The italic line under each heading is a plain-English summary, put there so you can skim the page and still know what it says. The numbered text below it is the part that counts. If the two ever seem to disagree, the numbered text governs.
Who you are dealing with
A person in Fort Wayne, not a marketing company that bought your name from somewhere.
This website, andiesellshomes.com, belongs to Andie Shepherd, a licensed Indiana REALTOR® doing business as Andie Sells Homes. Real estate services are provided through her brokerage, Mike Thomas Associates, Inc., 9601 Coldwater Road, Suite 107, Fort Wayne, IN 46825.
Throughout this policy, “I,” “me,” and “my” mean Andie Shepherd. “You” means anyone who visits this site or sends information through it.
This policy covers this website and the landing pages connected to it, including the first-time homebuyer class page and the downsizing guide page. It does not cover Mike Thomas Associates’ own website, which publishes its own policy, or any other company’s site you reach from a link here.
What I collect
What you type into a form, plus the ordinary things every website’s server writes down.
What you give me
When you fill out a form, request the homebuyer class, ask for a home valuation, or send a message, I collect what you enter. Depending on the form, that can include:
- Your name, email address, and phone number
- Whether you agreed to receive text messages
- Your timeline for buying or selling
- A property address, if you are asking what your home is worth
- What you are contacting me about
- Anything you choose to write in a message box
You decide what to share. If you would rather not put anything in a form, call or text me at (260) 308-2204 instead.
What gets collected automatically
Like nearly every website, this one records basic technical information when you visit: your IP address, the type of browser and device you are using, which pages you looked at, how long you stayed, and the site or search that sent you here. This comes from the web host and from analytics tools described in Section 4.
What I do not ask for
This site does not collect Social Security numbers, bank account or card numbers, credit reports, or income documentation. Those belong in the secure systems your lender, title company, and brokerage use, not in a website form. If a page on this site ever appears to ask you for them, do not enter them, and please tell me.
How I use it
To answer you, and to do the job you asked me to do.
I use the information you send to:
- Reply to your question, by whichever method you used to reach me
- Provide real estate services when you ask me to, through Mike Thomas Associates
- Send listings, market information, and updates you asked for
- Register you for a homebuyer class and send you reminders about it
- Keep records of our conversations, which real estate licensees are required to maintain
- Understand which pages people find useful, so the site gets better
- Meet legal, tax, and licensing obligations
I do not use your information to make automated decisions about you, and I do not build advertising profiles about you to sell to anyone.
Cookies and analytics
Small files that count visits and remember settings. You can turn them off, and the site still works.
This site uses cookies and similar technologies, and it may use analytics and advertising services such as Google Analytics and the Meta (Facebook) pixel, to understand how visitors find and use the site and to measure whether advertising is worth what it costs.
These tools tell me things like which pages get read and which ones people leave immediately. They do not tell me your name, and I do not try to match them to you personally.
The site also loads a small number of things from other companies as part of normal operation:
- Google Fonts
- Supplies the typefaces the site is set in. Google receives your IP address as part of that request.
- Google Maps
- Shows the office location on the contact page. Google receives your IP address and how you use the map.
- GoHighLevel
- Hosts the forms and stores what you submit. See Section 6.
- Cloudflare
- Hosts and delivers the site, and keeps standard server logs.
Turning it off
Every major browser lets you block or delete cookies in its settings. Google offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics, and Meta lets you change ad preferences inside your Facebook or Instagram account. Blocking cookies does not stop you from reading anything here.
Some browsers send a “Do Not Track” signal. There is still no agreed standard for what a website should do when it receives one, so this site does not currently respond to it. That is a plain statement of fact rather than a preference, and it will change if a standard is settled.
Text messages and calls
You said yes to hearing from me. You can say stop at any time, and that is the end of it.
If you give me your phone number and check the box agreeing to text messages, I may text you about the things you asked about: class dates and reminders, listings that fit what you described, appointment confirmations, and follow-up on your question.
Here is what that agreement means in practice:
- The consent box is never checked for you in advance. You check it yourself, next to the field where you enter your number.
- Agreeing to texts is not a condition of buying or selling a home with me, of attending a class, or of getting any help at all. Leave it unchecked and call me instead if you prefer.
- Message frequency varies with what you asked about. Most people get a handful of messages, not a stream.
- Message and data rates may apply, depending on your phone plan.
- Reply STOP to any message to stop receiving them. Reply HELP for help. You can also just tell me, and I will take you off.
Stopping texts does not delete you from my records, and it does not stop me from returning a call or an email you send me.
