By Andrew Macdonald
Halifax-Chester realtor David Dunn has just listed on an exclusive basis the mansion belonging to Kelly Dawe.
Dawe was once married to mining expert, Wade Dawe
The mansion on the Northwest Arm is located at 1454 Birchdale Ave.
The listing is now the most expensive home being marketed in Halifax Regional Municipality.
It’s commanding listing price is $6.5 million, pushing the previous highest asking price – Jurij Senyshyn’s Ketch Harbour seaside mansion, to the second spot on the highest asking price front.
That home is being listed by Engel & Volkers agent Rick Foster. It is priced at $6.45M – and was recently featured in The Notebook.
But the Dunn listing is not on the reatlor MLS system, meaning Foster’s listing at Ketch Harbour is the most expensive listing on MLS.
Dunn is part of the David Dunn Team, which hangs its realtor shingle with Royal LePage Atlantic.
The Birchdale mansion is in close proximity to the Waegwoltic Club.
Because it is on an exclusive listing with Dunn, it has not yet been placed on the realtor website, MLS.
“Luxurious Oceanfront Estate with over 120 feet of shoreline complete with in-ground pool, pool house, hot tub, sauna, dock, wharf and manicured grounds”, says the Dunn listing.
Kelly Dawe has listed her Halifax Northwest mansion for $6.5 million. (David Dunn Team photo)
“Inside this warm and inviting residence you will find exquisite finishes such as marble countertops, crown mouldings; designer lighting, window and wall treatments”, the listing cut adds.
“With over 5700 square feet of elegance this home boasts four bedrooms, seven baths, and is finished on all levels including attic space. The kitchen is spacious with an abundance of cabinetry and counter space, designed with entertainment in mind whether you want to host large get-togethers or intimate family dinners”, says Dunn.
“The kitchen features high-end appliances, gas stove and breakfast bar. At the end of the day retreat to the master suite complete with fireplace, six-piece ensuite with whirlpool tub, or relax on the private balcony overlooking the Northwest Arm watching the sailboats pass by”, the listing says.
“This residence is truly a pleasure to show and finding a quality home such as this with all these features on the peninsula is a rarity!”.
Dunn is an award-winning Halifax realtor, who heads up the four-member David Dunn Team, which holds the fort at Bayers Road headquartered Royal LePage Atlantic.
Dunn continues to collect hardware for his sales performance.
The kitchen in the $6.5M mansion being listed by the David Dunn Team (Photo by Dunn Team)
For the last decade, the David Dunn Team, at Royal LePage Atlantic, has occupied Number One spot.
The top performer in the Atlantic with that brokerage, Dunn’s team is also among the top $1% nationally with the Royal LePage banner.
“We have been number one for the last decade”, he tells The Notebook.
And, across Canada he is ranked in the top 25 – coming in at #23 out of over 18,000 Royal LePage agents.
And, across the country his team is ranked #15 in the brokerage for the most sales.
The real estate team of David Dunn is the top-performing team at Royal LePage Atlantic, which is headquartered in Halifax.
Dunn has been a realtor for the past 16-years, concentrating on moving homes and mansions in Halifax, Bedford, Dartmouth, and he is also now active in the Chester & Area property scene.
“In 2013 I became a member of the Royal LePage’s Chairman’s Club which rewards the top 1% of real estate agents in the company out of 16,500 REALTORS® across Canada and I have been able to be in this club ever since”, he notes.
Fun Fact: When Dunn moved to the city from his native New Brunswick 20-years ago his first-ever Halifax job, it was as wait staff at the then Stephanie Bertossi owned, Bish eatery on the Halifax Waterfront.
At one time, Dunn had a partnership with one of the city’s best-known realtors, Carolyn Davis Stewart, who also hangs her real estate shingle at Royal LePage Atlantic.
The David Dunn Team, David Dunn, front, Kim Stewart, Kirk Brown, back left, & Joel Flewelling.
That partnership had been engaged by noted developer Jim Spatz to move the pre-construction condo units at Pavilion, where Dunn and Davis Stewart began listing the project in 2015.
That partnership between Dunn and Davis Stewart no longer exists – each has its own reality practice now.
