Palm Desert agent Ini Asman has just been named 2009 CDAR Realtor of the Year for her outstanding service to the community. Ini believes that giving back to the community she serves as an agent should be a priority. Her passions are the Animal Samaritans Society  the Coachella Valley Rescue Mission and The Boys & Girls Club of Cathedral City.

While being named CDAR Realtor of the Year is an honor, it’s only the latest chapter in a life full of well deserved awards. In 1980, Ini founded IMS (Ini’s Media Services) which, until 1999, produced celebrity interviews with award-winning photography. Hundreds of her articles and photos have been published all over the world.

What began as a hobby, interviewing and photographing family friends and colleagues in the European film industry like Elke Sommer, Maria and Maximilian Schell, Curd Juergens, Romy Schneider, et. al. grew globally into an ever expanding circle of celebrities in different fields …from actresses Janet Leigh, Debbie Reynolds, Joan Collins, Barbara Eden and actors Telly Savalas, Sean Connery, Leslie Nielsen, George Clooney, Kevin Costner .. to entertainer Julio Iglesias, composer Henry Mancini, director Sydney Pollack, designer Geoffrey Beene, sports stars Michael Jordan, Steffi Graf, Pele & Franz Beckenbauer and authors Harold Robbins and Mario Puzo ..just to name a few.

The late Palm Springs resident Harold Robbins played an important role in Ini’s career more than once. In 1981, after contracting IMS to manage his publicity in Europe, Harold told his publisher in an interview that “Ini’s portraits and publicity photos were the best pictures ever taken of me” and requested that they use her pictures exclusively for his cover jacket portraits Harold’s glowing recommendations to other authors and publishers led to many referrals and in 1984 Ini opened a branch office of Munich based IMS in Beverly Hills.

In 1995, while visiting Harold and Jan Robbins at their home in Palm Springs, that Ini fell in love – at first sight – with the desert and had a great idea. “While selling stories and photos of celebrities in their homes, why not sell celebrity homes?” So later that year Ini moved here and has since become an established realtor… much sought after for her multilingualism and worldwide clientele. Along the way she has marketed the estates of Clark Gable, Elvis Presley, Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra.

You can reach Ini at www.IniAsmann.com,  iniasmann@earthlink.net or by phone: (760) 567-8661 or (760) 567-8661.

Photo of Ini Asmann (left), with Windermere Cook and Hovley office Broker, Emily DiSimone (right).