No mobile information will be sold or shared with third parties or affiliates for marketing or promotional purposes. Text messaging originator opt-in data and consent are not shared with any third parties, except with the subcontractors and service providers that help deliver the messages.
Who else sees your information
My brokerage, and the companies that run my forms, email, and website. Nobody who wants to sell you something.
Your information is shared only in these situations:
- My brokerage
- Mike Thomas Associates, Inc. supervises my work and holds transaction records, as Indiana law requires of a licensed brokerage.
- Companies that run the tools I use
- GoHighLevel hosts the forms and stores contacts, and delivers email and text messages. Cloudflare hosts the website. Google supplies fonts, maps, and analytics. These companies handle the information on my behalf and are not permitted to use it for their own marketing.
- People you ask me to involve
- If you want an introduction to a lender, title company, inspector, contractor, or attorney, I will pass along what is needed to make that introduction, and only then. I do not hand your details to a referral network in the background.
- When the law requires it
- In response to a subpoena, court order, or lawful request, or to protect someone’s safety or my legal rights.
- If the business changes hands
- If the practice is sold, merged, or transferred, client records would transfer with it. You would be told.
What I never do
Short section, and the one worth reading twice.
I do not sell your personal information. I do not rent it, and I do not trade it.
Your phone number does not go to a lead-buying service. Your name does not go on a list. If you fill out a form on this site, the people who see it are me, my brokerage, and the companies listed in Section 6 that make the forms and messages work.
How long I keep it, and how it is protected
As long as it is useful to you or required of me, kept behind passwords and two-factor login.
If you become a client, Indiana requires licensed brokerages to retain transaction records, and those are kept for the required period through Mike Thomas Associates. If you inquired but we never worked together, I keep your contact information until it is no longer useful for staying in touch, or until you ask me to remove it, whichever comes first.
Information is stored in password-protected accounts with two-factor authentication turned on, and the site is served over an encrypted connection. That is a reasonable standard for a practice this size, and it is honest to say it is not a guarantee. No website or database anywhere is completely secure. If something happened that affected your information, I would tell you promptly rather than quietly.
Children
This is a site about buying and selling houses. It is not meant for kids.
This site is intended for adults and is not directed to children under 13. I do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child has sent information through this site, contact me and I will delete it.
Your choices and your rights
Ask me what I have, ask me to fix it, or ask me to delete it. You do not need a legal reason.
Whatever state you live in, and whether or not a privacy law requires it of me, you can ask me to:
- Tell you what information I hold about you
- Give you a copy of it
- Correct anything that is wrong
- Delete it, except records a licensed brokerage is legally required to keep
- Stop emailing or texting you
Email [email protected] or call (260) 308-2204. I aim to answer within 45 days, and I will tell you if I need longer. I may need to confirm who you are first, so that I am not handing your information to someone else.
If I turn down a request and you think that is wrong, say so and I will look at it again personally. There is no committee here.
Every marketing email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom. Texts stop when you reply STOP.
Indiana residents specifically
The state privacy law that took effect this year is written for large companies. I am not one, and the rights above are yours anyway.
The Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act took effect on January 1, 2026. It applies to businesses that handle the personal data of at least 100,000 Indiana residents in a year, or of at least 25,000 Indiana residents while making more than half their revenue from selling personal data.
A single real estate agent does not come close to either threshold, and I do not sell data at all, so the law does not currently apply to this business. I am telling you that rather than reprinting the statute, because a policy that claims to follow a law it is not subject to is not more trustworthy, only longer.
The rights in Section 10 are offered voluntarily. If this practice ever grows into the law’s scope, this section will be rewritten and the date at the top of the page will change.
Other websites
Once you click away from here, someone else’s rules apply.
This site links to lenders, down payment assistance programs, government housing resources, property management services, and other useful places. Those sites have their own privacy policies, and I do not control what they collect or how they use it. A link is not an endorsement of a company’s privacy practices, and it is worth reading their policy before handing over your information.
Changes to this policy
If it changes, the date at the top changes with it.
This policy will be updated when the site changes, when the tools behind it change, or when the law does. The effective date at the top of the page always reflects the current version. If a change materially affects how your information is used, I will say so directly rather than quietly reposting the page.
How to reach me
The same phone number that answers everything else on this site.
Questions about this policy, or about anything I hold about you, go to me directly:
Andie Shepherd
Andie Sells Homes
REALTOR®, Mike Thomas Associates, Inc.
9601 Coldwater Road, Suite 107
Fort Wayne, IN 46825
(260) 308-2204
[email protected]