Privacy Policy

Sweetwater and its affiliates (collectively, “Sweetwater,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) want you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information. This Privacy Policy describes our practices in connection with information that we collect about you as an individual consumer or you as a Sweetwater Agent (“you”) through:

• Our website at https://sweetwatermultifamily.com, and other Sweetwater-branded websites and web-based applications we operate from which you are accessing this Privacy Policy (each, a “Sweetwater Website” and collectively, the “Sweetwater Websites”),
• Sweetwater-branded mobile applications made available by us on or through mobile devices that link to this Privacy Policy (each, a “Sweetwater App” and collectively, the “Sweetwater Apps”),
• Online contact or survey forms that we send to you by email, or that you access from Sweetwater Websites or Sweetwater Apps,
• HTML-formatted email messages that we send to you that link to this Privacy Policy,
• Information you may provide to us directly via email or other electronic communication methods, and
• Offline interactions you have with us.

Collectively, we refer to all of the above as the “Services.” All references to “including” in this Privacy Policy shall be construed as meaning “including without limitation.”

Sweetwater is a real estate franchisor. We license the use of our name to independently owned franchisees to operate real estate brokerage offices (each, a “Sweetwater Market Center”). These Sweetwater Market Centers enter relationships with real estate agents who are their independent contractors (each, a “Sweetwater Agent”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to the privacy practices of any products or services, including real estate brokerage services, offered or provided to you by a Sweetwater Market Center or their Sweetwater Agents (collectively, the “Other Services”), regardless of whether the Other Services were initiated by your interactions with a Sweetwater Website, Sweetwater App, or directly with a Sweetwater Market Center or their Sweetwater Agent(s). Sweetwater does not monitor or control the privacy practices of Sweetwater Market Centers or their Sweetwater Agents and is not responsible or liable to you for their independent use of any Sweetwater Websites or Sweetwater Apps. Please consult with the applicable Sweetwater Market Center(s) or their Sweetwater Agent(s) to learn more about their privacy practices that apply to their provision of the Other Services to you.

Section 1: Personal Information

“Personal Information” is information that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. The categories of Personal Information we may collect depends on your relationship with Sweetwater. We may collect Personal Information from you via the Services when you choose to share it with us, including the following categories.

For individual consumers:

• Identifiers, such as a real name, postal address, Internet Protocol address (“IP Address”), date of birth, email address, telephone number, account name, or other similar identifiers, along with any other Personal Information you share with us while using our Services which is not covered by a category below,
• Commercial information, such as your real estate buying/selling interests or preferences,
• Financial information, such as your mortgage loan balance, payment card number, billing address, and related financial information, when you choose to share them with us,
• Geolocation data, which may be derived from your IP address or mobile device,
• Information from your device, such as your location, when you choose to share them with us,
• Account information, including your account log-in information for third-party websites, services, or applications, like Facebook and Google, when you choose to link these accounts to Sweetwater Websites or Sweetwater Apps, and
• Other Information (as defined below), to the extent we are required to treat such information as Personal Information under applicable law.

For Sweetwater Agents:

• Identifiers, such as a real name, postal address, IP Address, date of birth, email address, telephone number, account name, or other similar identifiers,
• Protected classification characteristics and sensitive Personal Information, such as your Social Security number, veteran or military status, gender identity, ethnicity and primary language,
• Financial information, such as your bank account number, payment card number, billing address, and related financial information, when you choose to share them with us,
• Professional or employment-related information, such as your current occupation, level of completed education, and realtor license number,
• Geolocation data, which may be derived from your IP Address or mobile device,
• Information from your device, such as your device’s contacts, photos, and location, when you choose to share them with us,
• Account information, including your account log-in information for third-party websites, services, or applications, like Facebook and Google, and
• Other Information (as defined below), to the extent we are required to treat such information as Personal Information under applicable law.

Collection of Personal Information

We and our service providers collect Personal Information in a variety of ways, including directly through the Services when you provide it to us (for example, when you fill out a user profile, register an account, submit an online contact form, request a market analysis of your home, or contact us by telephone or email); automatically when you use the Services (for example, through our use of cookies, pixel tags, and other similar technologies as described in the “Other Information” section below); and from other sources, including Sweetwater Market Centers or their Sweetwater Agents, publicly available databases, and joint marketing vendors. We collect Personal Information in order to provide the requested Services to you, to improve upon our existing Services, and to develop new products or services. If you choose not to provide the Personal Information requested by us, we may not be able to provide you with the Services you requested.

Use of Personal Information

We and our service providers use Personal Information for the following legitimate business purposes: providing the functionality of the Services and fulfilling your requests (such as arranging access to your registered account, responding to your inquiries, sending administrative information, and allowing you to send messages to another person through the Services); providing you with marketing materials and facilitating social sharing; analyzing Personal Information for business reporting and providing personalized services; allowing you to participate in sweepstakes, contests, or other promotions; aggregating or anonymizing Personal Information; and accomplishing our legitimate business purposes such as data analysis, audits, fraud and security monitoring, developing new products and services, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, and operating and expanding our business activities.

We do not engage in automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects on individuals. Any profiling used for personalizing Services is based on our legitimate interest in providing relevant content to you.

