This Privacy Policy explains how Idaho Starts Here collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you visit www.idahostartshere.com, use its planning tools, search real estate listings, or submit an inquiry.
Idaho Starts Here is a North Idaho real estate website operated by Jen Lenz, REALTOR®, with CENTURY 21 RiverStone.
This policy is a practical disclosure based on how the website currently works. It is not legal advice, and publishing this page does not by itself establish compliance with every privacy law that may apply to you or to the site operator.
1. Site Operator
- Website: https://www.idahostartshere.com
- Operator: Jen Lenz, REALTOR®
- Brokerage: CENTURY 21 RiverStone
- Office address: 305 N First Ave, Sandpoint, ID 83864
- Contact email: jen@idahostartshere.com
- Phone: (208) 819-0402
2. Scope
This policy applies to the public Idaho Starts Here website, including:
- Homepage, buy and sell landing pages, and community pages
- Listing search and property detail pages
- Buyers Guide, Sellers Guide, and Relocation Guide
- Mortgage calculator and other on-page planning tools
- Blog and testimonials pages
- Contact, property inquiry, and consultation forms
- Browser-local checklist and worksheet tools on guide pages
- The Listings Start Here™ buyer portal (account registration, saved searches, favorites, showings, and related buyer tools at https://www.idahostartshere.com/listings-start-here/)
It does not apply to third-party websites linked from this site, such as government agencies, schools, lenders, utility providers, social platforms, or MLS photo hosts. Those sites have their own policies and practices.
3. Listings Start Here™ Buyer Portal
The Listings Start Here™ portal is a password-protected area for registered buyers. If you create an account, we may collect and store:
- Name, email address, and account credentials (stored as a secure password hash)
- Email verification and password-reset activity
- Favorites, recently viewed listings, saved searches, and MLS match history
- Notification and digest preferences, including pause settings
- Jen's recommendations sent to your account and your viewed/unseen status
- Showing requests, preferred times, responses, rescheduling activity, and showing feedback
- Buyer notes, property ratings, shortlist choices, comparison selections, and follow-up requests
- Security logs related to login attempts, rate limiting, and signed email or action links
Portal visibility. Listings Start Here portal activity may be viewed by Jen and authorized Idaho Starts Here personnel to provide personalized real estate assistance. This may include account status, saved searches, favorites, match activity, recommendations, showing coordination, and information you choose to share.
Private by default. Buyer notes, ratings, shortlist choices, and showing feedback are private by default unless you explicitly choose to share them with Jen through the portal's sharing controls.
Showing requests. Showing-request information is used to coordinate appointments. Requested times are not confirmed until Jen responds through the portal or direct communication.
Email from the portal. The portal sends transactional emails (verification, password reset, showing updates, and similar account messages) and optional listing-alert emails based on your saved-search and notification settings. You can adjust many alert preferences in the portal.
What we do not collect through the portal. The portal is not designed to collect Social Security numbers, bank-account numbers, loan documents, or detailed lender underwriting files. Do not submit highly sensitive financial documents through portal forms.
Attorney review recommended: Final privacy language for the buyer portal should be reviewed by qualified counsel.
4. Information You Provide
When you submit a form, you may provide some or all of the following, depending on the form:
- Name, email address, and phone number
- Current city or state
- Property address or general area of interest
- Preferred communities, property type, price range, or timeframe
- Financing stage, employment or relocation context, and inquiry message
- Preferred contact method and consent to be contacted
- Listing ID, property URL, or showing preferences on property inquiry forms
Not every form collects every field listed above.
Please do not submit highly sensitive information through public website forms, including Social Security numbers, bank-account numbers, credit-card numbers, login credentials, medical records, or detailed financial documents. The public forms are not designed to collect those categories.
