Kathy Morris & Robin Smith

  • Compass

  • Address

    1221 Hermosa Ave., Suite 210,
    Hermosa Beach 

  • Phones

    310-902-1121 (Kathy)
    213-447-2668 (Robin) 

  • Website | Social

    kathyandrobin.com
    @kathyandrobin

  • Special Section

    Women of the South Bay

Realtor® Kathy Morris has worked in real estate in the South Bay for 18 years. She grew up in Redondo Beach and returned to her hometown after college. Kathy bought her first property at age 23 and five years later turned her love of real estate into a career. Robin Smith is from a small town in Northern California. She migrated south to attend college. After marrying Kathy’s brother, RJ Smith, and learning the family business of construction and real estate, Robin got her real estate license and teamed up with her sister-in-law in 2015.


Tell us about your business.

We are real estate advisors and matchmakers. We give our clients a competitive advantage in our hot South Bay real estate market with our creative negotiating tactics, experience, contacts and reputation.


How do you help clients beat the competition?

The South Bay market continues to be very competitive. We definitely have secret strategies to help the offers we write stand out. However, we believe the relationships we’ve built with the agents in our community also help our offers rise to the top. While working in the best interests of their clients, agents need to work well together to make the transaction go smoothly and keep unnecessary stress off their clients. When an offer comes through from an agent and you know that agent is ethical and has integrity, you want to make the offer work to ensure a pleasant transaction.


What are some key qualities for women in leadership roles?

Strong communication, empathy, resilience, adaptability, strategic thinking, collaboration, decisiveness, and the ability to empower and inspire others.


What are the benefits of having women in leadership?

Women are great multitaskers! We are efficient, adaptable, resilient and holistic problem-solvers—all qualities we believe are especially important in a real estate advisor.


What is your best advice for a woman just starting out in your line of work?

Our biggest advice to agents we mentor is to stay positive—no matter what the challenge. Every problem has a solution, so trust yourself to find it and make it happen. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! Remember, everything is hard before it is easy, so keep moving forward with a smile and don’t give up.


What are the roadblocks in taking good care of yourself?

As natural nurturers, we often find ourselves putting everyone and everything else first. As a mom and wife working in a 24/7 industry, before you know it all your time and energy are consumed. We know it’s important to take care of ourselves, and this year our business coach has really worked on our schedules to make sure we both have “me” time. That’s another reason we love our team! We know our clients are always taken care of even if one of us is off the clock.


Tell us about a tool you love.

Kathy became a certified Reiki and crystal practitioner two years ago. It started as a passion hobby, but our clients started asking questions about it. So we began utilizing it in our business—placing crystals in specific areas to shift energy before a home sale or helping clients make a crystal grid to manifest a specific real estate goal. It has been fun to post monthly crystal tips on our Instagram page and incorporate this energy into our business.


How did you come up with your motto “Hustle & Heart”?

The transactions we handle are deeply personal and important to the people we work with on all sides of the deal. We hustle by going above and beyond in our quest to exceed our expectations, and we do everything following our hearts.


What are you especially grateful for today?

We are so grateful to have each other! It’s not every day you find a business partner (not to mention family member) whom you can work with day in and day out and not drive each other crazy! We trust each other completely, and our personalities and different strengths complement each other perfectly.


Why are you considered a go-to person in the South Bay community?

Clients appreciate our local roots and the fact that we come from a construction family. We both have personal experience with remodels and building homes from the ground up. We can help our clients envision what can be done to add value to a property, and we have the connections to help with all your home maintenance and improvement needs.


How are you supporting other women in the real estate industry?

We are founding members of the Compass Queens, a powerful group of top women Realtors from across the country. We meet weekly to support, connect and help build each other’s businesses. We love the close relationships we have made with these women. It’s been so helpful having strong partners everywhere in the country with whom we can connect clients when they need out-of-area help.


Photographed by Lauren Taylor