Disclosure of Personal Information

If you are a Sweetwater Agent or an individual consumer, we may disclose some or all Personal Information categories identified in this Privacy Policy to our affiliates; to our third-party service providers and vendors to perform functions on our behalf (such as data analysis, payment processing, order fulfillment, information technology, user support, email delivery, and auditing); to our Sweetwater Market Centers or their Sweetwater Agents where you have completed an online contact form or otherwise requested such sharing; to third-party sponsors of sweepstakes, contests, and other similar promotions; and to our third-party vendors or business partners for their own marketing purposes, consistent with your choices. By using the Services, you may also elect to disclose Personal Information to us, our affiliates, or the general public (for example, on message boards, chat, blogs, and other services to which you can voluntarily post information).

If you are a Sweetwater Agent, we may also disclose Personal Information to our Sweetwater regional representatives, to other Sweetwater Agents (within our electronic systems) for Sweetwater Agent networking, and to other members of any Sweetwater Division/Community (e.g., Sweetwater Commercial, Sweetwater Land, Sweetwater Luxury) you join for member networking.

Mobile information and SMS consent. No mobile information will be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. All of the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties, except the service providers (such as our SMS platform provider, RingCentral) that deliver text messages on our behalf.

As of the date identified in the “Effective Date” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy, we do not “sell” Personal Information (as such terms are defined under applicable law).

Other Uses and Disclosures

We also use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary or appropriate, in particular when we have a legal obligation or legitimate business interest to do so: to comply with applicable law and regulations; to cooperate with public and government authorities; to cooperate with law enforcement; for other legal reasons, including to enforce our terms and conditions and to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, or that of our affiliates, yours, or others; and in connection with a sale or business transaction, such as any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock.

Section 2: Other Information

“Other Information” is any information that does not reveal your specific identity, including browser and device information, app usage data, information collected through cookies, clear gifs, pixel tags, single-pixel gifs, and other similar technologies, demographic information, and information that has been aggregated in a manner such that it no longer reveals your specific identity.

We and our service providers may collect Other Information through your browser or device, through your use of Sweetwater Apps, using cookies, using pixel tags and other similar technologies, and by collecting the physical location of your device. Cookies allow us to collect information including browser type, time spent on the Services, pages visited, language preferences, and other traffic data, which we use for security purposes, to facilitate navigation, to display information more effectively, to improve the Services, and to personalize your experience. We do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, most browsers allow you to automatically decline cookies. You can learn more about our cookie practices by contacting us as described in the “Contacting Us” section below.

We may use analytics services, including Google Analytics, which uses cookies and similar technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Services. You can learn about Google’s practices at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites, and exercise the opt-out provided by Google by downloading the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on, available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We may use and disclose Other Information for any purpose, except where otherwise required under applicable law. In some instances, we may combine Other Information with Personal Information; if we do, we will treat the combined information as Personal Information as long as it is combined.

Section 3: Security

We seek to use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures to protect Personal Information within our organization. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, or if you believe you have identified a security vulnerability, please immediately notify us in accordance with the “Contacting Us” section below.

Section 4: Choices and Access; Privacy Rights

Opting Out of Marketing Communications

We give you choices regarding our use of your Personal Information for marketing purposes. You may opt-out from receiving marketing-related emails from us via the opt-out link in the message itself or by sending an email to [email protected]. If you would like to opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from one of our Sweetwater Market Centers or their Sweetwater Agents, please contact the applicable Sweetwater Market Center or their Sweetwater Agents directly. Please note that you cannot opt-out of receiving transactional emails from us.

How you can access, change, or delete your Personal Information

Consumer privacy laws or regulations in certain jurisdictions may provide their residents with additional rights regarding our use of Personal Information. The following applies solely to individuals who reside in specific jurisdictions that provide consumers with additional privacy rights, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia, and the European Union, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. For consumers who do not reside in these specific jurisdictions, if you would like to request we delete any Personal Information about you that we collected and retained, please email your request to [email protected].

• Right to Access Specific Information and Data Portability Right. You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of Personal Information over the past twelve (12) months.
• Right to Correct Information. You have the right to request we update Personal Information about you that is incorrect in our systems.
• Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete any Personal Information about you that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Opt-out of the sale of Personal Information or sharing of Personal Information for Cross-Contextual Behavioral Advertising. As of the Effective Date, we do not “sell” or share Personal Information for cross-contextual behavioral advertising purposes. Should our practices change, you may exercise your right to opt-out at any time by contacting us at [email protected].
• Right to Limit Sensitive Personal Information Use. You have the right to limit the use of sensitive Personal Information regarding you.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights. To submit a request to exercise these rights, you may email us at [email protected] or call us at (858) 768-0227. For all requests, please clearly state that the request is related to “Your Privacy Rights,” indicate which type of request you are making, and provide your name, residential address, and an e-mail address or phone number where we may contact you.

Only you, or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a verifiable consumer request related to Personal Information about you. You may only make such a request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt; if we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If you provided your Personal Information to one of our Sweetwater Market Centers or their Sweetwater Agents, you must submit a similar request directly to them.

