Last week I received a phone call from a couple who needed to sell their home. They asked if I could meet with them and discuss the process. They had listed the home last year with another agent but had very few showings and no interested buyers. When I pulled up the tax records, I was surprised it did not have much activity when listed. After all, the home had ample square footage, it sat on a large lot and it was in a coveted rural area surrounded by farmland and should have had unobstructed views of the mountains. However, when I pulled up the previous listing, that is not what I saw. The pictures, clearly not of professional quality, told the story of a home with a choppy floor plan, small rooms, drab paint colors, dated flooring, no parking and dead swatches of lawn. If the list pictures were telling an accurate story, the home had been notably overpriced.

We set an appointment for the next day. As I approached the home, I had to look at the address twice before recognizing the home from the previous listing pictures. It didn’t look anything like the pictures had shown. This was a meticulously well-kept home from the outside. I wondered why there had not been pictures of the unhindered view of the mountains. Surrounded by farmland, this home was a rare find along the Wasatch Front. There had been no pictures of the attached covered parking structure, or the large walk-out composite deck with ample room for patio furniture, a grill and a veritable array of people.

The interior was also a more than pleasant surprise. The paint colors were subtle and clean, the home featured a large, open gathering area, generously sized bedrooms and tasteful, updated flooring. The previous pictures, in no way, showed any of this.

Listen, I get it. I’m not much of a photographer either. Although I took two semesters of photography in college, learning about composition, exposure, timing, contrast and lighting, I have yet to take a decent picture of a home. The final was a presentation of a portfolio of pictures we had taken throughout the course highlighting the elements we had learned. I did well in the class, got the college credit I needed, and then went on to my focus of selling homes. I did not move forward to focus on photographing homes. If I had, I would have progressed through the advent of digital photography, drones, new and evolving technology in lenses, equipment, editing and even AI (artificial intelligence). This is something I would have had to do every day, all day long, for an extensive amount of time to master. I didn’t. I chose to focus on what I do best and let the professionals, who have mastered this very specific skill, do what they do best — all day, every day.

My team of real estate photographers have been doing this day in and day out for at least as many years as I have been doing what I do, day in and day out. They are professionals. They will highlight the spaciousness, the updates and the meticulous nature of how the home has been cared for. They will tell this home story through the mastery of their art, and this home will then sell.

Someday, just for fun, scroll through some active listings. You will be able to tell in a New York minute (faster than a Utah minute), which photos were taken by a professional and which were not. As a hint, a professional will never use their cell phone to take a picture.

Jen Fischer is an associate broker and Realtor. She can be reached at 801-645-2134 or jen@jen-fischer.com.