Amber Ayers has been working since she was in high school and is now some 10 years into a profession for which she ‘cleaned up’ to get started.
Ayers has been in the real estate business since 2017 and has no intention of changing jobs. She has no idea when retirement might come, and she is not dwelling on it.
“They say realtors don’t retire till they meet Jesus; you work forever,” she laughed. “I hope that’s not true. I hope I do get to retire at some point, but we’ll see. I do enjoy it, I really do. It is really fun.”
The former Amber Glisson — originally from Monroe County but a Jones County resident since she was 13 — worked at Tastee-Freez in Gray while in high school. It was there in 1998 that she met fellow employee Eric Ayers. Attracted to each other, they started dating and married four years later.
Ayers thought for a moment. “I guess what first attracted me to him was he so handsome, tall, and always so nice.”
Ayers, 44, gives her mom, Kathy Glisson, credit for taking care of her long before she got to Jones County.
“My dad passed away when I was six, so my mom raised us. She worked three or four jobs to make ends meet for most of my life. She remarried when I was 13, and that is what brought us here.”
Kathy Glisson was diagnosed with lupus the week of her daughter’s 14th birthday and was in and out of the hospital from 1996 until she passed away in 2004.
“The last three years were pretty bad. Hands down the hardest time of my life,” Ayers reflected.
The JCHS graduate chose to go straight to work following high school.
“I worked at a dentist’s office right out of high school for the first 10 to 15 years,” she pointed out. “I worked for an office in Macon, and then I worked for an office in Forsyth. My mom actually worked there before me.”
The mother of four said expenses led to a change in her work habits.
“Putting three kids in daycare is not fun. So I went to working two days a week at the dentist’s office, and I was cleaning houses two days a week.”
Her cleaning duties ultimately led to another — much more significant — change.
“One of the houses I cleaned was actually the realtor that sold us our house,” Ayers recalled. “And she kept telling me to get my real estate license. I could help her out; she did a lot of foreclosures back then.”
Ayers took her advice. “So I got my real estate license just to help her, and it turned into way more than I ever imagined. I was still cleaning houses for the first six months I had my real estate license. I cleaned houses and sold real estate, and then after that, real estate got so busy, I couldn’t do both.”
Ayers obtained her license in 2016 and, after discontinuing cleaning houses, worked for about a year and a half with the agent who encouraged her to change jobs, then began selling under the REMAX umbrella in 2020.
“It was a blessing,’’ she said, “because I just really thought it was going to be something to sell some foreclosed homes, you know, every now and then. And it turned into way more than I ever imagined.”
In fact, she said, it was more than she could handle. She turned to Eric, who had been working at GEICO for around 20 years.
“In 2022, it got to the point where I was either going to have to hire somebody, start telling people no, figure out some way to do it. I was just too busy. So Eric technically retired from GEICO and got his real estate license.
“So we’ve been working together since then, and,” she laughed, “we’re still married. Working together, that’s a whole different thing, you know.”
The couple stays busy … and out of the office.
“Technically, my office is REMAX, but really my office is my car,” Ayers made clear. “I stay in that all the time. Usually, we’re running around throughout the day showing homes in Jones County. Ninety percent of the business we do is in Jones County.”
They have a pretty good routine, she pointed out.
“He drives, and usually I have my laptop over there, making phone calls and whatnot. That’s how we get it done. It works pretty good.
“Every now and then I can tell that we’re having an off day,” she acknowledged. “That’s what I call it, and he’ll go one way and I’ll go the other way. He’s one of the sweetest men you’ll meet, and he doesn’t let my attitude bother him much.”
Ayers stressed that she does very little advertising.
“I do a lot of sponsorships through the school, but I don’t pay for billboards. I don’t do any of that, and I don’t buy leads off of Zillow. A lot of my business is word of mouth.I help somebody, and then they tell somebody when they hear they’re selling.
“I think if you treat somebody right and do right by them, they’ll send you a lot of business. So that’s what we try. I try to do a good job for people, and they’ll spread your name around. That’s the best advertisement you can get I think.”
Ayers has been active on a volunteer basis in the community for several years. She has been on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce since 2020 and in her second stint, which ends in 2027. She is also now serving as chairperson of the board for the second time.
“I really enjoy it. We do a lot for the community and businesses that people don’t realize, more behind the scenes. We do a lot of networking events. And, if anybody calls and has any issue, we try our best to point them in the right direction.
“Personally, I have done several events through the years. I am on the committee that plans the fireworks extravaganza, women in business, the annual dinner, and others.”
Amber and Eric have three daughters — Katie, 23, Emma, 22, Aubrie, 15 — and one son, Eli, 12. The two oldest girls are in college, the youngest at Jones County High, and Eli in middle school.
“We had three daughters, and he wanted a boy,” Amber commented, adding that she told Eric she didn’t want to go through that again. Fortunately, they were able to adopt Eli, the newborn son of a relative of Eric’s. The adoption became final just before his first birthday.
“Such a blessing for us,” Ayers smiled. “Truly a blessing. Now, he’s not like the girls when they were little. They liked to color, were calm; you could watch a movie and just chill. Eli is wide open, jumping ramps with his dirt bike, fishing in the pond all day, stuff like that.”
The realtor/mother has also been involved in her kids’ school activities, including the PTO at Turner Woods Elementary; she served on the board for eight years. And, she has not stopped.
“I volunteer a lot at the high school,” Ayers shared. “When they get older, it’s hard to do a whole lot. So, when anybody calls and needs anything, I try to help out as much as I can. I’ve always tried really hard to be involved in the school system.I just always felt like the more you pour in, the more you’ll get out.
“When I was growing up. I wanted to be a teacher,” Ayers said.
“Then I started volunteering at the school, and I realized why Jesus didn’t let me be a teacher. That is, I couldn’t handle that. But I did want to be involved as much as I could.”
Ayers explained her willingness to do such volunteer work.
“When I first started real estate, I had a lady look me dead in my face, and she said, ‘There is one thing that everybody in this county needs to know. You either get involved and do the best you can and better this community, or you get out.’
“I don’t think she was meaning to tell me that. I think she just was saying it in conversation. But, I do think it’s true. I think the more involved you are, the more you realize how great this area is.”
