AgentOwned Realty offering job-loss protection

Nearly all the pieces are falling into place to create the perfect home-buying environment: low interest rates, a tax credit for first-time buyers, lots of homes to pick from and home prices.

If only employers would quit laying people off.

"Those things are extremely powerful, but they still haven't pushed the market forward and gotten people to have the confidence to purchase a home," said Liza Loadholt-Valero of Agent-Owned Realty.

That's why AgentOwned, starting today, will offer a new program that will pay part of a homebuyer's mortgage if they're laid off shortly after the transaction. The Exclusive Job Loss Protection program acts like insurance and is similar to what other home builders and car dealerships are offering to uncertain consumers.

The most basic coverage will buy three payments of up to $1,000 following any involuntary job loss that occurs a year after the home purchase. The program's $299 cost would likely factor into the standard closing costs. Buyers can also upgrade to better coverage, Loadholt-Valero said.

Homeowners who are trying to sell their home through AgentOwned can also buy the program, which could help them distinguish their home among the thousands that are listed these days.

"We're trying to give a difference answer other than that you've got to lower the price," Loadholt-Valero said. "Yeah, a lot of times you have to lower the price, but there are other ways you can drum up interest in your home."

AgentOwned has eight Charleston-area office locations.

For the record

There's something in the water — or the whatever luxury-level Tasmanian rainwater that rich people are drinking these days — that's causing them to buy very expensive homes. Weeks after a historic mansion in downtown Charleston sold for a record price, Atlanta celebrated the same milestone with the $10.5 million sale of a Buckhead home.

The stately stucco home — dubbed Descante — features nine fireplaces, seven bedrooms, a pool, a guest house with its own pool and 14-foot high ceilings. The estate's grounds cover four acres.

An article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution didn't say who the seller was, and the buyer has not been identified.

The sale comes on the heels of the James Simmons House's $7.375 million transaction in Charleston last month. The 37 Meeting St. home, purchased by a New Jersey couple nearing retirement age, once hosted Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard while he commanded Confederate forces during the Civil War.

Therein lies the main difference between the two properties. While both feature expansive square footage and a long list of expected luxuries for that price point, the Atlanta property was built in 1997 — roughly 237 years after the Simmons property.

Reach Katy Stech at 937-5549 or kstech@postand courier.com.