Few people know Long Island’s East End from its real estate to residents and art to artists as well as Rima Mardoyan Smyth, an award-winning real estate agent with Douglas Elliman.
A longtime resident, she doesn’t just help clients: She has a lot in common with them. Mardoyan has lived here for more than 20 years, after moving from Tribeca, raising two children, much of that time working as an artist displayed in museums and collections. A little more than a decade ago, Mardoyan began not only making art, but making deals, working as a real estate agent, helping friends and then matching a long list of clients, including the wealthy and well-known, with the right property to be their new and next residence.
Mardoyan has found and sold houses across the region to kings and queens (with extensive security), Pulitzer Prize winners (seeking peace and quiet to write), famous actors (looking for a unique property with a unique look), people living around the world seeking an East End pied a terre, as well as many in New York City, looking east.
Bringing an artist’s expertise, an agent’s experience, and legal training, she offers a sharp eye, a listening ear and a knowledge of everything from property to process. Mardoyan can not only point to houses, but was part of many deals responsible for finding that home its current resident.
“I can take you from here to Southampton on all the backroads, and give you the name of each road. You take backroads and it takes you 20 minutes instead of two hours,” she says. “The GPS can hijack you and you don’t know where you’re going. I want to know the geography.”
Local Knowledge
On a recent day, Mardoyan described streets with the easy familiarity of someone talking about friends. Mardoyan knows not just the roads, but the residences and deals, which she often helped negotiate. While handling and finding listings (even before they are
listed) is important, so is listening, for Mardoyan, who says it’s crucial to understand clients’ needs to find them the right, even perfect, house.
“Communication is a dying craft,” she says, noting a brief conversation sometimes can be better than a string of texts. “When you call, some how the dynamic changes. Sometimes a telephone call can get a lot done very fast and find an answer or a solution that didn’t exist. Dialogue is about going together to a new place.”
Part artist, part attorney (she studied law before changing directions), Mardoyan is an agent’s agent who sees real estate as part a race to find a property and part patience, to wait for the right property.
“It’s like being a midwife. You help them through this intense, personal moment,” says Mardoyan, who in addition to English speaks Armenian, German, and Spanish and some French and Italian. “When they find their home, they go back into their own life.”
She can connect people with properties, mixing business acumen with a sense of design and layout. “Everything has a vibration, which has an effect on you. You have to find what works for each client,” she says. “I have a very trained eye. I know placement, harmonious flows, rooms that make sense and harmonize, window sizes. I have an eye for detail. And I can do deals very fast. I’m a good, firm negotiator. I get the deal done.”
Global Background
A woman of Armenian heritage, Mardoyan grew up in Teheran, Iran, moving with her family to Hamburg, Germany, studying law and then attending the Academy of Fine Arts, in Hamburg, working with German painter Sigmar Polke. She moved to the United States in the 1980s, living in New York City and moving to the East End, developing a style using beeswax to paint, making colors and works that combine paint and sculpture. Her work recently was featured in Couples Squared, an exhibition at the Southampton Arts Center with renowned artists.
Her piece consisting of nine 24- by 24-inch wood panels covered in cement and attached with beeswax blocks and spheres covered with Murano glass and 24-karat gold mosaics titled “What was-what is-what if” is a tribute to homes, homelessness, family, displacement, peace and war.
While others may know the region’s most iconic residences, Mardoyan often did deals that led to their residents. She sold the largest waterfront property in Springs to artist Cindy Sherman and closed the sale of an iconic windmill house on a 10-acre estate to Robert Downey Jr. “I showed him the ubiquitous waterfront properties,” she says. “When I saw this house, I said, ‘This is the perfect place for you and your family.’ And it was.”
She sold 8 John Street in Sag Harbor Village to celebrated interior designer Bryan Graybill and his husband, attorney Daniel Dokos. The couple rebuilt that waterfront property into a dream home dubbed Claxton House. Mardoyan then found a buyer for $15.5 million, making that the most expensive home sale in Sag Harbor Village this year. The property was co-listed with her Elliman colleagues Erica Grossman and Noble Black, plus Hedgerow Exclusive Properties.
Mardoyan also represented the buyer for a $1.53 million (a steal in East End terms) two-bedroom at 8 Rose Street. That completely renovated house with three bedrooms and a garden proved to be what she calls “a needle in the haystack right in the center of the village.” She found a buyer for an 1896 farmhouse at 98 Daniels Lane, in Sagaponack, that belonged to composer Jonathan Sheffer, for the full asking price of $12 million.
She found that house for Robert Schenkkan Jr., a playwright, screenwriter and actor who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. “We drove out and that’s what they bought,” she says. “I thought if I’m writer, I’d want a magical place that is peaceful and quiet.”
Mardoyan doesn’t just match people with properties but with locations. The Hamptons, she says, with its beautiful oceans and social life, is perfect for some. Shelter Island attracts others with its hills, water, beautiful bay and restaurants.
“The topography of Shelter Island is like the south of France. It’s different from the Hamptons,” she says. “I found people houses on Shelter Island. I know Shelter Island well.”
Economics and Aesthetics
She says understanding the pluses, and any drawbacks, of a property matters along with understanding the people. “It’s not just an artist’s eye. It’s an educated eye for placement and quality. It’s a visual thing,” she says. “A home is not just a pretty dress. It’s a place where you want to feel good for a long time.”
Mardoyan represents a unique mix of local and global knowledge, making herself accessible to clients here and around the world. “The most successful real estate agents respond right away. It gets the deal done,” she says. “Time is important. It’s not a power game.”
Being a good real estate agent, she says, also means knowing when to say or encourage people to decline and move on. She found there were toxins in the water in a pond adjacent to a $20 million property, ending that deal. “I do my due diligence,” she says. “I go above and beyond. I have integrity, am polite and discreet.”
There are economic and aesthetic benefits to working with Mardoyan, who has helped clients buy and sell numerous houses. She sold a house in Sag Harbor for $3.5 million, which after they did renovations is now worth $13.5 million. And she helped an owner sell another house for four times their initial buy, after renovations.
“They want something new. They like to travel. They’re on the go all the time,” she says of some clients. “Most of the time, they make a lot of money. Most people I sold houses to have doubled their equity, if not much more.”
PARTNER CONTENT
This article appeared on the cover of Behind The Hedges’ October 18, 2024 edition in Dan’s Papers. Read the full digital edition here.
