Can good looks get you a great price?

Do attractive real estate professionals get higher prices for their sellers than their less-favored cohorts? My question would be, “Who spends money on this research?” Well, at least we have the answer to my question…

Researchers at the Journal of Housing Research investigated whether an agent’s looks and demeanor could influence buyers’ overall impression of online property listings. Over 15,000 home buyers took an online audio-visual tour of a typically-priced home in their area hosted by one of eight agents varying in gender, attractiveness, and pathos—or how they enhance “the verbal description of the property with superlatives,” the study says.

Video home tours conducted by attractive male agents (who were also deemed to have pathos) yielded the highest overall ratings. 68% of married buyers had a better impression of homes listed by attractive females than single buyers (48% of singles favored females). And 78% of buyers without a college degree favored homes listed by a female agent than buyers with a degree (who were split 45% female v. 55% male).

One of the researchers summed-up the study of superficiality this way: “Selling homes is a business where image plays an important part, but you have to have the smarts to back it up to get higher prices for sellers.”