Standing along the pristine Holden Beach shoreline, the gentle laps of water regularly deposit treasures at our feet, as though an offering of sorts to those early risers or late afternoon strollers. It’s an amazing daily gift to live and work here on beautiful Holden Beach.
Nearly 50 Years of Living, Working, and Playing on Holden Beach
We appreciate every day on Holden Beach as a gift, as we serve thousands of property owners and visitors each year to this gorgeous gem of the South Brunswick Islands. We enjoy the opportunity to live, work, and play on Holden Beach, something we’ve done for nearly 50 years. The fourth generation of the Hobbs family is now discovering the same joys of this unspoiled barrier island as their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. And what a joy it is for the Hobbs Realty family to help other families discover Holden Beach and its treasures, creating lifelong memories and legacies of their own!
A glance back into the history of Hobbs Realty quickly reveals that, while almost five decades of history include changes through the seasons, some things remain the same.
Family-Built from the Ground Up
In 1977, Mr. James O. Hobbs and his family began building and selling homes one home at a time on Holden Beach. Two years later, with the help of his wife, the late Betty Hobbs, they officially set up a brick-and-mortar shop as Hobbs Realty. Their extensive local knowledge and passion for all things Holden Beach quickly and organically allowed them to expand their business into vacation rental management.
The story actually began back in 1951 when Mr. Hobbs married Betty Rose Stephens and they first built a family together in nearby Lake Waccamaw. Summer memories for their four children include family seaside vacations to Holden Beach, a much-appreciated escape from their daily farm chores. The first step towards realizing their dream of owning a beach house occurred in 1976, when the oldest child, Jimmy, rode to Holden Beach with his parents on a warm September Sunday afternoon to look at an oceanfront lot. They struck a deal, and when Jimmy asked when construction would start, the response was January 1.
Isn’t that what most folks do for New Year’s Day… start building an oceanfront beach house? But, determined to set the tone of hard work for the year, Mr. Hobbs, his three sons, and his son-in-law (one of the best carpenters around) began construction of their first beach home, right smack dab in the middle of an unusually bitter January, working 16-hour days, Monday through Saturday. With the wind off the ocean and an average 33-degree kind of cold – a stark contrast to our usual moderate tropical climate - the work cooler holding the drinks only needed to be refilled once with ice before the end of the month. Those beach boys were cold, but they learned all about home construction, albeit on a trial-by-fire basis. “I learned all about it at the end of a hammer and after my finger turned blue – and I never hit my finger again!” Jimmy remembers not so fondly.
When a surprise visitor showed up on the construction site before they finished the interior painting and building the boardwalk to the ocean, she asked if the house was for sale. “It could be,” was the response, and Mrs. Hobbs was told they’d build her another house. The quality of construction was apparent to many passing by on Ocean Boulevard, and more than one home was sold mid-project. In fact, numerous deals were made on an old-fashioned handshake, one with a $20 bill to cinch the deal for an oceanfront home. Because they were selling those classic cottages faster than they could build them during those first couple of years, Jimmy was licensed as a realtor in August of 1978.
Riding the Waves into Vacation Rental Management
A light bulb came on when the Hobbs realized those homeowners who purchased their newly constructed homes immediately partnered with a management company to handle their properties and rentals. So, by the following year, the family officially established Hobbs Realty. Jimmy recalls distributing keys and property literature out of the back of a station wagon, with a skeletal staff and only two housekeepers, and launching the business phone number that is still in operation today (910-842-2002). As the business quickly grew, in addition to working as the property manager and sales broker, Jimmy eventually managed 20-25 teams of housekeepers on the busy check-in/check-out days. During that pre-computer era, Jimmy’s Saturdays usually began at daybreak and concluded only after all the new guests were checked in manually, rounds were made to the homeowners, and real estate appointments were met. “Around 1:00 PM I was eating a hotdog from the pier, riding down the island in between appointments, and inspecting homes to ensure they met our Hobbs standards,” he recalls.
The old real estate days included those early contracts of ’79, with the lot information written on a card and a single-page agreement for the buyer and seller, in stark contrast to the lengthy document of today’s state requirements. That same year, Ms. Betty finally got her beach house… not necessarily her forever home, but a home by default when an oceanfront house the Hobbs built didn’t immediately sell. Shortly thereafter, the Hobbs purchased a house at 114 Ocean Boulevard West (at the time it was only the front brick section) on a gentleman’s handshake agreement, deciding it would make a great location for a proper real estate office. The doors opened July 1 of that year, and the Hobbs family was quickly in the throes of growing the business of vacation rental management and reservations, expanding their portfolio to over 100 homes by the mid-'80s.
Immediate and extended family members all pitched in to handle the blossoming business – whether for a season or for years - including the Hobbs’ three sons and daughter, as well as Grandma Stephens. She loved the beach and often stayed with the Hobbs during those first busy summers, providing warm, homecooked meals when they finally closed the office each day, often after 10:00 PM. Jimmy also recalls a chart calendar on the wall, tracking reservations on a legal pad, and Mrs. Hobbs serving as the backbone of the family business. She was involved in every aspect of the daily operations as needed, from after-hours reservations to answering the phone or filing during the day. The office was expanded later to include additional workspace and an upstairs apartment, one of the places where the elder Hobbs resided until they built their permanent home.