Section 5: Phone Calls and Text Messages

If you are a United States resident using the Services, you represent and warrant that: you are at least 18 years old; you live in the United States; you are the account holder for the telephone numbers you provide, or you have authorization from the account holder(s) to provide consent; and the telephone numbers you provide are accurate, and you will let us know if you release them to a third-party.

Do Not Call Policy

This notice is our Do Not Call Policy under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Unless applicable law allows or you provide consent, we do not solicit via telephone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry or a state Do Not Call list. If you communicate with us by telephone, we may monitor or record the call in accordance with applicable law.

Express Written Consent

By sharing your telephone number with us, you agree that we may contact you at the telephone number and email address you provided, even if your number is on a federal, state, or internal Do Not Call list, and may send marketing calls and texts to you using an automated system for selection or dialing of numbers or pre-recorded or artificial voice messages that relate to real estate products or services. Your consent is not required to purchase products or services. You may unsubscribe at any time.

You may revoke your consent to receive calls and text messages from us at any time by emailing us at [email protected]. To opt out of receiving text messages from us, please follow the opt-out instructions in a text message sent by us. Please allow up to 30 days for us to process such changes or opt-out requests. To the extent you wish to opt out of receiving calls or text messages from a Sweetwater Market Center or their Sweetwater Agents, you must contact them directly.

Section 6: SMS Terms & Conditions

By providing your mobile phone number and opting in, you agree to receive text messages from Sweetwater Multifamily. The types of messages you can expect to receive include appointment reminders, meeting and call scheduling confirmations, responses to your inquiries, property and transaction updates, account notifications, and market or property information you have requested.

• Messaging frequency may vary.
• Message and data rates may apply.
• To opt out at any time, text STOP.
• For assistance, text HELP or visit our website at https://sweetwatermultifamily.com/.
• Visit https://sweetwatermultifamily.com/ for privacy policy and https://sweetwatermultifamily.com/privacy-policy for Terms of Service.

Consent to receive text messages is not a condition of any purchase or service. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. Your mobile information and SMS opt-in data will not be shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes.

Section 7: Retention Period

We retain Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and consistent with applicable law. Specific retention periods may vary by the type of Personal Information. To determine the appropriate retention period, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Information; the length of our ongoing relationship with you; the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure; the purposes for which we process your Personal Information; whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject; whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position; and our own internal policies regarding retention of records.

Section 8: Third Party Services

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of any third parties, including Sweetwater Market Centers, Sweetwater Agents, or any third-party operating any website or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates. In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies or practices of other organizations, including Apple, Meta, Instagram, Google, Microsoft, RIM, or any other app developer, app provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer. Our use and transfer to any other application of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Section 9: Use of Services by Minors

The Services are not directed towards or intended for use by individuals under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from individuals under the age of 16. Please email us at [email protected] if you believe we collected Personal Information from an individual under the age of 16.

Section 10: Jurisdiction and Cross-Border Transfer

Due to a recent entity conversion of Sweetwater Realty, Inc. to Sweetwater (effective February 28, 2025), we are in the process of resubmitting a new application certifying our adherence to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF), the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF). Until our new application is approved, we continue to operate to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles. Sweetwater complies with these frameworks for all onward transfers of personal data from the EEA, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/.

In compliance with these frameworks, Sweetwater commits to referring unresolved complaints concerning our handling of Personal Information to the International Centre for Dispute Resolution-American Arbitration Association (ICDR-AAA), an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United States. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your DPF Principles-related complaint from us, or if we have not addressed it to your satisfaction, please visit https://go.adr.org/dpf_irm.html. The services of the ICDR-AAA are provided at no cost to you. The Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over Sweetwater’ compliance with these frameworks.

Your Personal Information may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or in which we engage service providers, including potentially being transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including the United States, which may have data protection rules that are different from those of your country. You may lodge a complaint with an EU/EEA data protection authority for your country or region or where an alleged infringement of applicable data protection law occurs.

Section 11: Sensitive Information

Unless we specifically request it, we ask that you not send us through the Services, or otherwise disclose to us, any sensitive Personal Information, including social security numbers, payment card or account information, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background information, or trade union memberships.

Section 12: Updates to This Privacy Policy

The “Effective” legend at the top of this Privacy Policy indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Services. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date, active, and deliverable email address for you and for periodically visiting this Privacy Policy to check for any changes. Your continued use of the Services following any changes means that you accept the revised Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with our policies and practices outlined in this Privacy Policy, your choice is to discontinue use of the Services.

Section 13: Contacting Us

Sweetwater is the company responsible for collection, use, and disclosure of your Personal Information under this Privacy Policy. To the extent this Privacy Policy is linked from a website hosted by Sweetwater and operated by a Sweetwater Market Center or one of their Sweetwater Agents, this Privacy Policy applies only to the extent your Personal Information is provided or made available to Sweetwater. If you provided your Personal Information to a Sweetwater Market Center or their Sweetwater Agent(s), please contact them directly to learn more about their privacy practices.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Because email communications are not always secure, please do not include any sensitive Personal Information, including your social security number, bank account number, or credit card number, in your emails to us.