Richard is Co-Founder of Partners Trust, now Compass, a Los Angeles-based real estate brokerage that has grossed more than $10 billion in sales since its 2009 inception. Considered one of the leading real estate agents on L.A.'s west side, Stearns is consistently recognized as a top producer by The Wall Street Journal, and named to both Variety Magazine’s Los Angeles Real Estate Elite and Hollywood Reporter’s Top 25 Real Estate Agents. With career sales that exceed $1.5 billion, Stearns possesses an impressive understanding of the Los Angeles real estate market and emphasizes the importance of clear and timely communication among agents and with his clientele. 

Along with three fellow founding partners, Stearns established Partners Trust with the ambition to create a real estate culture that required and went beyond associates playing at the highest professional and ethical level. He constantly strived to distinguish Partners Trust as an agency whose associates empowered one another to thrive and developed enduring, reliable bonds with their clients. Having imbued Partners Trust with far more than what is expected of a typical brokerage, Stearns fostered camaraderie of esteemed associates, who offered unparalleled real estate services based on a foundation of trust.

Richard grew up in Binghamton, graduated from the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, and worked in New York City for several years after graduation. In 1984, he was recruited to work in marketing at Mattel Toys, but left Corporate America to pursue his entrepreneurial passion and his career in real estate.  

When not representing his real estate clients, Richard serves on the Board of the Cornell Club of Los Angeles and is a member of the Cornell University Council. He and his wife Elizabeth are deeply committed to the Alzheimer’s disease community and sit on numerous local and national boards, taking them around the country to battle this disease. He also spends time volunteering at the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center.