Realtor Finds Unexpected Success as Artist, Creates Colorful, Contemporary Pieces

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Jenn Thatcher

Photo: Jenn Thatcher

For Realtor Jenn Thatcher, and agent with Caine Premier Properties, a desire to better stage a client’s home lead to an additional, unexpected path as an artist.

“Three years ago I was staging a home and it didn’t have very much on the walls and I had a huge blank canvas at my house, so I went home and painted a painting for the home,” Thatcher said. “People kept coming through the house and they weren’t making an offer on the house but they were asking about the art.”

One thing led to another, and Thatcher soon had so much work as an artist, it was her new focus.

“After many, many calls about where to buy that art, I posted it online and it sold within 30 seconds with a line of about 25 people who wanted it. I thought, ‘maybe I’ll just do another one,’” she said. “That first year, I sold 200 paintings — this has been a crazy, complete surprise and blessing.”

This was a talent she didn’t know she had, discovered out of necessity.

“I’ve never taken an art class, so I didn’t even know I could do this, but I wasn’t intimidated because I knew I had to make my client’s house better and I thought anything is better than nothing,” she said.

Jenn Thatcher

Photo: Jenn Thatcher

Jenn Thatcher

Photo: Katey Macfarlan

Jenn Thatcher

Photo: Jenn Thatcher

Thatcher still works as an agent, staging every home fully, using her own things.

“I always put my art in the houses I’m selling,” she said. “I take a very few select listings and I fully stage them not just with my art, but with furniture, and it makes then really different and special and they always sell for top dollar.”

Thatcher started with acrylic, and branched off into oil, watercolor, even spray paint.

“Many of my pieces have every different type of paint on them to provide a lot of texture and the depth of the color varies based on the paints,” she said. “I don’t really have an inspiration other than I love design and I paint things I love and colors I love and I do so many different styles of abstract.”

In 2016, Thatcher says her goal is to give back, and continue to grow her business and find ways to help people through art.

“I’m currently working with a campaign with A21, an organization that’s working to end human trafficking — I’m selling a certain print with 100 percent of the proceeds going to them,” she said. “I want to make a difference not just for my family, but for others.”

 

 

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Leah Shafer is a content and social media specialist, as well as a Dallas native, who lives in Richardson with her family. In her sixth-grade yearbook, Leah listed "interior designer" as her future profession. Now she writes about them, as well as all things real estate, for CandysDirt.com.

4 Comments

  1. Lee Cordon on May 18, 2016 at 8:45 am

    Her work is beautiful! Congratulations, Jenn!

  2. Candy Evans on May 18, 2016 at 9:55 am

    Jenn is a throughly beautiful woman inside and out. Miss Hattie Pearl proudly boasts one of her paintings that was a first birthday gift, and not only is it beautiful and soothing, it has inspired my darling grand angel to love art!

  3. dormand on May 18, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Putting a home on the market without staging and professional photography is the same as
    taking a car to a dealer to trade in on new car with a leaking muffler, two tires low on air, mud all over the car,
    and with it being out of tune and with the tires out of balance and out of alignment, with McDonald’s french fries covering the back seat.

    All of those warts could be corrected and the car detailed for some $500 and the car would be worth some
    $2,500 more as a trade-in.

    The same principle applies to staging ( including replacing light bulbs to those that optimize photos ) and retaining a professional photographer who is experienced in residential real estate, especially in capturing the
    ambiance of trees and landscaping. The leveraged payoff over the cost has many similarities.

    No upscale buyer is going to purchase a property that is a dog unless that buyer is skilled at flipping properties.

    Review the website of the photographer to see the track record of their work. Many of the photos in the MLS
    appear to have been made in Candy’s buddy Jay Leno’s Photo Booth.

    This is not the area to save a few bucks. For $150 you can get photos that can add many thousands of dollars to offers as more buyers will be attracted to see the home.

  4. dormand on May 18, 2016 at 3:08 pm

    Some examples of enlightened real estate photography can be seen in this ASID Ovation awards
    compilation of photos. It is noteworthy that those photography professionals who have earned an MFA will probably have a vastly superior mastery of the critical area of lighting and its effect on the photos.

    http://asidtxenews.mecgnv.com/docs/DTX_2015_Ovation_Awards.pdf

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