'Botox once a quarter. That's non-negotiable': Luxury realtors break down what they're spending on their appearance — and why

How appearance influences hiring, pay, promotions, and power in the workplace.

Ashley Reidy Quinn's job as a real estate agent involves a lot of negotiating with buyers and sellers. But there's one aspect of the role that leaves no room for compromise.

"Botox once a quarter. That's non-negotiable," Quinn, 34, told Business Insider.

As the cofounder of the Asset Advisory Team at Coldwell Banker Warburg, a luxury real-estate firm based in New York City, Quinn sells multimillion-dollar homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn buildings where clients expect white-glove service and not a hair out of place. It's a world where some agents say looking your best is just as important as knowing the numbers.

"I tie my personal appearance hand-in-hand with how I show up for a client," said Quinn, who recently sold a six-bedroom, ten-and-a-half bathroom Hamptons home for $59 million. "It's part of the full-picture business portrayal of you as an individual, so I take that very seriously."

As a result, Quinn spends a lot to look the part: She estimates she shelled out more than $100,000 on clothes in 2025, including Rent the Runway rentals and pieces she bought herself from designers like Celine and Hermès. She gets regular laser treatments for her skin, twice-yearly facials, and has quarterly brow appointments and a standing manicure appointment every other week. She always gets the same red polish — "part superstition, part good-luck charm," she said.

For Quinn, looking good is a personal and professional investment that requires constant attention. "Beauty is something I think about every single day," she said.

In an industry built around selling an aspirational lifestyle, looking the part has long mattered. But as glow-ups have become the norm — accessible, less taboo, and sometimes even expected — luxury realtors are feeling the same pressures, turbo-charged. Couple that with the glossy representations of real-estate agents on social media and reality TV shows like "Million Dollar Listing" and "Selling Sunset," and some high-end agents say it feels like cosmetic procedures, designer wardrobes, and expensive skincare routines are now just the cost of doing business.

As Alex Hall, a real estate agent and one of the stars of Netflix's "Selling Sunset" spinoff "Selling the OC," told Business Insider: "I think image might be more important than even knowledge at a certain point."

The business case for looking your best

Hall, 38, who works as a real estate agent at the Oppenheim Group in Orange County, California, knows her industry relies heavily on perception.

"If you don't look like somebody that these high-net-worth clients want to work with, then you're not even going to get the opportunity to have a conversation with them," she said.

Sean P. Salter, an associate professor at Middle Tennessee State University who has studied the role of physical attractiveness in real estate, told Business Insider that people expect luxury realtors to pay significantly more attention to their appearance than those in other professions.

"If they're going to spend that much money to buy a property, they're going to expect the level of service they've seen on television or social media, and that includes everything from the car the agent drives, the clothes the agent wears, and how the agent looks when they walk in the door," Salter said.

For Neyshia Go, who works with ultrawealthy clients in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara as the founder of The Go Group at Sotheby's International Realty, fashion is a calling card — and sometimes, what helps her get in the door.

"Beyond just enjoying fashion, I actually find it to be a very big connection point with a lot of clients," said Go, 35, who's represented listings upward of $77 million. "All of a sudden, we'll start talking about a brand or a label because someone got something in Milan. For example, I met a client and said, 'I love your jacket,' and she said, 'Well, I love yours.' We started talking about that before we even looked at the property."

Go works with a stylist and several personal shoppers to create her looks, and said she sees her wardrobe as a necessary investment in projecting the image her clients expect. Her closet is filled with brands like Manolo Blahnik and Hermès, but Chanel is her particular weakness. She collects the brand's ballet flats, typically spending between $800 and $1,500 per pair.

Go has also parlayed her love of fashion and real estate into an active Instagram presence, where she posts reels walking her over 8,000 followers through luxury listings in designer suits and stilettos.

Agents are selling homes — and their online brand

The ubiquity of social media has reshaped the industry, with several agents telling Business Insider that there's increasing pressure to build a personal brand and generate leads online.

"You're constantly being expected to produce content," said Mike Fabbri, a luxury real-estate broker with The Agency New York, whose Instagram features a mix of listing videos, professional portraits, and glimpses into his life in the city.

