Tami Pardee founded Pardee Properties, a Venice-based real estate brokerage, with a vision to build a firm that combines personal connection and market-specific expertise.
Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, the firm has expanded to three offices across California with a sales volume of $7.7 billion to date. In addition to Pardee’s brokerage work, the firm also publishes market insights covering topics like the impact of staging on selling a property, opportunities found through accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, and tax benefits of homeownership.
The Business Journal spoke to Pardee about her journey leading her namesake over the last two decades, moments of trial and success, her concierge strategy and which pockets of Los Angeles are currently seeing increased residential activity.
What do you value most about being a business owner?
I love building relationships that last long after a sale. I cherish connection above all. At its heart, this business is all about connection. It’s about guiding clients through life’s transitions and knowing they trust me to put their needs ahead of my bottom line. Guiding someone through one of the biggest financial and emotional decisions of their life is an honor I don’t take lightly.
After 20 years in this industry, the greatest reward is getting to be that ‘go-to person’ people call when they need honest advice, whether that means holding steady in place or making a hard decision to move on.
What is a challenge you’ve faced in your 20 years running Pardee Properties and how did you navigate that?
When the 2008 to 2010 downturn hit, fear was everywhere. Instead of retreating, I doubled down: I took on the risk, poured more into marketing, fronted the costs for staging and pre-listing prep and offered clear Plans A, B and C, so every client knew their options no matter what. My calm confidence, backed by strategies we’d honed, became a lifeline. It was all about steadying the ship for families navigating one of life’s biggest transitions, especially during turbulent times, and being steadfast and strategic, doubled our business in that cycle.
On the other hand, describe a moment of success where you felt like, “OK, now I’ve made it in this industry.”
I began with $30 million in sales at my previous firm. That was great, but the real breakthrough came when I realized that our “work family,” our tight-knit team, was living the Pardee way every day: treating clients with genuine care, earning five-star reviews, celebrating life milestones like houses, weddings and babies, while still hitting record sales. Seeing the people on my team thriving, both personally and professionally, made me realize we’d built something rare. The fact that we can both rank high up in national sales rankings and know everyone’s birthdays is pretty amazing.
Tell me about Pardee’s concierge brokerage model. How does that differentiate the firm?
One single agent, juggling every detail themselves, doesn’t make sense. It’s inefficient. Instead, we operate as one cohesive team, playing to each person’s strengths and staying in constant communication. Our sales partners collaborate cross-functionally with in-house marketing, operations, signage and transaction specialists to connect all the dots for clients.
We call it “concierge” because we go above and beyond. We maintain a vetted database, gather multiple quotes, schedule and oversee every appointment, handle payments and manage work from start to finish.
What impact have the Los Angeles wildfires had on the residential market here, and what has that meant for Pardee Properties?
When the wildfires happened, our first response was (that) we had to help. Our team was all in. We formed a five-person “Housing Task Force” to do home-matchmaking for neighbors at no cost, connecting over 300 people within weeks. The whole situation was unprecedented. There were a lot of regulations to navigate and guide our clients through. Nearby beach neighborhoods, like Venice and Santa Monica, experienced nearly double the typical listing activity. Properties were selling and renting very quickly. February, typically a slow month for real estate seasonality, ended at a record high.
What do you view as the biggest misconception about running a business?
That to be successful, you must keep growing at any cost. Real impact comes from choosing quality over quantity. I believe in adding team members, services or offices only when they strengthen our “work family” and enhance client experience. Intentional, values-driven pace is how you build a brand people believe in and stay with for life. — Kennedy Zak
