For the Real Estate Dolls, being out & proud sells real estate in TX

After Texas' pullback on LGBTQ rights, two trans brokers carve a niche with the state's queer homebuyers

Jamie Zapata remembers her first open house. A potential buyer opened the door, marched up to her and declared: “I’ve never met a transgender realtor.”

Zapata, 51, relays the interaction pretty breezily. She transitioned as a teenager in San Antonio during the 1990s; this kind of comment doesn’t faze her. 

She continues, “So, I said: ‘Well, now you have!’” 

Zapata and her longtime friend Kasandra Alicea are The Real Estate Dolls, the only out transgender broker team in the world — as far as they know. (The Real Deal didn’t find any rivals to fit the bill, either.)

The duo hit Instagram at the beginning of Trump’s second presidency and just after Texas passed a series of laws restricting the rights of trans people. The internet loved the Dolls, ensuring that an online search for LGBTQ agents in San Antonio would turn up their names. The response on social media also cemented their decision to do something they’d been gearing up for: embracing their trans identities in the workplace.