From the left, Bradley Inman – Publisher- Inman News, Dottie Herman – President & CEO – Prudential Douglas Elliman, JoAnne Kennedy – COO – Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, Pamela Liebman – President & CEO – The Corcoran Group, Diane Ramirez – President – Halstead Property, Michael Saunders – President & Founder – Michael Saunders & Company.
We know sex sells. It is a powerful marketing tool. But do sexy brokers sell more real estate than plain Janes and Joes?
Studies have shown that attractive individuals earn more money than their average looking peers. Does this also apply to real estate brokers? Do attractive brokers do more deals? Are there times when being sexually attractive works against a broker? Does it matter if it’s commercial or residential real estate, sales or rentals? What has been your experience?
Concerning the studied effects of beautiful people, here is some evidence we’ve uncovered (no pun intended):
Sexual images subvert young men’s ability to think. In a money game, men who were shown pictures of lingerie or sexy women accepted disadvantageous deals more often than did men who were shown nonsexual pictures. [Slate, This is Your Brain On Jugs, What sexy women to do to men's thinking skills by William Saletan]
“Holding constant demographic and labor-market characteristics, plain people earn less than people of average looks, who earn less than the good-looking. The penalty for plainness is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger than the premium for beauty (5%)“. [Beauty and the Labor Market, Profs. Hamermesh & Biddle, Univ. of Texas, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. (Cambridge, MA)]
see also So Much For That Merit Raise: The Link Between Wages and Appearance by Kristie M. Engemann and Michael T. Owyang, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis]
Evidently, looks do matter in Los Angeles Broker Boys and Babes Contest.[LACurbed]