5. Information Collected Automatically
Like most websites, this site may automatically receive or generate technical information when you visit, including:
- IP address
- Browser type and version
- Device type and operating system
- Referring page or link
- Pages requested and approximate timestamps
- Standard web-server access logs and error logs
On guide pages only, the site may also store browser-local usage events such as section views, checklist use, print actions, and consultation-form interaction markers. Those events are described further below and are not sent to the site’s server by default.
We do not describe this technical information as “anonymous” when it can reasonably be associated with a device, session, IP address, or persistent browser storage.
6. Cookies and Local Browser Storage
The site uses a small number of first-party technologies and some third-party technologies connected to spam protection and content delivery.
This table scrolls horizontally on smaller screens.
| Technology | Purpose | Party | Persistence | Required? | Stores form or financial content? | How to remove |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHP session cookie (ish_admin_session) | Security and form functionality | First-party | Session (browser session) | Required for CSRF protection, form state, and submission rate limiting | Does not store inquiry message text | Clear site cookies in your browser or end your session |
| Guide checklist progress (localStorage) | Saves checklist completion on Buyers, Sellers, and Relocation guides | First-party / browser only | Until you clear browser storage | Optional convenience feature | Stores checklist item states only | Clear site data or browser storage for this site |
| Guide planning tools (localStorage) | Saves relocation fit, budget, scouting notes, broadband worksheet, and timeline progress | First-party / browser only | Until you clear browser storage | Optional convenience feature | May store user-entered planning notes and budget figures locally on your device | Clear site data or browser storage for this site |
| Guide usage events (localStorage: ish_analytics_events) | Records guide interaction events in the browser only | First-party / browser only | Rolling buffer of up to 200 events | Optional / not required to use the site | Does not store names, email, phone, or form message content | Clear site data or browser storage for this site |
| Google reCAPTCHA | Spam and abuse prevention on forms | Third-party (Google) | Set by Google according to its policies | Required when submitting protected forms | Does not store your inquiry text in site code; Google may receive technical signals | Managed through Google settings and browser cookie controls |
Relocation budget values, checklist progress, and worksheet notes saved through localStorage remain on your device unless you clear them. They are not transmitted to the website server through those tools.
7. First-Party Guide Analytics (Browser Local Only)
Buyers Guide, Sellers Guide, and Relocation Guide pages include a lightweight first-party event logger named ishTrack. Based on current site code:
- Events are stored only in your browser’s localStorage under the key
ish_analytics_events - Up to 200 recent events are retained locally; older events are removed
- Events may include page views, section reached, checklist use, print actions, consultation-form start markers, and similar interaction labels
- Events are not transmitted to the website server and are not stored in the site database
- The logger is not used on every page — only on guide pages that load the guides JavaScript bundle
The site does not currently use Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Meta Pixel, Hotjar, Microsoft Clarity, or similar third-party marketing analytics platforms.
The guide analytics system is not intended to collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, freeform inquiry text, exact property addresses entered in forms, relocation budget amounts, or mortgage calculator inputs.
8. Contact and Real Estate Inquiries
Information you submit through contact, property inquiry, buyer consultation, seller consultation, or relocation consultation forms may be used to:
- Respond to your request
- Communicate about properties or communities
- Schedule or prepare for a consultation
- Provide requested real estate information
- Prevent spam, abuse, and automated submissions
- Maintain ordinary business records related to inquiries
- Address security, legal, or operational needs
Submitting a form does not by itself create a buyer representation agreement, listing agreement, agency relationship, brokerage contract, or guarantee of representation.
Based on current implementation, most consultation submissions are delivered by email and are not stored in the website database. The main contact form also writes limited submission metadata to server-side log files as described below.
9. MLS and Property Information
Listing information displayed on this site may originate from MLS or listing-data providers, participating brokers, listing agents, and related property-data systems. Property photographs may load from third-party image hosts associated with the listing feed.
When your browser requests listing photos or other third-party resources, those providers may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser type, and requested URL.
Idaho Starts Here does not claim ownership of third-party MLS listing content or listing photographs.
