John, this is good stuff.  I've never felt comfortable dressing down for work in this business.  My office has a jeans and red shirt day for Fridays (supposedly to enhance the Keller Williams presence and culture) and I did it a few times but now I find myself in slacks and a red polo shirt is about as dressed down for work as I can get.    I've never felt OVER dressed when meeting a client, but I HAVE felt under dressed when I was wearing jeans, etc...

The dress for success or dress for comfort argument has gone on since ancient times and will go on as long as people wear clothes.  To each their own opinion and I don't care whether anyone agrees with me or not.  I wear nice jeans and a nice polo shirt and athletic shoes most of the time and I don't believe that I would have made one extra dollar if I had worn a jacket and tie all these years.  My brain works better when my body is comfortable.  The suit and tie is a uniform that many people prefer or enjoy.  Not me.  I think its ridiculous to wear extra clothing in a warm climate (Florida).  Its nuts to wear a jacket on a hot day.  If someone wants to wear shorts and flip flops, why not.  If they can sell multi-million dollar condos or factories dressed in underwear, who cares!  Its all in the eye of the beholder.

Here in south Flroida on my first client meeting its dress slacks and a polo (or maybe a button down shirt in winter).  I may opt for jeans and a polo after that or maybe shorts after several outings as I get to know the client.  Most of the time THEY are in shorts and flip flops.  But that's what it's all about in a resort area...

I have always liked hot weather and it never bothered me until I moved to West Texas.  July and August are unbearable even to me.  As long a a person is clean and not ragged, I'm not real concerned.  For a while it bothered me the way some dressed, especially women who wore skirts and dresses without hose.   I gave up skirts and dresses years ago before I moved to Texas...got sick and tired of buying pantyhose.....lol. In my previous life, you always wanted to dress professionally so I was used to it but that changed down here for me.  Both men and women  dress the marjority of the time in casual wear, lightweight cottons and gauze material, jeans, and boots.....well!   The first time I had to show property out in the boonies, tromping around in weeds, dirt, sand, and who knows what else....I understood.  It actually bothers me now to see anyone in a hot stuffy suit in the heat of July and August now. Please be comfortable!

In almost 10 years I have yet to have a client show up in a suit or even a sports jacket, even to look at expensive properties.  I'm in a college town and maybe that has something to do with the casualness of the customers.  However, many of my new clients know what to expect from me because they come from referrals.  

You said, "its a mathematical formula, a numbers game." The fact that you are convinced of that is your choice and works best for you.  I am not convinced its numbers game because I don't try to attract quantity.  I see too many agents spending too much money trying to attract everybody that breathes.  Right now all of my activity is with referrals (2) and repeaters (9).  Five of my last six closings were referrals (3) and repeaters (2).  The other one was from a yard sign.  So the yard sign customer is the only one who might have been impressed by "more professional" attire.

Just out of curiosity:  Why haven't neckties gone obsolete yet?  What keeps them going?  What does a tie do besides hide those imensely ugly shirt buttons?  I know they are a holdover from olden days when the royalty and semi-royalty wore scarves, but why do they still appeal to people?  I don't get it.

Mark, I've wondered about ties myself- the concept seems pretty silly but i wore them for years in my former life.

Yes, in the days of the suit and tie we believed we had an image to uphold. I still see those who dress to the 9's while the greater percentage of us go casual. It may be more what you are comfortable with than what a perceived client is comfortable with for attire. Isn't it interesting that somehow we correlate dress with intelligence and savy in the business.

I think whatever a person feels comfortable in.  I'm still the tie-guy beacuse of my former (and sometimes recurring) life as a CPA in public accounting I was usually in the dressed up offices...Of course I do try to match my dress to the clients I am meeting with during the day as strange as it may sound.  

I think the more important issue than how you dress (I prefer casual, polo shirts and khakis is my uniform of choice) is relating with your clients, in both the way you dress and how you talk with them.  

