Yo! Broker! - What's with the Hair?

Yo Broker,

I’m a new agent. If my brokerage didn’t need a photo of me, I wouldn’t have noticed how screwy some of these realtor photos are. What’s up with that?

– Jay B.

Hi Jay,

You have a point. Realtors operate in that gray area between business and emotion. You can’t just look like a banker— a sense of personality is essential.

With realtors, the result is not always pretty. You get stretchy tight smiles, porno pouts, and miles and miles of hair extensions. For some women realtors, it’s all about the hair. You can never have extensions that are too long or hair that is too big – especially if you sell dirt in Texas.

Meanwhile, for men realtors, it’s all about the lack of hair. Thank God, the hideous comb overs, bad toupees, and Bosley plugs have been replaced by some fairly convincing hairpieces. A little desktop re-touching and you too can have a believable mane like Fabio.

Fashion-wise, the only thing the brokerages will not tolerate are Hawaiian shirts. But then again, one Malibu realtor is well known for his mongo Hawaiian shirt collection and his 200 million dollars gross annual sales. Who’s going to tell him to put on a suit?

All in all, Jay, my advice is to be the best part of who you are – and smile.

– Winston Cenac