Our Heritage
Three generations of California real estate.It started with Maurine.
Before Ratowsky Group was a father-and-son team on the Huntington Beach coast, it was a woman named Maurine E. Rice, licensed to broker California real estate in 1947. What she practiced then is still how this family works now.
The through-line
One family, one coast, three generations of the same craft.
1947
Maurine E. Rice
Real estate broker & counselor
Torrance & the South Bay
Licensed as a California real estate broker in 1947. A Stanford graduate, magna cum laude, and a life member of Phi Beta Kappa who built a practice around exchanging, counseling, and solving the problem behind the problem.
1977
Craig Ratowsky
Realtor®, Ratowsky Group at Compass
Huntington Beach & coastal Orange County
Justin's father. He has sold this coast since 1977, across hundreds of millions in real estate and 900+ homes, and is a founding agent of the Compass Huntington Beach office. Some of his clients have been with him since the late 1970s.
2017
Justin Ratowsky
Third-generation Realtor®, Ratowsky Group at Compass
Huntington Beach & coastal Orange County
Maurine's grandson. He grew up in the business and now runs its modern marketing, pairing the relationships Craig built with new-school systems. Two sets of eyes on every contract, one family standard behind them.
Generation one
Maurine E. Rice
Real estate broker and counselor, licensed in California since 1947.
Maurine came to real estate the way the best people in this business always have, through service and through study. She was a Stanford graduate, magna cum laude, with a degree in education and a life membership in Phi Beta Kappa. She could have done anything. She chose to help people move through the biggest decisions of their lives.
Out of offices in the Union Bank Tower at the Del Amo Financial Center in Torrance, she built a broker’s practice around the harder end of the work: exchanging, real estate counseling, taxation, estate planning. She was a charter member of the Los Angeles International Exchange Counselors and a member of the California Real Estate Association. Where others listed a house and moved on, she solved the problem behind the sale, the tax question, the timing, the plan for the next chapter.
That instinct, to counsel first and transact second, is the standard her grandson Justin was raised inside of, and the same one his father Craig carried into Huntington Beach in 1977. A family of Realtors along the California coast, holding the same standard every time: people first, the deal second, and never the other way around.
From her professional record
The credentials she carried.
- Title
- Real Estate Broker and Counselor
- Firm
- Diversified Estates Corporation
- Offices
- Del Amo Financial Center, Union Bank Tower, Suite 440, Torrance, California 90503
- Licensed
- California real estate broker since 1947
- Education
- Stanford University, magna cum laude, Bachelor of Arts in Education; life member, Phi Beta Kappa
- Advanced study
- Exchanging, real estate counseling, real estate taxation, apartment house management
- Specialties
- Solving real estate problems, exchanging, estate planning, pyramiding, tax strategy
Professional memberships
- California Real Estate Association
- Charter member, Los Angeles International Exchange Counselors
- Interchange, Inc., a national cooperating realty group
- Apartment and Motel Association of California
Reproduced from Maurine’s professional record. A working broker’s résumé from an era when a handshake and a reputation were the whole marketing plan.
What carried forward
You can still see her practice in how we work.
Counsel before commission
Maurine was a counselor first. We still walk your home, your timing, and what the data actually says before anyone talks about a listing agreement.
The problem behind the sale
She specialized in exchanging, taxes, and estate planning, the pieces most agents hand off. We still treat the strategy around the move as part of the job, not an afterthought.
Relationships that outlast the deal
Most of our business still comes from people we have already helped. Some clients have been with Craig since the 1970s. That is not a tactic. It is inherited.
Broker since
1947
Maurine E. Rice, California
Third-generation
Justin
Maurine's grandson, since 2017
Homes sold
900+
Ratowsky Group, career
Years combined
58
Craig since 1977
Continue the story
Put three generations of local judgment to work on your move.
The fastest first step is a 30-minute call. We'll walk your home, your timing, and what the data says is realistic, before any commitment.