Loyalty and the Next Chapter
And those first home buyers for the Hobbs? They stopped in to see them at the new OBW office and all but one moved their homes to the Hobbs Realty vacation rental program, with many of those homes reaching capacity rentals every year. The unique dose of hospitality offered by Hobbs Realty resulted in property owner loyalty, an ever-growing base of return guests, and years of referrals from satisfied owners and guests for real estate sales and vacation rentals.
When the first rental brochure was published in 1980, it included 26 homes that weren’t built by Hobbs Realty. When Jimmy married Rachele in the early ‘80s, she contributed during their season of raising their four children by working summers and handling reservations at night. Calls in the wee hours of the morning were not unusual, and they also had a season of living above the office. With Jimmy as Hobbs Realty manager and broker, Rachele continued to jump in wherever needed, including supporting real estate sales, with its mounds of paperwork, until she joined the team full time around 2000.
The number of rental homes doubled in her first two years, and transformative changes over the years have included the expansion of technology, developing a robust website and marketing team, and the departmentalization of the office. Now as CEO, Rachele continues to place great emphasis on the same basic principles laid by those who came before her – that of building steadfast relationships, providing beautiful spaces and amenities that help families create lasting memories, and providing unparalleled hospitality…. Hobbspitality.
Hobbspitality
Many changes and shifts in the tide have been experienced through five decades, from American presidents and headline news to staff and technology. But the Hobbs mission has continued to build on the foundation of exceptional and unwavering customer service and staying true to what Holden Beach is. Hobbs Realty may offer a much larger portfolio of homes these days, but they strive for the same superlative Hobbspitality experience on our top-ranked family island for vacationers greeted by that glorious view coming over the high-rise Holden Beach bridge!
Through the years, generations of Hobbs children and grandchildren have pitched in cleaning driveways, assisting guests, answering phones, and a host of other Saturday responsibilities. The third generation has now stepped into their roles in each department. While much has evolved, the family’s passion for vacation rental management and real estate sales as a way to make a difference has continued. Hobbs Realty is committed to offering a clean, well-appointed home-away-from-home, providing the opportunity for guests to experience the best vacation possible for their money, fairly addressing every question, and helping make guests happy!
In recent years, a rental home guest expressed concern about a malfunctioning air conditioner. Over 40 years after helping launch a business focused on superlative customer service, Jimmy Hobbs hopped in his truck, drove down the eight-mile barrier strand, and knocked on the guest’s door. After their front-porch chat, they arrived at a quick resolution, but the bottom line is… that personal touch still mattered.
A Commitment to the Past, Present, and Future
The Hobbspitality Team strives to find that careful balance between the original charm and service of a family-owned business with updated offerings for guests, meeting the needs of a new generation of homeowners and vacationers, and transcending industry standards. Their greatest joy is still rooted in the desire to share all things Holden Beach with those returning to Holden Beach or those discovering for the first time the treasures lapping to shore, the views, the peace, and the respite of island living.
The Hobbs family is committed to offering a clean, well-appointed home-away-from-home, providing the opportunity for guests to experience the best vacation possible for their money, fairly addressing every question, and helping make guests happy! It’s fairly simple for the Hobbspitality Team: Treat others like you want to be treated. Keep your word. Establish authentic relationships with homeowners. And give families “who worked hard like we did the opportunity to experience happiness.”
Gratitude has been the name of the game for each generation – gratitude for every inquiry, reservation, guest, vendor, employee, property owner, and homeowner who entrusts them with their valuable time and investments, a fact that’s never taken for granted any more than their stunning front-row view of the Atlantic horizon is.
Story after Hobbs's story recounts the hard work, sweat, tears, laughter, and joys of working in the destination and vacation management industry. It’s obviously been a business built on faith, trust, and the desire to help people fulfill dreams of owning a beach home, as well as providing a safe place to build vacation memories of sunrise jogs, turtle-watching, bicycling, shell-hunting, oceanside dips in the pool, boating, dancing under the bridge, sunset walks, and scrumptious meals scarfed up by folks with ravenous appetites after days filled with sun, salt, and sand.
Discover the Gifts and Treasures
To paraphrase scripture, to whom much is given much is required. Indeed, the Hobbs family is grateful for the daily opportunity to extend grace to others as God guides their family business. “It’s imperative that we show our gratitude to God for the blessings He’s allowed in our lives,” shares Jimmy. “We can’t out-give God.”
Surely one of the treasures along the Holden Beach shoreline is Hobbs Realty and their nearly half a century of contributions to a quaint coastal community and to hardworking families striving to build lifelong coastal memories.
We’d love to help you discover your own gifts and treasures here at Holden Beach, starting with the perfect location. Simply contact our Hobbspitality Team at (844) 846-4885.
We hope to see you soon…. at the beach!