Frequently Asked Questions

Hown is the only social media app for houses, making it easy for users to connect with properties. Find houses of interest, quickly see house information with the snap of a picture, and directly message any house to ask questions or pass along compliments. Hown is the new and easy way to browse houses.

Yes, Hown is absolutely free. There’s no charge for you and your home to join the Hown community.

Hown is currently available on only iOS devices (e.g., iPhone and iPad), running at least iOS 18. Hown can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store.

If you are experiencing issues downloading and installing the Hown app on your device, please contact the Hown support team.

To ensure all messages and ownership verification information is directed to the correct recipient, we rely on postcards mailed to physical addresses. We use direct mailings to notify home owners, not currently users of Hown, of activity related to their properties on Hown, and to verify users’ ownership of houses.

Hown doesn’t oversee or monitor any transactions related to houses or provide any guarantees or warranties related to these interactions. Users, however, are free to interact and message about any topic provided their conversations fall within Hown’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines.

Every house is already on Hown. By claiming ownership of your home on Hown, you can manage its profile, including, but not limited to, editing its information, and curating its images.

No. Hown is a community for sharing posts about properties, not people, and we strongly encourage users to avoid posting any images that include people. We understand accidents happen, so if a person happens to make their way into one of you posts, we have built functionality to blur their face and protect their privacy.

You can message any house. Even if the owner of the house hasn’t joined the Hown community yet, we will send your message along as a mailing to the physical address. We believe in the importance of connecting. We will try our best to get your message to the intended recipient.

Hown users can message other users and houses. When messaging a house, your message is accessible by only the current owners of the home. Prior owners of a home will no longer have access to earlier conversations involving that house, once they remove their ownership access.

Any new owners of a home will be added to all community members’ ongoing conversations with that house.

To create a Hown account:

1. Download the Hown app from the Apple App Store on an iPhone or iPad
2. Once the app is installed, tap the Hown icon to open the app
3. Tap Sign Up, and then enter your full name, email, and age to create a passkey for signing in

We think users should have control over their homes’ profiles on Hown. That’s why after claiming ownership of their homes, users are given a unique level of access over their homes’ profiles.

To claim ownership of your home:

1. Go to the Profiles tab
2. Tap the Add Property button at the top of the screen
3. Search for and select your home’s address on the search screen
4. Select Confirm on the confirmation window
5. We will mail a verification code to that address
6. Once you receive the code, tap the Verify Ownership button under that property on the Profiles tab
7. Enter the verification code and tap Submit

If you don’t receive a verification code in the mail or experience other issues claiming ownership of your home, please contact the Hown support team.

By default, home ownership information is kept private on Hown, meaning users’ home ownership is anonymous. However, we understand that some users would like to display this information on their profiles.

There are two ways to make your home ownership public:

From the Main Menu:

1. Tap the Main Menu button on the home screen
2. Select Privacy
3. Under the Ownership Visibility section, select the property which you wish to make your ownership public

From the Profiles tab:

1. Go to the Profiles tab
2. Tap the Owners button associated with your home
3. Select “Public Visibility”

In the event that a previous owner is listed as a current owner of your home, there is recourse. Once we have verified your ownership of your home, you can contest another owner’s status.

To contest an owner’s status:

1. Go to the Profiles tab
2. Tap the Owners button associated with your home
3. Tap the More button next to the owner you wish to dispute their ownership
4. Select Dispute Ownership
5. Provide a brief summary why that user should be removed as an owner
6. Tap Submit

After contesting a user’s ownership, you will receive a confirmation email from our support team acknowledging the action. We will also reach out to the other user to follow up. The entire removal process could take some time to resolve; however, we will provide users updates along the way.

If you have any questions about ownership status, please contact the Hown support team.

To remove your ownership of a house:

1. Go to the Profiles tab
2. Tap the More button next to your Property
3. Select Remove My Ownership
4. Select Remove on the confirmation window

To make a post:

1. Tap on the camera icon on the home screen
2. Snap a picture of a house
3. On the post confirmation screen, verify that the automatically generated address is correct (and if necessary, please edit for accuracy), select a filter for the image (optional), and add a caption (optional)
4. Tap Submit

To upload a picture:

1. Long press the camera icon on the home screen
2. Select Post from Photo Library
3. Select the picture from your photo library for uploading

Users can post only on residential properties, including single-family homes, townhouses, and apartments. Commercial locations are not permitted.

Using the location of the photo, and a bunch of math, we’re able to reverse geocode the position of the photo to arrive at a house address. Reverse geocoding just means turning a geographic location into a physical address. Please note, this whole process will not work if you do not enable location services on your mobile device.

To enable location services on your device:

1. Go to the Settings app on your device
2. Select Hown
3. Tap Location
4. Select While Using App

We’re confident in the addresses that Hown automatically generates but we also continue to refine our process. When posting, please verify the accuracy of the automatically generated addresses and edit when necessary.

If you have questions about how Hown generates house addresses, please contact the Hown support team.

Hown automatically adds houses’ addresses to your posts (if you have enabled location services on your device), but sometimes those addresses may include errors. To ensure your post is attached to the correct house, please review the automatically generated address on the post confirmation screen and edit, if necessary.

To correct an address on a post prior to posting:

1. Tap the Edit on the address field
2. Search for and select the correct address on the address search screen

To correct an address on your post after posting:

1. Tap the More button on the post
2. Select Edit Address in the menu
3. Tap the address field
4. Enter the correct address and tap Submit

To correct an address on another user’s post:

1. Tap the More button on the post
2. Select Report this Post in the menu
3. Select Incorrect Address
4. Enter the correct address and tap Submit

If you have further quesitons about how to edit an address, please contact the Hown support team.

Hown automatically generates addresses for posts, which are displayed for verification purposes on the post confirmation page. If you haven’t enabled location services on your device, Hown cannot automatically generate addresses for your posts, and you will have to manually add the house address before submitting your post. We strongly recommend enabling location services to make posting easier.

To enable location services on your device:

1. Go to the Settings app on your device
2. Select Hown
3. Tap Location
4. Select While Using App

Hown is a community built around sharing and discovering content. All posts are accessible by the entire community, though we try our best to create curated, personalized experiences for all of our users. We strive to show content that is only relevant based on your interests and location. Also, to protect your privacy, community members can mute other users to prevent ever seeing these other users’ content.

To mute a user:

1. Tap the More button on a user’s profile or post
2. Select Mute User
3. Select Mute on the confirmation screen
4. Tap Done

There are two ways to unmute a user.

To unmute a user from their profile:

1. Tap the More button on a muted user’s profile
2. Select Unmute User
3. Select Unmute on the confirmation screen
4. Tap Done

To unmute a user from the Main Menu:

1. Tap the Main Menu button on the home screen
2. Select Privacy
3. Select Muted Accounts
4. Select Edit and delete users you wish to unmute
5. Tap Done

Muting a user ensures that you will not see that user’s content.

We strive to maintain a safe environment for our community members and their homes. We actively monitor content on Hown, and we do our best to remove any content that fails to comply with our Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. However, we also rely on our users to report content and behavior that violates Hown’s Terms or Guidelines to help preserve the standards of this community.

To report content:

1. Tap the More button on a post or profile
2. Select Report
3. Select the reason for reporting, and if applicable, please provide a brief summary of the violation

We actively monitor Hown to ensure content meets the community standards and aligns with Hown’s Terms of Service and Community Guidelines. We reserve the right to remove any content at any time.