Listing Photos in Winter: How Davis County Sellers Get Good Photos When the Yard Is Brown

How do you get good listing photos in winter in Davis County? You plan around the light, clean up the exterior so a brown yard looks tidy instead of neglected, and shoot the inside when the sun is doing the most work. You do not try to fake summer. Buyers scrolling listings in November know what season it is, and what they want to see is a home that looks cared for.

Charisse Walker is a real estate agent with Chalker Properties Group in Salt Lake and Davis County, Utah, and a licensed mortgage lender. I want sellers to treat photos as the first showing, because for most buyers it is. The photos decide who books a tour.

This is practical guidance, not a promise of a sale price or a speed. Photos get people through the door. The price and condition still decide what happens next.

Buyers start online. A listing with dark, crowded or blurry photos gets scrolled past. In winter, fewer homes tend to come on the market than in spring, so the buyers who are looking are often serious, and they are comparing a short list of homes closely.

That is a good reason to get the photos right. When there are fewer listings, a well-photographed home stands out more, not less. The same is true of price: if your home is competing with only a few others, buyers notice quickly when one is priced too high. For more on that side of it, read how to price your home right in Davis County.

Days are short and the sun sits low. That can work in your favor if you plan for it.

• Interior: Shoot rooms when daylight comes in through the windows, usually mid-morning to early afternoon. Photographers often turn on every lamp and overhead light as well, which keeps rooms looking warm instead of gray.
• Exterior: Midday light is flat in winter but even. If your home faces a direction that gets sun only for a short stretch, ask your photographer when that is, and book around it.
• Dusk: A photo taken just after sunset, with the lights on inside, can make a home look warm and inviting from the street. Many photographers offer this as an add-on.
• Weather: Overcast days are fine for interiors. Fresh snow can look beautiful, but only if it is clean and the driveway and walkways are shoveled. Dirty slush is worse than bare ground.

Be flexible. A photographer who can move your appointment by a day for better weather is worth more than one who shoots on a fixed schedule regardless of the sky.

You cannot make winter go away, and you should not try to hide it. You can make the yard look maintained.

• Rake and clear. Remove leaves, dead plants, and anything that shows the season was ignored. Cut back what needs cutting.
• Clean the hard surfaces. Sweep the driveway, porch and walkways. Dry, clean concrete reads as well kept.
• Put away summer leftovers. Hoses, kids' toys, broken pots, trash cans and extra vehicles pull the eye away from the house.
• Fix the small stuff. A loose gutter, a cracked porch light cover or peeling trim shows up clearly in a close photo.
• Light the entry. Replace burned-out bulbs, and make sure the porch light works for any dusk photos.
• Add a little color if you want. A pot of winter greens by the door is fine. Keep it simple and real.

Interior photos show everything, including what you have stopped noticing. Take a slow walk through each room and look at it the way a stranger would.

• Clear counters and surfaces. Leave a few things and put the rest in a closet or a box.
• Remove personal items. Family photos, mail, medication, refrigerator magnets. It protects your privacy and lets buyers picture their own things.
• Open the blinds and curtains. Daylight is free staging.
• Replace weak bulbs. Use matching bulbs of the same warm color throughout. Mixed colors look odd in photos.
• Make beds and straighten towels. Hotel simple.
• Move cars and bins off the driveway. The garage and driveway appear in photos too.
• Put pets somewhere else for the shoot. Pet items out of sight, litter boxes and bowls hidden.

For a larger prep list that goes beyond photos, see our guide to home staging tips that pay off when selling in Utah.

Editing that makes a photo look like what a person would see standing in the room is fine. Brightening a dark room, straightening lines, and correcting color are all normal.

Editing that changes what is there is a problem. Do not swap a gray sky for a blue one in a way that changes how the property looks, do not paint the lawn green, and do not remove things that cannot be removed in person, such as power lines or a neighboring building. Buyers who arrive at a showing and find the home looks different from the photos start the visit annoyed, and in some cases, misleading photos create legal and MLS rule problems.

A good rule: if a buyer would feel tricked when they arrived, do not do it.

Not for photos alone. Some sellers do better to wait, and some do better to list now. That decision depends on your timeline, your price, and what you need to do before you can move. We cover the trade-offs in should you list your Davis County home over the holidays or wait until spring.

If you do wait, consider keeping photos from earlier in the year only if they are honest about the home's condition now. Spring photos of a home that has changed, for example a bedroom now used differently, mislead buyers. Re-shoot anything that is not current.

• Photographing the day the snow melts. Mud and slush make the exterior look worse than it is.
• Leaving holiday decorations up in a way that crowds the room. A little is fine, but a full display makes rooms look smaller and dates the photos.
• Skipping the dusk shot. It is often the best exterior image in the set in winter.
• Using a phone camera for the whole listing. A phone can be fine for a quick social post, but the main listing photos deserve a professional.
• Over-staging a vacant home. A few simple pieces can help a room feel real. See how to sell a vacant house in Davis County.
• Not reviewing the photos before they go live. Look at every image. If something bothers you in the preview, it will bother a buyer.

Here is a typical example, not a specific client. A seller in Kaysville is ready to list in mid-November. The lawn is brown, the trees are bare and the first snow is in the forecast.

The seller spends a weekend raking, power washing the walkway, replacing three burned-out bulbs and boxing up counter clutter. The photographer is booked for midmorning on a clear day, with a dusk shot at the end of the shoot.

The result is not a summer photo set. It is an honest set of a clean, bright home on a winter day, and it is far better than what the same home would have shown a week earlier. For the neighborhood and what buyers there look at, see the Kaysville area page.

Charisse Walker is a real estate agent with Chalker Properties Group in Salt Lake and Davis County, Utah, and a licensed mortgage lender. Before a listing goes live, I walk through the home with the seller and flag what the camera will pick up. We set a prep list, choose the photographer's time around the weather and the light, and review the photos together before they publish.

If you are weighing a sale in the next few months, start with our selling your home page to see the steps from first meeting to closing.

How many photos should a listing have?

Enough to show every main room, the outside, and any special feature. More is usually better than fewer, as long as each photo adds something.

Do I need to be out of the house during photos?

It helps. The photographer moves faster and you avoid hovering over every shot.

Is a drone photo useful in winter?

It can be, especially for a larger lot, as long as the drone view does not hide the property's boundaries or what is nearby. Weather and local rules affect when it is possible.

Should I stage the house before photos?

Light staging usually helps. It does not have to mean renting furniture. Clearing, cleaning and arranging what you own gets most of the benefit.

Can I take my own photos to save money?

You can, but a professional's gear, lighting and editing usually produce a clearer set. Photos are the first thing a buyer sees.

Send me your address and your timeline. I will tell you what I would fix, what I would leave, and how I would schedule the photos. Contact Charisse here.