After converting a vacant home into a spacious office, Ann Black Realty has been named October Business of the Month by The Thomasville City Beautification Committee.

Ann Black, broker/principal, has been in real estate since February of 1990 and started the company in January of 1997. It was originally in a condo at People’s Professional Park, but it soon needed more space and visibility.

The Business of the Month recognition is based on the most improved landscaping or structural improvements. For eight months, Black and her husband remodeled a house at 12 Cloniger Drive in Thomasville, adding walls for offices, rewiring for electricity and making the building handicap accessible.

Ann Black Realty has now been in its new location for about a year and a half. The business employs a staff of four full-time Realtors with more than 20 years of experience. It is a “praying company,” Black said, and she gives God the glory for her success.

“When the markets started going crazy last year, we decided to pray before our meetings, and to pray over anything and everything,” Black said. “We have noticed a little bit of down time, but not to a great extent.”

Right now, she said, the company is concentrating on foreclosures and short sales, when sellers owe more on their homes than what the market will support. She said she only noticed down times in January and February of this year, which are typically the slowest months. The recent $8,000 tax credit for new home buyers has been great for business, Black said, and she is hoping that Congress will approve another one.

Vivian Wilborne, a broker with Ann Black Realty, said that the difference “is night and day” between the old and new buildings.

“Location, location, location,” Wilborne said, echoing a popular slogan in real estate. “It’s very important that we moved here, because it has helped tremendously with traffic.”

Black agreed that she sees many more walk-ins than she did at the old location. Broker Angel Sims said that the move not only made the business more visible to the public, but it also brought the staff members together.

“It made us more of a family,” Sims said. “It just created a very good working environment, because we’ve all got our space.”

The four staff members were all born and raised in the area, Black said, so they know the community well and are very active within it. Broker Deborah Saintsing said that Ann Black Realty stands out from the rest not only because of the staff members’ local roots, their combined experience and their Christian ethics, but also because they are all women.

“I don’t know why, but for some reason, people who are buying a home trust a woman’s intuition about it,” Saintsing said. “They trust our ability to find them the right home.”

Staff Writer Karissa Minn can be reached at 888-3576 or newsdesk@tvilletimes.com.