What photos are shown on a listing?

Photos do a lot of work in a listing: they help a buyer picture the space, the equipment, and the general condition of the business before deciding whether to inquire further. Deavo treats photos as public content by default, which is a deliberate choice worth understanding alongside the platform’s blind-listing rules.

Why photos are public by default

A listing with no photos, or with every photo hidden until after a non-disclosure agreement, tells a buyer almost nothing and discourages genuine interest before it can even form. Making photos visible by default lets a buyer actually evaluate whether the opportunity fits what they are looking for, which is most of what a photo is for in the first place.

When a seller marks a photo hidden

A seller or broker can mark any individual photo as hidden rather than public, most often because that particular image shows something identifying, such as visible signage with the business’s name, a storefront a local competitor would recognize, or an interior detail tied closely to the specific address. Marking a photo hidden is a per-photo choice, not an all-or-nothing setting.

How a hidden photo becomes visible

A photo marked hidden is treated the same way as other gated identifying information: it becomes visible once a buyer has gone through the non-disclosure step for that listing. Until then, that specific image simply does not appear, while every other photo the seller left public still shows normally to anyone browsing.

What this means in practice for a seller

Most sellers can leave the majority of their photos public, since interior shots, equipment and general workspace rarely identify a specific business on their own, and reserve hiding for the handful of images that genuinely would. Thinking through which photos actually reveal something identifying, rather than hiding everything by habit, gets more genuine interest without giving up real confidentiality.