Market Leader

Riskin Partners Estate Group

The four Riskin partners steadfastly carry on the real estate legacy of their mentor while running one of the highest sales-volume teams in the nation.

Written by Constance Dunn

Rebecca Riskin spent 37 years in real estate, etching her name in the Montecito community by representing many of the area’s most notable properties and building up her namesake firm. After her 2018 passing, the Riskin team—which includes son Robert, along with Dina Landi, Sarah Hanacek and Jasmine Tennis—took the reins, continuing the standout legacy of their mentor not only in work but in spirit.

DID YOU KNOW?

Since its founding more than two decades ago, Riskin Partners has transacted over $3.5 billion in real estate sales—with more than $1.8 billion sold between 2018-2021 alone.
Riskin Partners currently ranks 2nd in the nation among small real estate teams by volume (RealTrends + Tom Ferry The Thousand, 2022), a position they also held in 2021.
So far this year, they’ve closed $340 million in real estate deals, and have an additional $185 million in current escrows.

“Rebecca used to say, ‘I’m actually not a very good salesperson; I just feel really passionate about what I sell. I love what I do!’” recounts Landi of Riskin Partners Estate Group, who started her career as an assistant to Ms. Riskin, along with fellow partner Sarah Hanacek. It’s a perspective shared in earnest by all four Riskin partners, who’ve done a skillful job of carrying on the most enduring aspects of the firm—established brick by brick by Ms. Riskin, who for decades stayed firmly at the top of an uber-luxury real estate niche where much is expected of one’s agent—while continuing to innovate, particularly when it comes to marketing properties.

631 Parra Grande, listed by Riskin Partners. Photo: Jim Bartsch

The success metrics of the new generation of Riskin Partners are reflected in their inclusion in a host of industry Best Of lists; notable among them is RealTrends + Tom Ferry The Thousand, featured annually in The Wall Street Journal. The prestigious ranking of real estate agents has Riskin Partners second in the nation among small teams by volume ($864 million in sales for 2021); a position they also held the previous year. “What makes our partnership unique are three things,” states Landi. “The first is that we all work together. The second is that we very rarely deviate outside of Montecito, and the third is that we have our own marketing department.”

At work the partners maintain an ongoing business dialogue, tapping their collective expertise to serve clients and sell properties (“It’s valuable to clients to have multiple perspectives,” Landi points out), while relying on a dedicated three-person marketing team that’s as focused on property specs and graphics just as much as analytics. “It allows us to curate really unique digital campaigns that actually get opened,” she remarks, noting how campaigns get further exposure via their brokerage, Village Properties, which is part of Forbes Global Properties, an exclusive network of real estate firms placed around the world.

888 Lilac Drive, listed by Riskin Partners. Photo: Jim Bartsch

“Rebecca used to say, ‘I’m actually not a very good salesperson; I just feel really passionate about what I sell. I love what I do!”

— Dina Landi

3165 Padaro Lane, listed by Riskin Partners. Photo: Eric Foote

So images of the rolling green hills on the 3,100-acre Hacienda Ranch ($45 million), which the partners currently represent, or those of the stately oceanfront estate on Padaro Lane (also listed by Riskin Partners for $65 million) can be reliably relayed to the small league of global buyers for whom such properties are a real possibility. (These listings represent the higher end of the price spectrum at Riskin Partners; the firm also represents a sizable number of properties in the $5 to $20 million range.)

Gracious is often mentioned by those describing Rebecca Riskin, although it’s a word rarely linked to the pressure-point realm of luxury real estate, where transactions are typically very high stakes and personal. But her real estate heirs—Robert Riskin, Dina Landi, Sarah Hanacek and Jasmine Tennis—are keen to maintain this quality as a central premise of their business, imbued as it is with characteristics like consideration and conscientiousness. “We’re running a business, but it also feels like a family,” muses Landi, “and whenever we have any kind of dilemma, we always ask ourselves, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’ When you have that as your constant focus, the solution, and all the rest, just falls in line.”