INFLUENCER: Molly Hobin-Williams

A Manhattan Beach agent continues her family’s 95-year real estate legacy.

Molly Hobin-Williams 
President, The Hobin Company at Bayside Real Estate Partners

Molly Hobin-Williams
310.925.2529
thehobincompany.com

EARLY HISTORY
Molly’s great-grandfather incorporated the company in 1925.

RESIDENTIAL AND MORE
The Hobin Company deals primarily in residential real estate sales, with leases, commercial sales and project management also part of their offering.

DESERT CONNECTION
The Hobin Team at Bennion Deville Homes, located in Palm Desert, specializes in residences located at private golf course and country club communities.

In the midst of the Roaring Twenties a man named William Henry Hobin incorporated his real estate firm, The Hobin Company. For decades, his heirs—first his son, then grandson—ran the Stockton, California, agency. In 2010 his great-granddaughter Molly Hobin-Williams took the helm, relocating the firm to Manhattan Beach. At the same time, her mother started a Palm Desert office. “It wasn’t even a question,” says The Hobin Company’s fourth-generation scion of her career choice. She sat for her real estate license at age 17, and had it activated as soon as possible, on her 18th birthday. “I always knew I was going to be in real estate. I was born into it.”

Hobin-Williams spent high school summers working at the family office, and after obtaining a degree from UCLA, she invested 24 years in L.A.’s commercial real estate world. First came more than a decade at Grubb & Ellis, followed by years at Arden Realty, where she was vice president of marketing. Family legacy aside, what personally drew Hobin-Williams to the business and keeps her there, much like it did her father, was the thrill of the deal. “I love when I meet with a client, and they tell me ideally what they’re looking for,” she says, “and then I go find it, and put the deal together—and they’re ecstatic.”

For nearly 40 years Hobin-Williams has lived in Manhattan Beach, which is also her firm’s main geographic focus. Her clients however, all referrals from friends, family and her commercial real estate days, have her involved in deals stretching from Palos Verdes to Pacific Palisades. “Keeping it small and boutique is really important to us,” she says of her firm’s high-touch style, a deliberate counter to the dispassionate, numbers-only nature of commercial real estate. “

It’s much more of an emotional buy when it’s your home,” Hobin-Williams points out. Also in the Manhattan Avenue office is Hobin-Williams’s husband Tom Williams, who manages the firm’s Development Services; essentially, end-to-end management of residential and commercial projects.

Rolling with the evolution of real estate has been key to keeping The Hobin Company alive for decades, something Hobin-Williams acknowledges. “Our business is changing,” she notes. Therefore, she’s recently joined forces with Side, a brokerage that offers boutique agencies like The Hobin Company a complete back-end support infrastructure—everything from legal and compliance to marketing—along with an advanced tech platform. “It will now allow us to be selling, and not sitting at our computers,” remarks Hobin-Williams.

Furthermore, the support of the brokerage will enable her to grow her firm while remaining hands-off when it comes to dictating her brand. Locally, The Hobin Company will be part of Bayside Real Estate Partners, Side’s South Bay division that was founded by local agents and her longtime friends Bryn and Robb Stroyke. “Partnering with Bayside will allow us the opportunity to focus on running our business and expanding our team, as opposed to the day-to-day operations,” says Hobin-Williams of the move. “It will take us to the next level and free up a lot of my time. And it’s going to be fun.”

In April, Hobin-Williams and her husband will have a party to celebrate The Hobin Company’s 95 years in real estate. “It’s pretty special,” she says of the milestone. Even more so with passing of her father, William Knight Hobin, who ran the firm until her stewardship of the business began in 2010. “He was happy and proud that his daughter took over the company, and that we were very successful right off the bat,” she reflects. “More than ever I want to expand our team and keep it going.” Here’s to another 100.

Photographs Courtesy Of The Hobin Company