10. reCAPTCHA and Spam Protection
Protected forms use Google reCAPTCHA v3. When reCAPTCHA is active, information needed to evaluate whether a submission appears human — which may include IP address, browser characteristics, and interaction signals — may be transmitted to Google for analysis under Google’s policies.
11. Email and Service Providers
To operate the website, information may be processed by service providers such as:
- Web hosting and infrastructure providers
- Email / SMTP providers used to deliver form submissions
- Google reCAPTCHA, when enabled on forms
- MLS / listing-data providers and related photo hosts
- Google Fonts and content-delivery networks used to load fonts or scripts
These providers process information only as needed to provide their services to the site or to deliver content to your browser.
12. How Information Is Used
Information is used for actual site and business purposes, including:
- Responding to inquiries and consultation requests
- Providing requested property or community information
- Operating forms, guides, listing search, and calculators
- Maintaining site security and preventing spam or abuse
- Improving navigation, content, and feature usability
- Diagnosing technical problems
- Maintaining business records
- Complying with legal obligations and protecting rights where applicable
13. Information Sharing
Information may be shared in limited circumstances, including with:
- Jen Lenz and brokerage personnel who need it to respond to a request
- Website hosting, email, security, and maintenance providers
- MLS or listing-data systems only as necessary to display listing content
- Law enforcement or other authorities when required by law or to protect rights, safety, or property
- A successor entity in connection with a legitimate business transfer, if applicable
Based on current site operations, Idaho Starts Here does not sell or rent personal information and does not use site forms to collect information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
Sharing with hosting, email, spam-protection, and listing-data providers is not the same as “never sharing information.”
14. Data Retention
- Form submissions: Most consultation and property inquiries are delivered by email and retained according to the operator’s email and business-record practices. They are not stored in the public website database.
- Main contact form logs: Limited metadata may be retained in server-side log files (approximately Approximately the most recent 100 submission metadata entries for submission logs and Approximately the most recent 200 diagnostic entries for diagnostic logs). These logs are not intended to store full message bodies.
- Rate-limit records: Hashed IP submission counters may be stored for about 15 minutes to enforce a limit of 5 submission attempts per form per visitor context.
- Server and error logs: Standard hosting and PHP error logs may retain IP addresses, URLs, and technical error information according to hosting configuration.
- Browser localStorage: Guide checklists, worksheets, and local analytics events remain on your device until you clear them.
- Buyer portal records: Account, activity, saved searches, showings, and related portal data are retained while the account is active and according to ordinary business, security, and legal requirements.
- MLS database: The site database stores listing, portal, and site-configuration data.
15. Data Security
The site uses reasonable safeguards that may include HTTPS, CSRF tokens, honeypot fields, minimum submission timing, rate limiting, reCAPTCHA when enabled, input validation, header sanitization, restricted administrative access, and authenticated SMTP for email delivery.
No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and absolute security cannot be guaranteed. If a security incident involving personal information requires notification under applicable law, legally required notices will be provided where applicable.
16. Children’s Privacy
This website is directed to adults interested in real estate information and services. It is not intended for children under 13, and personal information from children under 13 is not knowingly collected through the public site.
If you believe a child under 13 submitted personal information through this site, contact us using the information below so the submission can be reviewed and handled appropriately.
17. External Links
This site links to many external resources, including government agencies, schools, healthcare providers, utilities, lenders, community organizations, and social platforms. Those websites control their own privacy practices.
18. Your Choices and Requests
You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of inquiry information you submitted, subject to legal, security, and business-record requirements. Depending on where you live and the circumstances, you may have additional privacy rights.
Use the contact form at /contact.php and note that your message is a privacy request, or email the address shown below.
Email: jen@idahostartshere.com
19. Policy Changes
This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. The effective date and last updated date at the top of this page identify the current version. Material changes may also be reflected on this page when practicable.
20. Contact
Privacy questions or requests may be sent to jen@idahostartshere.com or through the contact form with a note that the message is a privacy request.