Unique Homes Blog

As captain of a key region for Coldwell Banker, Tom Iovenitti finds his military training useful.

Tom Iovenitti’s business success is rooted in his education, although not in the most traditional way. It was not courses in marketing, administration or finance that shaped Iovenitti’s future, but rather military strategy.

Prior to the eleventh grade, Iovenitti attended military schools while growing up in Southern California. With the country in the midst of the Vietnam War, and the schools attempting to discover future officers, military strategy was a key part of the curriculum.

“I think it was the No. 1 study that helped me get through a lot of my business career,” says Iovenitti, who is the president of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Orange County, California, as well as the Desert Region of Palm Springs, Palm Desert and La Quinta. “It teaches you to look at all the angles. It doesn’t allow you one option, so you’re not quick to pull the trigger on one option until you’ve calculated all the other risk factors.”

Iovenitti was born in Buffalo, New York, but moved to California at the age of 5 after his father saw people on TV at the New Year’s Day Rose Parade wearing shorts, while several feet of snow was piled up in front of his house.

“When the snow melted in March, he loaded us up and took us out there,” Iovenitti said. “He only knew Pasadena or Anaheim, because Pasadena had the Rose Parade and Anaheim had Disneyland. He didn’t care for Pasadena, so he moved to Anaheim because there was a lot of construction going on. My dad wanted to be in an area that was starting to develop.”

After graduating from high school and attending community college, Iovenitti started his own recreational vehicle business. During that time, he invented a mechanism that allowed the rear-door ramp in handicap-accessible vans to function more efficiently. “You need to be in the industry to understand the value,” he says, laughing, “but it was a very good product.”

In addition to his recreational vehicle business, Iovenitti was a yacht and ship broker (he is a licensed captain) before getting into real estate with a San Jose land developer.

“I got involved under a general partnership in 1981, which led to the development of a very renowned hillside, called Silicon Valley,” Iovenitti said. A decade later, a fire destroyed his recreational vehicle business. During the ensuing battle with the insurance company, Iovenitti decided he would make real estate his full-time career.

“You get to the point that it may be the time to make the change to something different,” Iovenitti says. “The opportunity was there. It was just a prudent decision to move forward and utilize the real estate application. I’m really glad that I did.

“I love the art of the deal,” he adds. “With my organizational skills, it was a job I was able to adapt to very easily. It felt like a natural transition.”

Iovenitti operated his own office before becoming general manager of the Coldwell Banker Previews International office in Quail Hill-Irvine. Known for his high-energy sales meetings and mentoring, Iovenitti oversees 17 offices and more than 1,000 sales associates.

“From a leadership position, I’m basically an employee of the associate,” says Iovenitti. “I am the president of the company, but I’m also employed on their behalf. What I do on a day-to-day basis directly affects the incomes and success of all those people; they trust me to make the right decision. I find that to be challenging and an honor.”

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