Keith Markovitz

“Art and architecture are serious passions of mine,” says real estate agent Keith Markovitz. So serious, he and partner Todd Monaghan have made buying and selling unique, interesting architecture their life’s work — from the stunning Ken Kellogg Doolittle residence in Joshua Tree to the Dinah Shore Estate in Palm Springs to the former midcentury modern home of actor Laurence Harvey (a record-breaking $9.5 million transaction, the highest in the history of the Old Las Palmas neighborhood in Palm Springs).

“If it’s architecturally significant, that’s what drives us,” Monaghan says. Markovitz agrees, adding, “A lot of people think all we do is sell $5 million houses, but the reality is we like properties that have some sort of interesting architecture and design. We’re big art and architecture junkies across the board.”

Markovitz, who has worked in real estate his entire career, formed TTK Represents with Monaghan in 2008, and the two have spent the last decade building a team of professionals — Susan Canavan, Chris Menrad, Rick Distel, and Joan Fidalgo — to help expand their business, as well as their passion for architecture, valley-wide.

“It’s important to us to be the masters of the area we’re in,” Monaghan says. But helping people and building relationships, he adds, is equally intrinsic to what they do. “You don’t get to care for yourself at all in this transaction,” Markovitz says. “If you do, it better be dead last because, frankly, the client’s needs are the most paramount part of the entire business to us. You can’t be in this to make a sale.”