Tim Rist

“I was twelve years old when I first decided this world would be better off without me in it.”

That's how Tim opens the TEDx talk he's bringing to the stage this September. He didn't know it then, but what he was actually up against had a name he wouldn't learn for another twenty-two years: placelessness — the loss of habitat, home, or hope. He had a house. He had a family who loved him. What he didn't have was a sense that there was a future he fit into.

He's spent every year since building the opposite of that feeling — for himself, and for whoever he can reach. He started his construction career at twelve, moved out on his own at fifteen, and earned a high school diploma and an associate degree simultaneously at sixteen. He graduated from Oregon State University at nineteen, spent six months on a sailing ship in the South Pacific still not sure where he belonged, and got his real estate license at twenty-one — partly on a whim, partly because handing someone a set of keys felt like reaching back for the kid who never felt like he had a place of his own.

He was named Rookie of the Year, doubled his business three years running, and closed more than 350 transactions in his first four years — not without plenty of mistakes along the way. He's since closed 700+ transactions and founded Discover: Oregon Real Estate on a set of values he calls the 10 C's. Twenty-plus years into building businesses, what he's learned has come less from what worked than from what didn't — and from leading with compassion instead of ego.

In 2025, the Corvallis Chamber of Commerce named him Business Person of the Year. In 2023, his firm — Rist Real Estate Group, DBA DORE — was awarded the City of Corvallis's real estate broker services contract (RFP CD-2023-01), making him the City's broker of record. Along the way he's founded DORE Developments, the Curiosity Collective, the Rivendell Collective, and Find Your Place — and he still coaches agents and brokerage owners across the country on building a business that means something.

Now he coaches people through the same thing he had to solve himself: how to build a business, a team, or a life that doesn't cost you your sense of place to run it — and how to come back when it already has.

If any part of the opening line sounds like where you've been: the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and available 24/7. Call or text 988.

See the full sales history on Zillow

This map shows a handful of recent transactions, not the complete 600+ sale history — Zillow's own map tools weren't accessible to pull the full dataset automatically.

He's the father of Maisy Magnolia and the human of Sir Tankerton “Ghandi” Rist the First — a golden-doodle everyone just calls Tank. He writes, plays guitar and piano, and spends as much time outdoors as he can: mountain climbing, hiking, fishing, hunting, camping, surfing, snowboarding, skiing, boating, and flying. You can book him — solo or with a full band — through FYP Media Collective, or join the Find Your Place Retreat Experience at the Rivendell Collective. He also serves on the boards of Safe Haven Humane Society and the Corvallis Waldorf School, alongside work with Adult & Teen Challenge.