About
The Ruth Reffkin Team.

Environmental portrait of Ruth Reffkin in New York City

Relationship-driven, not transaction driven.

The Team Story

A New York Real Estate Team
Built on Relationships.

Ruth Reffkin Portrait

Ruth Reffkin

Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker, Founded and Led Compass Plus, and a Certified Senior Advisor with over 27 years of experience advising clients through buying, selling, downsizing, and estate transitions.

Raised on the Upper West Side, Ruth brings a lifelong connection to New York City together with decades of experience navigating its evolving real estate landscape. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology from New York University and a graduate degree in education from the University of California, Berkeley before returning home to build a relationship-driven practice.

Outside of real estate, Ruth enjoys exploring the theaters, museums, and restaurants that make the city so special, alongside spending time with her grandchildren. As the mother of Compass Founder and CEO Robert Reffkin, watching the remarkable growth of the company has been one of her proudest personal experiences.

Susan Hirschorn Portrait

Susan Hirschorn

Lifelong Manhattan resident and trusted family transition specialist with more than 13 years of experience guiding clients through complex real estate moves with precision, discretion, and care.

Susan specializes in helping families navigate the emotional and logistical complexities of transitioning from longtime family homes to curated, turnkey residences throughout New York City. Her thoughtful, highly organized approach brings clarity and calm to moments that often involve significant personal and financial decisions.

From coordinating out-of-state logistics to managing trust and estate-related sales, Susan serves as a central point of alignment for clients, family members, attorneys, and financial professionals — ensuring every transition is handled seamlessly and with exceptional attention to detail.

The Partnership

Together, Ruth and Susan bring complementary strengths shaped by years of experience, trusted relationships, and a shared belief that real estate is ultimately about people.

Their partnership combines strategic market guidance with deeply personalized service, helping clients navigate everything from first purchases to multigenerational transitions with clarity, discretion, and care.

"Mission Before Commission."

“Mission Before Commission” reflects the way The Ruth Reffkin Team practices: with discretion, empathy, strategic guidance, and an unwavering commitment to doing what is right for the client.

Whether advising first-time buyers, longtime homeowners, growing families, or clients navigating estate and downsizing transitions, the team is known for delivering thoughtful guidance grounded in trust, responsiveness, and long-term relationships. Much of their business comes from repeat clients and personal referrals built over decades in New York City.

Relationship-Driven Advisory

Why clients choose
The Ruth Reffkin Team

More Than 40+ Years of NYC Experience

With decades of combined experience across NYC real estate, The Ruth Reffkin Team brings deep neighborhood knowledge, strategic pricing expertise, and longstanding relationships throughout New York City. Their experience spans the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, Chelsea, Brooklyn Heights, Midtown East, and beyond.

Mission Before Commission

“Mission Before Commission” is the philosophy that guides every client relationship. The team approaches each transaction with discretion, empathy, and a long-term perspective — always focused on what genuinely serves the client best.

Certified Senior Advisor & Compass Plus Leadership

Ruth Reffkin is a Certified Senior Advisor and Founder of Compass Plus, a specialized initiative within Compass created to support older adults and their families through later-life real estate transitions. Together, the team brings thoughtful guidance to downsizing, estate-related sales, and multigenerational moves requiring both strategic expertise and emotional sensitivity.

Financial Fluency Built on Personal Experience

The team approaches every transaction with both strategic discipline and a homeowner’s perspective, helping clients understand not only market value, but also the long-term financial and lifestyle implications of a purchase or sale.

Relationship-Driven, Not Transaction-Driven

Much of the team’s business comes from repeat clients and personal referrals built over decades of trusted relationships. Clients often return during different chapters of life and introduce friends and family members along the way — a reflection of the team’s long-term, relationship-driven approach.

Local Expertise With Global Reach

Backed by the reach and innovation of Compass and Compass International Holdings, The Ruth Reffkin Team combines highly personalized service with access to an expansive national and international network. Whether clients are relocating, investing, downsizing, or coordinating multistate transitions, the team delivers hands-on guidance supported by the resources of a modern real estate platform.

Experience & Expertise

Credentials and
Recognition.

I

Certified Senior Advisor Designation from the Society of Certified Senior Advisors, reflecting specialized expertise in the financial, health, and social transitions of older adults.

II

Founder of Compass Plus A specialized initiative within Compass created to support older adults and their families through later-life real estate transitions with thoughtful, highly personalized guidance.

III

Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker in New York State with decades of experience advising clients across Manhattan’s residential market, including complex sales, downsizing transitions, and multigenerational real estate decisions.

Ruth Reffkin and Robert Reffkin
Family • Leadership • Innovation

A Partnership built on
Ground-Level Expertise.

