

We share personal information only with the service providers that make this site run, and only to the extent each one needs it to do its job. Those providers act on our instructions and are not permitted to use your information for their own purposes. The categories:

• Website hosting and data storage: the providers that run the site and hold the database, accounts, and uploaded files.
• Analytics: aggregate traffic measurement, so we can see which pages are useful.
• Maps and location services: drawing maps and looking up addresses.
• Email delivery: sending the email you receive from this site.
• Spam and abuse prevention: screening form submissions for automated abuse.
• AI processing: some summarization and search features send text to an AI provider for processing. That text is not used to train their models.
• Document storage: transaction documents, accessible only to me and the parties to your transaction.
• Brokerage and transaction parties: Keller Williams Realty, and, if you are in a transaction, the escrow, title, lender, and cooperating brokerage that transaction requires.

If you want to know which specific company sits behind any category above, ask and we will tell you.

We will also disclose information if the law requires it, such as in response to a subpoena or court order, or where necessary to protect someone's safety.

This site uses cookies. Some are strictly necessary, such as the cookie that keeps you signed in. Others come from Google Analytics and help us see which pages get used. You can block or delete cookies in your browser settings, though the signed-in parts of the site will not work correctly without the necessary ones.

To opt out of Google Analytics specifically, you can install Google's official opt-out browser add-on.

Do Not Track.Some browsers can send a "Do Not Track" signal. There is no common industry standard for what a site must do when it receives one, and this site does not currently change its behavior in response to it. We are telling you this because California law requires us to disclose it either way.

Tracking by others. Google Analytics, as a third party, may collect information about your browsing on this site over time. We do not permit third parties to collect personally identifiable information about your activity across other, unrelated websites through this site.

You can ask to see the personal information we hold about you, correct it, or have it deleted. Email mike@avwatson.com or call (661) 733-2196. I handle these personally and will respond within 30 days. There is no fee.

A few limits worth stating honestly. If you have been a party to a real estate transaction with me, California law and brokerage policy require records of that transaction to be retained for at least three years, so those cannot be deleted on request. Deleting your account information also ends any saved searches and alerts attached to it.

• Email alerts: every alert email has an unsubscribe link, and the preferences page linked from it lets you change frequency instead of stopping entirely.
• Marketing email: reply to any message and ask to be removed, and you will be.
• Account data: sign in and edit your profile and alert preferences at any time.

Text messages. This site does not send text messages. If that ever changes, it will require your express written consent first, collected on the form where you give us your number, and this policy will be updated before the first message goes out.

California Shine the Light. California Civil Code 1798.83 lets California residents ask a business whether it shared personal information with third parties for those parties' own direct marketing. We do not, but you are welcome to ask us to confirm it in writing at the address above.

We keep information for as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for. Inquiry and lead records are kept while there is an active or reasonably foreseeable working relationship. Transaction records are kept for the period California real estate law requires. Analytics data expires on Google's standard retention schedule.

Data is transmitted over encrypted connections and stored with access controls that limit it to me and the service providers listed above. No system is perfectly secure, and we will not claim otherwise. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as California law requires.

This site is meant for adults buying and selling homes. It is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. If you believe a child has given us information, contact us and we will delete it.

Property listings shown on this site come from the multiple listing services we participate in and belong to the listing brokers and the MLS, not to us. That data describes homes, not site visitors, and this policy does not govern it.

This site also links to other websites. Once you follow a link off this site, the destination's privacy policy applies, not this one.

If this policy changes, the effective date at the top of the page changes with it, and the updated version is posted here. If a change materially affects how we handle information already collected from you, we will say so prominently on this page for at least 30 days, and will email account holders directly.