So, you want to have something like default text loaded to the editable region? If yes, then I did this:
Created a custom web part inheriting from CMSAbstractWebPart class.
This is my ascx code (just snippets for inspiration):
<div>
<h1 >
<cms:CMSEditableRegion ID="TileTitle" runat="server" />
</h1>
<p >
<cms:CMSEditableRegion ID="TileDesc" runat="server" RegionType="HtmlEditor" />
</p>
</div>
Amd in the code behind, you need to use the right event of the control life cycle to call the LoadContent method. I did it in the OnPreRender:
protected override void OnPreRender(EventArgs e)
{
base.OnPreRender(e);
TileDesc.LoadContent("some content", true);
}