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![Brenda Dansby (left) and Terri Thomas have known each other for 20 years. They have both worked in real estate since the 1980s. "There was a lot of opportunity there," Mrs. Thomas said, of opening their business, Re/Max Partners. Jackie Ricciardi/Staff](http://chronicle.augusta.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/superphoto/editorial/images/spotted/84/841311.jpg "Brenda Dansby (left) and Terri Thomas have known each other for 20 years. They have both worked in real estate since the 1980s. "There was a lot of opportunity there," Mrs. Thomas said, of opening their business, Re/Max Partners. Jackie Ricciardi/Staff")
Other than the people benefitting from the free advertising, who cares?
Homes sales are at a low point. It's the middle of the Great Recession. Sounds like a good time to start a business.
Terri Thomas and Brenda Dansby did, and next month, their Re/Max franchise will turn a year old.
The business is new, but they have been in real estate since the mid-1980s -- and friends for just as long.
The idea for Re/Max Partners started in 2007. Mrs. Thomas was working for another Re/Max agency, and Ms. Dansby was with Meybohm Realtors.
In its first year, the agency will tally $31 million in sales, Mrs. Thomas said.
She said they get questioned on their timing, opening in the midst of a recession.
"You can look at it either way, it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the best of times for us," Mrs. Thomas said. "You can look at the market any way you want to. There was a lot of opportunity there. You just have to be creative to put together a deal and work a little harder than before."
The timing was also, in part, the result of Re/Max opening the territory up to another office. The other two offices had exclusivity agreements that expired, Mrs. Thomas said, which allowed them to go into business with Re/Max.
Both Mrs. Thomas and Ms. Dansby have held brokers licenses for more than a decade, but this is the first time they have been able to use that qualification.
"We didn't intend on using it when we got it, it was another designation," Ms. Dansby explained.
And it didn't lead to any perks like higher commissions.
"That's why we bought a Re/Max franchise," Mrs. Thomas said.
There is a staff of nine and plans toward slow growth through the year. The agency is based in an office complex on Industrial Drive in Evans, with an option to move in next door if it gets large enough.
Both said they had clients follow them to their new company. Couple that with leads from Re/Max, an international company, and they were able to get started.
Mrs. Thomas said she doesn't consider the other Re/Max offices as competition.
"The more Re/Max signs, the better," she said.
Mrs. Thomas and Ms. Dansby met at Martinez Baptist Church more than 20 years ago and were co-workers for a few years. It took a persistent effort by Mrs. Thomas to get Ms. Dansby to jump into the new company.
It had to be in Evans, Mrs. Thomas said, to be near the area's residential growth.
"Augusta has changed ... When I first went into business in Columbia County, it was 80 percent native and 20 percent transient. That's almost flipped," Mrs. Thomas said.
Re/Max's name recognition became important, she said.
Ms. Dansby said they don't focus on certain demographics to get clients. They give the same service to the $19,000 seller and the $500,000 seller, she said.
"We are working owners," Ms. Dansby said. "We are both Type A people. We like work and like to be busy. We don't know what to do with ourselves if we're not."
What outsiders don't realize, they said, is how much work is involved in being a real estate agent. It is a seven-days-a-week job. Sunday, a popular day for open houses, might be the busiest day of the week.
Between showing houses to prospective buyers and meeting with prospective sellers, they "somehow find the time to run this company," Mrs. Thomas said.
"We usually eat right here," Ms. Dansby said.
"You have to be able to understand the business in order to stay in it," Mrs. Thomas said.
Ms. Dansby said she still sends out cards to clients she had when she broke into the industry 25 years ago. Basics such as that are keeping real estate agents alive in these times.
"You stay in contact with your sphere of influence," Ms. Dansby explained.
"I didn't want to give up my clientele. I'm selling their children's children's house now," Mrs. Thomas said.
Brenda Dansby
"She's very honest, very ethical, which is important in this business," Mrs. Thomas said. "What I lack, she has. She has a much softer personality than I do."
"Terri is more direct," Ms. Dansby interjected.
"Brenda has a way of saying the same thing that I say, but make it sound a whole lot better. I don't like to beat around the bush. We complement each other," Mrs. Thomas continued.
Both partners can run the numbers, but Ms. Dansby is more creative.
"There's nobody that I would want to go into business with except her," Mrs. Thomas said.
Ms. Dansby was born in Augusta in 1947. Like her business partner, she went to college for a year.
From Butler High School, Ms. Dansby went to private Baptist college Brewton-Parker in Mount Vernon, Ga.
