For more than 65 years a family-owned business has been selling real estate in Pearl River County.
Broker Martha Ford said her grandfather established the business in 1949, eventually it passed to her father, and her through the years.
“I always knew I was going to sell real estate,” Ford said.
Ford said she has been a licensed Realtor since 1984, after which time she traveled to Jackson and worked as an appraiser and then to Houston, Texas to manage homeowner associations and apartment complexes.
She would come back to Picayune to work at the family business in 1998 as a sales associate. As her father prepared to retire in 2012, he passed the business over to Martha. In April of 2012, she officially took over the business as the broker but her father didn’t officially retire until August of that same year.
Ford said she enjoys the business because it’s an interesting job where she gets to travel and see a variety of homes.
Over the years, she said she’s seen repeat business, some of which are the grandchildren of families she sold a house to in the 80s. There’s also one house in the county she has sold three times.
Ford said her success is in part due to the lessons learned while working in other areas of real estate and other parts of the country.
In the earlier years, land was plentiful in Pearl River County. Ford said her father was involved in the sale of larger tracts, many of which were split into smaller lots.
To this day she still operates the business as her father and grandfather did, even leaving the abbreviation for the word “town” in place of “city” on the listing agreement.
Ford said the market in Pearl River County has some challenges for those looking to buy or rent. First off, the inventory in the county is on the low side, especially in affordable rentals. Buyers looking for affordable property to flip or rent out would have to be willing to do some repairs on their own. And if extensive repairs are needed there might be extra hurdles in securing financing.
Ford said that just like with all real estate agents, schedules are flexible, but do focus on daylight hours. When the sun doesn’t set until 7 p.m. or later, that makes her job easier. As such she always plans to work on Saturdays, and on Sundays by appointment. However, she said she’s been known to field unexpected calls on Sunday.
Currently Ford has two agents that work out of her office, Julie and Darwin, but she expects two more to start soon and another is planning to take the state exam. Ford Realty also employs one full time employee, Office Manager Kristina Musmeci. She said Musmeci has been on staff for more than 10 years.
The office is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be reached by calling 601-798-6202.