Music and real estate. On the surface, it may not seem that the two disciplines are related. However, for Ginny Kavanaugh — a sales associate affiliated with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage and a top-producing real estate agent in Portola Valley for more than two decades — the harmony she creates for clients today took root long ago.
“I started taking piano lessons at the age of five and didn’t stop until I graduated college,” says Kavanaugh, who earned a master’s in music theory and composition in Florence, Italy, and who still has the same baby grand she played as a child. “Music prepared me well for real estate. From the practice standpoint, you work at something until you can do it just the way it’s supposed to be done, and you put in the work to make sure every detail is just right. Real estate is not a career for someone who is not extremely detail-oriented.”
That fastidiousness has translated well; Kavanaugh is nationally ranked in the top 5% of all Coldwell Banker-affiliated sales associates and is in the top 1% of all sales associates for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Northern California. But excelling at a career is one thing; loving what you do is yet another.
“The ‘people’ part of the business is what I love,” says Kavanaugh, a mother of three grown sons and grandmother to five. “I had no idea how much I would love the business in general, and especially meeting people, advising them and helping them make some of life’s most important decisions.”
Kavanaugh takes that role seriously, understanding the importance of professional advocacy in real estate, particularly in the ultra-competitive real estate market in Silicon Valley, where she has lived for 40 years.
“Getting people to really think about what they’re doing, helping them understand the commitment they’re making and helping sort out their real goals are all so fulfilling.”
Sometimes that means digging deeper to find the right home for clients instead of orchestrating a deal for a home that may not truly suit their needs.
“I have had many clients come in and say they want a bigger house and provide all the details, and then it turns out that what they really want and need is something else altogether. It comes down to a lot of guidance. I have told some people, ‘This is not the house you want to buy.’ My clients appreciate that I’m not after the deal. I’m after a solution to what they are looking for.”
Ginny Kavanaugh (CalRE# 00884747) is affiliated with the Portola Valley office and can be reached at 650.400.8076 or gkavanaugh@camoves.com.