She went because it was expected, but she wasn't angling for a particular degree.
"I decided that I didn't have to do it. I never did like school," Ms. Dansby said.
She returned to Augusta and took a job in insurance, met her first husband and raised three sons.
When her youngest son was 12, she decided to go into real estate.
"A friend of mine was in real estate. She is a dear friend and encouraged me. I liked the part about meeting new people and listening to their experiences," Ms. Dansby said.
She got her real estate license in 1985.
Ms. Dansby started her career with Blanchard & Calhoun before moving to Meybohm. She spent 12 years with B&C and 12 with Meybohm.
She plans to spend more than 12 years with Re/Max.
"I'm not ever going to retire," she said.
Ms. Dansby said she can't stand a day off.
"You give me a day home and I'm ready to get back to work," she said.
When she is home, she's gardening or playing with her grandchildren. She has nine grandchildren between her children and stepchildren.
Eight years ago, she married her second husband, Steve Neuhaus, who runs Georgia Siding and Window in Martinez.
She decided to keep Dansby as her last name because she was well known. But it would have been interesting to be a real estate agent named Brenda -- phonetically -- Newhouse.
Mr. Neuhaus was a builder when she met him.
"He was building homes and a friend of mine and I listed his homes," she said.
They dated for 13 years before getting married.
"We both decided one day that we'd get married and then two weeks later got married," she said.
Terri Thomas
"She's a smart person. She's good at figures. She's a good friend and I don't think I could be in partnership with many other people. I trust her with everything," Ms. Dansby said.
They are like-minded in having a strong work ethic to get tasks done, she added.
Mrs. Thomas is also an Augusta native, and she graduated from Glenn Hills High School in 1974.
She attended Augusta College, now known as Augusta State University, for about a year. She wasn't after a specific degree. Like Ms. Dansby, she went because that was what was expected after high school.
She met Jack Thomas through a friend, got married and moved to Columbia County, where he was a carpenter in residential construction. She has lived in Columbia County for 30 years.
She started in real estate in 1983. Her interest was sparked by her husband's profession.
"I saw it as a way to help him," Mrs. Thomas said. "But I did not intend to make a career out of it. To me, a real estate agent was a salesman. That didn't fit."
She fell in love with it once she got into the industry.
"It has to be a career, not something to dabble," Mrs. Thomas said. "How many people can go to work each day and like it and make money?"
It wasn't an easy time to start in real estate. In 1983, the interest rates were 18 percent, she said.
"I learned quickly how adaptable you have to be in real estate. The market changes all the time. People were getting adjustable rate mortgages or paying points to buy the rate down," she recalled.
Mrs. Thomas started with a small company that's no longer in business, Bowen Real Estate. Charles Bowen was a good teacher, she said.
The licensing doesn't teach everything, she said, and a mentor is needed once a new agent breaks into the business.
"You need some practical application. You don't know when you get out of school, all you know is that you've got a license," she said.
She stayed with the company for a couple of years and then joined Blanchard & Calhoun, then Meybohm.
Four years ago, she jumped into Re/Max as an agent, which led to the opportunity to open her own Re/Max office.
When there is time away from the company and family life, Mrs. Thomas is a bowler. That's her Friday night activity.
She also considers reading a hobby, avidly consuming any genre.
Exercise is a big part of her life.
She and Ms. Dansby work out together each morning. The personal trainer arrives at Ms. Dansby's house at 7:30 a.m.
"We work out for a little less than an hour," Mrs. Thomas said.
"And then we jump in our cars and come over here," Ms. Dansby said.
Ms. Thomas has yet to ride in the iconic Re/Max hot air balloon. Company personnel only get one chance a year to ride in it and she hasn't done so yet.
She's not scared of balloons, but she is scared of heights. You've got to face what you're scared of, she said.
Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.
TERRI THOMAS
BORN: March 26, 1956, Augusta
FAMILY: Husband, Jack; daughter, Rachel, stepsons Brad and Jack Jr.
HOBBIES: Bowling, reading, exercise
BRENDA DANSBY
BORN: March 6, 1947, Augusta
FAMILY: Husband, Steve; children, Scott, Cliff and Jeff; three stepchildren
HOBBIES: Exercise, cooking, gardening
Comments
Other than the people benefitting from the free advertising, who cares?
I do...I enjoy these articles each week giving background and insight information of local business leaders. Most are very interesting and great role models just like these fine ladies.
congrats to Terri and Brenda for bucking the trend in an otherwise shrinking real estate community in the Augusta area.
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