
I just read through your story and I think this is GREAT what you're doing for yourself. I can relate to the looking younger thing - are you also petite? Women, especially petite women who just have baby faces tend to be thought of as younger, and therefore less experienced - at whatever. It irritates me too, because occasionally people assume I am SINGLE too simply because I look young!
It's funny what you say about being a very young real estate agent and then being faced with much older home buyers or home listers - I was 24 I think when I was looking for a realtor. The first one I went to was VERY rude to me, since I probably still looked under 20. The thing was, I'd been married for 2 years and we already HAD a home, we were looking to buy a new one lol. We were also prequalified for our loan, so my list of requests were reasonable. I eventually found another agent who was perfect for us and who did not talk down to me, we eventually bought a house he found for us and loved it. My hours were more regular than my husband's at the time so I was the one doing the bulk of the home searching. I actually prefer younger professionals of any field because they tend to be less judgemental of ME lol.
I cannot imagine your braces would cost you business! Especially since you have the clears, and they are very discreet. Remember too, the market is kinda lousy right now too, so I don't think it's personal at all if people don't call back for a showing or don't decide to lease or buy. We might be moving soon and I sure hope not to be in an area where everybody is over 50 - a retirement area is NOT my idea of fun, we have a 6 year old!