I dress casual.  Never jeans or shorts, but slacks and a shirt.  It's just toooooo dang hot here in Florida for people to be wearing suits.  And it always seems like the buyers want to stand outside by the street and talk about the house once we are done viewing it.  Sweat pouring down your face in 95 degree weather.  Glad I don't wear make-up!

I often show farms and in my former life I was a director with Mary Kay.  Some of you may know that it was skirts suits only and always with hosiery. I do feel more confident and professional in a skirt.

Having said that, I usually wear twill slacks and a blouse with flat shoes.

I was showing a farm a while back and was wearing my barn jacket with jeans and sensible shoes.  The seller spoke to me and said that he wanted to accept my deal (there were competing offers) because I was the only one who had the sense to dress properly.  Apparently there were women showing up in high heels to show the place.

So I guess it is relevant to the property you are showing.  I also have a business listed and it is a skirt and hosiery every time.

PS.  I have always envied the men when it comes to dressing.  It would be so simple to throw on a pair of pants and a polo shirt.

Feminine dressing always seems to be so much more complicated. Especially the shoe part!

John, at the moment I have about 1/4 the amount of business I can handle by myself.  I had times in 2005 when I needed help, but somehow got though by myself.  I know every part of this business and am an organized type person, but there are parts of it I like much better than others.  I am not a good prospector.  Whenever somebody harps on the prospecting stuff, I run.  So, I had to develop substitutes for prospecting.  I had to enlist others to do that for me, especially my clients.  Referrals are the backbone of my business.  I also had to develop an effective web presence that brings in customers.  I figure its better to have customers sent to me than me have to seek customers.

You are in Pompano and I am in Gainesville.  In the last few years I have had 14 clients from your area buy or sell through me.  Many people want to get out of South Florida.  Maybe we can set up a referral when you have a seller who wants to move to North Florida.  I am getting people who want to stay in Florida, but retire out of the congested parts of the state.  Gainesville is a great retirement area.  

Dress down?

I vote Dress comfortably.

Wear cloths that fit your personality & work enviorment.

I am past the point of thinking everyone in a suit is successful.  In fact I come across more people in financial trouble wearing suits than blue jeans.

Just my .02 cents

I wear Capris and a nice blouse or polo shirt in the summer. I always wear flats. I see no need to wear anything dressy. It's hot, so why not be comfortable.

Well, here in the Northeast Georgia mountains, I can just picture my husband climbing up the side of a mountain in his suit and wingtips! I am sure that the clients would be quite inspired by the "city slicker"  realtor in the mountains!!!!

We wear pressed jeans and nice shirts. When it is colder outside, we wear nice tailored jackets.

I often wear jeans and kind of gear my dress to that of my client.  Coat and tie when the need arises.  Boots and Camo works when your walking land.

Is it just my imagination or did we call flip flops, thongs. At least until thongs were called thongs. You know, the thongs that went between your toes, rubber, like flip flops?

Having worked in corporate America management for many years I wore the suit & tie every day. It was not an option for management. The tie was the "badge" of the professional then and lives on as the icon of the pro in the business world today. In the 90's came "Casual Friday", or dress-down day. Eventually every day became dress-down day with the exception of the sales teams. Since the sales team had a direct customer interface, they wore a suit and tie every day. Here in Sarasota, Florida, I practice both commercial and residential and I dress according to how I think a specific customer might expect me to dress. I wrote a $10MM commercial contract in boat shoes and shorts in the rain on the trunk of my car. The buyers were boaters and wore the same garb. That afternoon I wore a jacket and tie to meet a British client to show a condo. The message from here is times may have changed but how you dress can make a difference with your client.

Excellent point, Ronald!

If I am meeting a client for the first time I always dress professional and after that I dress according to how they dress.  If they are casual people I am casual with them.  If they are always dressed professional I make sure I am too.  First and foremost, I am always myself.