Putting his face in front of as big an audience as possible means Fabbri, 39, invests in his appearance to boost his confidence, wearing luxury fashion brands, occasionally working with personal stylists, and maintaining a "really good" skincare regimen.

"You really have to make that product look good," Fabbri emphasized. "Presentation matters." It's paying off: Fabbri has $500 million in career sales.

Jennifer Gallagher, a 41-year-old real estate agent with the Serhant Group in luxury South Florida markets like Delray Beach, Ocean Ridge, and Boca Raton, said she does about 90% of her business on social media — particularly Instagram and TikTok, where she's built a combined following of 91,000 — and spends roughly $1,000 a month on clothing to film her videos.

"Clothes are definitely an expense," Gallagher said. "I wear it for work. It's a uniform."

For Gallagher, it's not about buying designer — she said the only designer items she owns are three purses and one pair of Louboutins — but rather about feeling polished and confident in a highly social industry that demands you always be "on."

"I always want to look and feel my best," she said. "If I don't like the way I look or how I feel, I'm not going to have as good a day."

Ana Ruelas, 55, founder and managing partner of The Agency Austin, the firm's first Texas office, has the same ethos, though she said the city's expectations around appearance differ from those in Southern California and New York.

"Austin has such a unique culture when it comes to personal style," she said. "A luxury agent still needs to be polished; however, the agent could show up in a beautiful dress with cowboy boots, an Italian suit with loafers, or even elevated denim and flip flops."

Still, Ruelas said, regardless of the market, she doesn't think she'd be as far along in her career as an agent, businesswoman, and philanthropist if she didn't look the part.

Reality TV has heightened the pressure

If social media raised the bar for personal branding in real estate, the glossy lens of real-estate reality TV pushed it into the stratosphere.

Shows like Netflix's "Selling Sunset" and "Owning Manhattan" turn realtors into celebrity personalities whose over-the-top outfits are just as important as their ability to close a deal. The arms race over on-camera glam on "Selling Sunset" in particular has become such a popular topic of conversation that Emma Hernan, one of the show's stars, told Business Insider in 2023 that she spends "well into the six-figure range" on hair and makeup for each season.

Reality TV's influence on luxury real estate is so strong that four of the seven realtors we spoke to for this story work for agencies that have been featured on a reality series. Fabbri and Ruelas work for The Agency, the brokerage featured on Netflix's "Buying Beverly Hills," albeit in different cities; Gallagher works for the Florida offshoot of Serhant, whose New York office is the subject of Netflix's "Owning Manhattan;" and Hall works for the Oppenheim group, the brokerage that's the focus of both "Selling Sunset" and "Selling the OC," the latter of which she's appeared on as a cast member for four seasons.

While Hall admitted the outfits she wears on her show are "not things I'm really wearing every single day on a listing appointment or to the office," she likes to maintain a polished image even when Netflix's cameras aren't rolling. In a typical month, she spends about $1,000 on skincare, including regular DiamondGlow facials and Botox; another $1,000 on wellness; and about $500 on hairstyling. That's before the occasional splurge on designer fashion.

"It's one of the most important elements of being in this industry," she said, "how you're perceived and what you look like, whether you like it or not."

Your uniform matters, but looks aren't everything

Shauna Walters, cofounder of Beverly Hills-based Walters Plaxen Estates at Sotheby's International Realty, once felt the same way.

"When I first started in real estate, there was more pressure to look a certain way — the heels, the dressing up, the hair, and the makeup," Walters, 43, told Business Insider. "Now that I've been in the business for over 20 years, comfort is very important to me, as is feeling good."

Nowadays, when she's with clients, Walters wears brands like Zara and Revolve, with the occasional piece from Stella McCartney or Prada. In the office, she often opts for minimal makeup and Beyond Yoga pants.

In Los Angeles' cutthroat real estate industry, presentation may help an agent get noticed — but Walters isn't convinced appearance alone determines success.

"I've seen very attractive agents struggle just because they didn't have the drive," said Walters, who made waves in 2021 with the record-breaking sale of the Brentwood Oasis, a sprawling home featuring a 10-car garage, putting green, and spa, for $44 million. "And then I've seen incredibly successful agents that don't fit traditional beauty standards dominate because they're sharp and strategic."

"Beauty alone doesn't close multimillion-dollar deals," she added. "Presentation might get you in the room, but performance keeps you there."

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