With more than 27 years of NYC real estate experience, Ruth Reffkin has built her practice around a simple philosophy: “Mission Before Commission.” Her thoughtful, relationship-driven approach to advising clients helped inspire her son, Robert Reffkin, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Compass, to build a modern real estate platform designed to better support both agents and clients.

Today, that shared commitment to service, innovation, and long-term relationships continues to shape the way Ruth and her team guide clients through buying, selling, downsizing, and multigenerational transitions across New York City.

"Would this be good for my mother?"

This was the guiding question Robert Reffkin asked his team when building Compass. Watching Ruth navigate the daily complexities of real estate, Robert set out to build a platform that solved the actual pain points agents face. Ruth’s direct, ground-level feedback actively shaped the technology and agent-first culture that propelled Compass to become the #1 brokerage in the United States.

Robert Reffkin Speaking at Compass Event

Featured Media & Publications

Video Interview

Mother's Day Conversation

Robert & Ruth Reffkin discuss the foundational principles of family, support, and the ethos that shaped Compass.

Keynote Address

Women of Compass Retreat

Ruth takes the stage to share decades of insights on building a relationship-driven practice in New York City.

Areas of Practice

What the Team
Specializes In.

The Ruth Reffkin Team provides thoughtful, highly personalized guidance across a range of complex New York City real estate transitions — combining strategic expertise with a deeply relationship-driven approach to client service.

Helping older adults and their families navigate later-life moves with dignity, patience, and thoughtful coordination among family members, financial advisors, attorneys, and care providers.

Guiding clients through both upsizing and downsizing transitions with clarity, discretion, and care — from longtime homeowners moving after decades in one residence to growing families preparing for a new chapter.

Advising families and estate representatives through inherited property sales, trust and estate transactions, and multigenerational decisions involving multiple stakeholders.

Supporting clients relocating into or out of New York City through a highly coordinated approach backed by the national and international reach of Compass and Compass International Holdings.

Strategic representation for buyers and sellers across Manhattan, from first-time purchasers to longtime homeowners and luxury property investors.

The Platform

Our Approach
Experience. Resources.

01. The Scale

International Network,
Modern Tools.

Through Compass, The Ruth Reffkin Team combines highly personalized advisory service with the reach, technology, and marketing capabilities of one of the country’s leading real estate platforms. Clients benefit from programs such as Compass Concierge, Compass Private Exclusives, and Compass Coming Soon, along with access to an expansive national agent network.

The team combines the traditional values of trust, discretion, and relationship-driven service with the innovation, reach, and modern infrastructure of Compass — creating a client experience that is both highly personal and exceptionally well-supported.

02. The Specialization

Compass Plus
Leadership.

Ruth Reffkin is the Founder of Compass Plus, a specialized initiative within Compass created to support older adults and their families through later-life real estate transitions.

Compass Plus reflects the team’s thoughtful, highly personalized approach to complex transitions, including downsizing moves, estate-related sales, and coordination with elder-law attorneys, financial advisors, senior living communities, and family members throughout the process.

The Inquiries

Frequently Asked Questions

Click To Learn More

The Ruth Reffkin Team primarily focuses on Residential Real Estate. While it's primary geographic focus is New York City, our wide referral network means that we help buyers and sellers navigating meaningful life transitions throughout the United States and Internationally. This includes first-time buyers, longtime homeowners considering downsizing, families managing estate or inherited property sales, older adults transitioning into independent or assisted living, and clients relocating into or out of New York City or around the world.

Compass Plus is a specialized initiative within Compass created to support older adults and their families through later-life real estate transitions. Ruth Reffkin is the Founder of Compass Plus and brings specialized experience in downsizing moves, estate-related sales, and coordination with elder-law attorneys, financial advisors, senior living professionals, and family members throughout the process.

The Certified Senior Advisor certification reflects specialized training in the financial, legal, medical, familial, social, and lifestyle considerations that often accompany later-life transitions. For real estate clients, it means Ruth brings additional expertise in areas such as downsizing, long-held property sales, family coordination, and the broader planning considerations involved in senior moves.

The team’s primary market is Manhattan, with experience across neighborhoods including the Upper West Side, Upper East Side, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, Chelsea, Midtown East, Lenox Hill, and Brooklyn Heights. Through Compass and Compass International Holdings, the team also supports national and international referrals for clients relocating into or out of New York City.

New York City skyline
The Ruth Reffkin Team

Work With
The Team

Whether you are buying, selling, downsizing, relocating, or planning a move on behalf of a parent or family member, the Ruth Reffkin Team would welcome the opportunity to learn about your goals and discuss how they can help guide the process with clarity, discretion, and care.

Learn More
Phone 516-903-9097
Email susan.hirschorn@compass.com
ruth.reffkin@compass.com
Office 110 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
Hours 8am to 9pm, seven days a week
Compass Real Estate · New York City