A private firm, built around patience.
The Rissas Companies is a family-owned multifamily investor and operator. We hold a concentrated, deliberately chosen portfolio — and we intend to hold it for a long time.
We are not in a hurry.
Most real estate is bought in order to be sold. A fund raises capital, acquires assets, improves them against a clock, and returns the capital within a defined window. That model works. It is simply not ours.
The Rissas Companies is privately held and family-owned. We answer to no outside investors and no fund timeline. That independence shapes every decision we make — how we underwrite, how much leverage we carry, how we treat residents, and how long we are willing to wait for the right building.
Independence is not a constraint on the firm. It is the entire advantage.
We would rather own a concentrated portfolio and operate it well than a sprawling one operated carelessly. Every property is underwritten by the people who will operate it, and operated by the people who chose to own it.
What we look for.
Four tests. A building has to pass all of them before it earns a place in the portfolio.
Location first
Walkable, transit-served neighborhoods with durable demand. We buy the block before we buy the building.
Modest vintage
Well-built pre-war and mid-century multifamily — the kind of construction that rewards careful, consistent maintenance.
Conservative structure
Leverage we can service through any cycle. We do not underwrite to a refinance, and we do not assume the exit.
A long hold
We model in decades. Stewardship is the strategy; a sale is only ever an option, never the plan.
Of the East Bay, not merely in it.
Our work is concentrated in the East Bay and San Francisco, with a focus on durable multifamily neighborhoods, transit-served locations, and buildings that benefit from attentive long-term ownership.
We invest where we operate — close enough to walk the properties, read the blocks, and answer a resident the same day.
Family ownership is a longer word for accountability. A family owns this firm — and a family answers for it.