Home First - House Second
I'm Kelly Hannah, a Salt Lake City community advocate and the Principal Broker of Eightline Real Estate in Sugar House. I produce and host Finding Salt Lake City, a video series highlighting the people and places that make this city home, and I serve as President of the Board of FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake.
A home is never just a structure — it's a neighborhood, a business district, a watershed, a community. Long before I'm anyone's real estate agent, I'm a neighbor, spending my dollars in places that look like the world I want to live in.
FINDING SALT LAKE CITY
Think about the difference between price and value, and between a house and a home. This series is about that gap. Each episode visits the local businesses, nonprofits and people shaping Salt Lake City, exploring their perspectives and highlighting the work that makes a home extend past the front door.
Some episodes are produced in partnership with The American Dream Media (ADTV); others I produce independently, right here at home. The idea behind all of them: “Spend your dollars at places that look like the world you want to live in.”
Price and value, house and home. An introduction to the channel: real estate seen through our neighborhoods, our communities and the independent businesses that make them feel like home.
ADVOCACY
I serve as the 2026 President of the Board of FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake, which has worked for 30 years to preserve and protect the lake and its watershed through education, advocacy, research and the arts. I co-produced Protection in Perpetuity, a short film celebrating that work. In 2023, my photographs of the lake hung in the halls of the Utah House of Representatives for the legislative session, and the exhibit was extended into January 2024.
I'm often asked, "What can I do to help save Great Salt Lake?" My answer starts with one tangible cause, and personal responsibility for it.
Protection in Perpetuity: Celebrating 30 Years at Great Salt Lake
This short film celebrates 30 years of dedicated mission work by FRIENDS of Great Salt Lake; to preserve and protect Great Salt Lake and its watershed through education, advocacy, research, and the arts. Beyond my work as the 2026 President of the Board, I co-produced this celebration story and I hope you enjoy it!
Moments at the Great Salt Lake
During the second half of 2022 I curated an advocacy campaign to better introduce our state legislators to this profoundly beautiful and essential body of water, this Great Salt Lake who’s watershed we have settled into. The campaign prompted an invitation from the Capitol Curator to exhibit my work in the halls of the House of Representatives for the 2023 legislative session. I was honored to have my photographs part of our legislators daily view, and grateful that the exhibit was extended to hang until January 2024.
REAL ESTATE
When I was seven years old my parents purchased a 9 unit motel at the edge of the forest in Big Bear Lake, California. Sunday, check-out day, my job was to strip the beds, deliver the linens to the laundry room and take out the trash from each cabin. 9 times. My sister followed me, making the beds, and my parents followed us cleaning each unit so they were ready for our next guests. We lived on site in the main cabin, providing hospitality to our guests in the every day course of our lives.
After a number of years, my parents opened The Front Desk and began to manage vacation rentals throughout the valley. I watched my parents provide customer service every day, genuinely. It was our livelihood, and I never imagined I would embrace real estate as a profession. When I turned 27 I realized that I knew this business intimately, that my natural disposition, self-driven work ethic, and commitment to excellence would serve me well on that path.
I began my professional real estate work in 1999 and I am extraordinarily grateful to have been in a position to help hundreds of families, couples, and individuals with their moves; purchases, sales, investments, and general counsel beyond any given point of transaction. My business is based on the value of integrity, the quality of trust, and the results of expert service. I work to earn the greatest prize; the repeat business of the good people I’ve been able to serve, time and time again.
