The Legal Bit, In Plain English
Privacy Policy
What we collect, why we collect it, who sees it, and how to tell us to stop. Last updated: August 23, 2026.
The short version: we collect what we need to answer your question and help you find a place. We do not sell your information, we do not hand it to a lender or another agent unless you tell us to, and you can ask us to delete it at any time. If anything below is unclear, call and ask — a real person answers.
1. Who we are
This site (research.shawnwilmoth.com, askresi.com and askbusi.com — one platform, three front doors) is operated by Shawn Wilmoth, REALTOR® and CCIM · Broker, of United Real Estate Solutions in Knoxville, Tennessee. TN Lic #354366 · Firm Lic #263628.
2. What you give us
- A question. The whole site is built to let you ask something before you tell us who you are. If you ask a question and stop there, all we have is the question.
- Contact details, when you choose to give them. Your name, email and phone, and whatever you told us you are looking for — the towns, the price range, what matters to you about a place.
- A sign-in. If you make an account, you sign in with Google. We receive your name, email address and Google's account identifier, and that is all. We do not have a password field anywhere on this platform, so there is no password of yours for us to lose.
- Files, if you upload them. Documents and forms you send through your client portal, and a logo if you put one on a QR code.
3. What the site collects on its own
Standard technical information — the pages you read, your browser and device type, and roughly where you are from your network address. Here is everything this site stores in your browser:
| Name | Set by | What it does |
|---|---|---|
askresi.sid (session storage, not a cookie) | This site | A random number, made fresh in each browsing session, that lets us see where people get stuck on the way to a form. It holds no name, email or phone number, it is gone when you close the tab, and it cannot follow you across days or sites. |
qrhub.token (local storage, not a cookie) | This site | Kept only if you sign in to the QR hub or your client portal — it is what keeps you signed in. Clearing your browser storage signs you out. |
askresi.adclick (local storage, not a cookie) | This site | Written only if you arrive from one of our own ads (a Google or Facebook link with a click tag on it). It remembers which ad brought you — nothing else, and only in your own browser. We never send it anywhere unless you create a QR account, at which point it tells us which ad introduced us, once. It is first-party only: no ad network can read it, and clearing your browser storage removes it. |
You can clear or block any of it in your browser settings and the site still works.
4. QR code scans
If you scan one of our clients' QR codes, we count the scan and record roughly what town the scan came from and whether it was a phone or a computer. We do not keep your IP address, we do not store a coordinate, and there is no identifier that links one scan to another. You scanned a sign in a yard; you did not agree to anything, and we have built it so that there is nothing about you to hand over.
5. How we use it
- To answer your question and to show you places that fit what you told us matters.
- To send you what you asked for, and nothing you did not.
- To do our job as your agent if you become a client — contracts, disclosures, scheduling, and the paperwork the State of Tennessee requires us to keep.
- To see which guides people actually read, so we write more of the useful ones.
What we never do: we do not match you to homes or areas on race, colour, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation or gender identity, and we do not steer. The AI on this site is instructed the same way. That is the Fair Housing Act, and it is also Article 10 of the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, which we hold ourselves to whether or not anyone is checking.
6. Who we share it with
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not rent, trade or lend it. We share only what a service needs to do a job for us:
| Who | What they get |
|---|---|
| Google (sign-in) | Confirms it is really you signing in. We never see your Google password. |
| Stripe (payments) | Card and billing details, entered on Stripe's own checkout. Your full card number never reaches us and we never store it. |
| Our email provider | Your email address, so a message can reach you. |
| Our CRM and MLS systems | Client records, where the MLS or Tennessee law requires an agent to keep them. |
Lenders and other agents: we will introduce you to a lender, inspector or another agent only if you ask us to. We are not paid for referring you, and no one pays us for your name. If that ever changes we will say so on this page and in writing before it applies to you — that is what RESPA requires, and it is the honest way round.
7. Confidentiality — the part the Code of Ethics governs
If you become our client, what you tell us is confidential. Not "confidential except when it is useful to us" — confidential. Standard of Practice 1-9 of the REALTOR® Code of Ethics requires a REALTOR® to preserve confidential information from a client relationship, and it says plainly that the duty continues after the relationship ends. Your motivation for selling, the least you would accept, your finances, what you said about your marriage or your job — none of that leaves us, this year or in ten years.
The exceptions are the ones the Code itself sets out and no others: when you tell us in writing to disclose it, when a court orders it, or when staying silent would conceal a fraud. Tennessee also requires us to disclose known adverse material facts about a property — that is about the house, never about you.
8. Advertising, and sponsors
Where a business pays to appear on this site, it is labelled as an advertisement in plain words, in the same place, every time. Nothing paid is dressed up as our recommendation or as editorial. Article 12 of the REALTOR® Code of Ethics requires a true picture in advertising and a clear identification of who is behind it, and we would rather a sponsor's message be obviously a sponsor's message than mistaken for ours.
9. Text messages
We are not sending text messages yet. When we do, the rules are written out in full on our Text Message Policy — the short version is that it is opt-in only, never a condition of anything, and your mobile number is never shared with anyone.
10. Your choices
- See it, fix it, delete it. Email us and we will tell you what we hold, correct it, or delete it. No hoops, no form.
- Stop the emails. Every email has an unsubscribe link and it works immediately. Or just reply and say stop.
- Delete your account. Ask, and it goes — along with what is in it.
- Block the tracking. Clear your browser storage, or block cookies.
Some states give people extra rights over their information. We will honour the same requests for everyone regardless of where you live, because keeping two standards would mean deciding which people deserve the better one.
11. Keeping it safe, and how long we keep it
The site runs over an encrypted connection. Staff sign in with Google — there are no passwords on this platform to be stolen, reused or leaked. Access to client information is limited to the people whose job needs it. We keep transaction records for as long as Tennessee real-estate law requires, and everything else until you ask us to remove it. No system is perfectly secure, and we will tell you promptly and plainly if something goes wrong rather than managing the news.
12. Children
This site is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect information from anyone under 13. If you think a child has given us something, tell us and we will delete it.
13. Changes
If we change this policy we will change the date at the top and note anything material here. We will not quietly widen what we do with your information and rely on you not reading it again.
14. Contact
Shawn Wilmoth — REALTOR® ·
CCIM · Broker
United Real Estate Solutions · TN Lic #354366 · Firm Lic #263628
308 N. Peters Rd, Suite 225, Knoxville, TN 37922
Email: Shawn@ShawnWilmoth.com
Phone: (865) 444-2400
Equal Housing Opportunity. We do business in accordance with the Fair Housing Act and welcome all.