Headed for foreclosure? Business offers help

Leroy Burnell
The Post and Courier

The front porch of this home for sale at Porchers Bluff in Mount Pleasant has open views of the marsh east of the Cooper.

Hobson Group Realty is anything but conventional.

The West Ashley business formed in 2006 by husband and wife Michael and Jennifer Hobson launched a 0 percent commission operation, no-cost Multiple Listing Service inclusion and tie-ins with a mortgage company.

The latest move is "free real estate services, marketing and advertising for anyone behind in their payments or facing foreclosure."

Benefits include an e-mail campaign with e-fliers and automatic online feedback to try to sell a house; listing on Realtor.com with photos, a banner or special remarks; toll-free recorded information 24 hours a day; a yard sign; free listing in MLS; and current market analysis. Also, there's no commission on a sale by the owner if no buyer's agent is involved.

The business will offer negotiations with banks or mortgage companies to help alleviate the burden of late payments or foreclosure proceedings. In conjunction with this, Hobson Group has hooked up with a trustee to meet with lenders on behalf of clients to discuss short sales, where the bank or mortgage company agrees to accept a settlement less than the amount the borrower owes. Meanwhile, the business is sponsoring free workshops for people with mortgage troubles, the first to be held July 15 at the St. Andrews Regional Library.

"The exposure for us is a real estate company doing the right thing," Michael Hobson says.

It's a talker

The house at 1581 Porchers Bluff Road in Mount Pleasant doesn't seem special by the size (1,845 square feet) or year built (1991). But Realtors are smitten. A number of online listings speak of the raised "tree" house as "One of a Kind: Come see why Edgar Allan Poe said, 'The treasure is buried at Porcher's Bluff.' " Or so says the real estate community.

The three-bedroom, two-story house, priced at $999,000, has a number of attractions such as a dock, views of Copahee Sound, a circa 1910 guest house on the property, koi pond and a petanque (French-style bocce) court.

Straight from factory

Custom-built modular homes highlight the new Overlook at Battery Creek development in Beaufort County.

Haven Custom Homes, which has a plant in Ridgeland, and PEC Development are combining on the project. As hosts of a media tour July 10, executives from both companies were to display the Orleans and Sumter models built in Haven's climate-controlled warehouse, transported to the home sites and then completed on-site in a matter of weeks.

The executives also laid out the history of Overlook at Battery Creek, which opened last summer and was the recent recipient of the Best in American Living Award for land plan design and development.

Based in Atlanta, PEC Development has experience designing neighborhoods in suburban Atlanta and chose Beaufort as its entry point in South Carolina.

Reach Jim Parker at 937-5542 or jparker@postandcourier.com.