But of significant note Carolyn Davis Stewart’s daughter Kim Stewart is part of the four-person Dunn Team.
“Carolyn is her own individual but we still definitely do collaborations, and the Pavilion is one of them”, Dunn tells The Notebook.
Dunn prefers not to disclose the dollar volume of houses he sells per year, nor does he detail the actual total of units sold, but he does drive a Land Rover, doing his car buys from both Rob Steele’s Steel Group and Sean O’Regan’s O’Regan’s Group.
“I like to buy local”, he tells me.
The logo for the real estate team, the David Dunn Group.
His education began in St. Andrew’s By The Sea when he enrolled in hospitality at college.
He then worked at the legendary Algonquin Hotel and toiled also with CP Hotels for quite a few years.
Kelly Dawe’s living room, he is selling his Northwest Arm mansion in Halifax for $6.5M (Photo by David Dunn Team)
“Then I left the corporate world, where I had a name and a long title, and losing my own hair quicker than I ever could, and went into my own business, selling Jone’s soda pop, and I introduced that brand to the Maritimes”.
That is a Seattle pop maker, and Dunn 20-years ago began selling the independent pop maker at corner stores around the Maritimes – today, it is prominently displayed on Sobeys retail shelves.
The iconic pop runs photographs on its labels, taken by its customers, and the green apple edition remains the brand’s top seller.
He became familiar with Jones, after watching the now-defunct CBC Venture TV series, who profiled the founder.
“I wanted a change from CP Hotels, so I contacted Jone’s founder and I introduced the pop to the Maritimes – and I had a list of 400 stores”, says Dunn.
“I learned very quickly that corner stores owned a lot of properties”, he adds.
“I also had a huge account with Shopper’s Drug Mart”, Dunn recalls.
On working with Stephanie Bertossi at the former Bish, which once operated as a must go to and be seen at Bishop’s Landing eatery, he says: “I can’t say enough good things about her, she is a mentor to me”.
“Being a waiter at the time was the best thing I ever did”, explaining that in the hospitality business he picked up invaluable customer relation experiences, he now deploys as a leading realtor.
“The hospitality industry is the best way to learn things you can take with you forever in your life, whether you stay in the business or leave it”, says Dunn.
Sixteen years ago, he worked both at the Bertossie eatery group and then spent his first year also doing real estate sales and listings.
“Real estate does not pay that quick (in an entry-level agent role), and I had a newborn child and my wife Lisa as a stay at home house manager”, while he could only afford to buy a home in Windsor, and do the daily commute to Halifax.
After his first several years as a realtor, he was able to afford to buy a home near the old Ashburn Golf & Country Club, where he continues to live.
As I noted last winter he also just bought a Pavilion condo, which he had been co-listing since 2015 – the last remaining unit is priced $650,000 to $750,000 in the Jim Spatz development.
Dunn and his spouse have two teenagers, a boy and a girl.
Question: Today you move million-dollar-plus mansions in Halifax-Bedford & Chester, but tell me about your first ever property listing?
Dunn replies to The Notebook: “That is interesting. My first listing was on Moirs Mill Drive, in Bedford, and at the time it was a fairly new subdivision, before Bedford West, and we listed it, if you can imagine before the million-dollar homes there, it was listed at $450,000 – my first listing”.
The work-life of a realtor is not for the faint of heart, because many clients can’t look at houses until after the workday, and, of course, a realtor has to also show houses on weekends, when most clients are free of work obligations, and realtors also must conduct ‘open houses’ on Sundays.
As a realtor, you are also an entrepreneur running your own career, and payment is not processed until a house deal closes – and if it closes down the road, you have to wait and bid the time to get that commission then paid out.
“It’s a lot of hard work”, admits Dunn. “Your biggest thing is also making every client feeling like you’re their only client – and that is the hardest task, because they want 100% of your time”, he tells The Notebook.
“That is your biggest task, and that is also the most enjoyable task, making the client feel that they are your only client”, he adds.
While he moves many high-end mansions, Dunn is quick to point out his realtor team, “also sells $200,000″ listings.
“We do the full range”.
David Dunn’s real estate team is also busy selling the David Graham built 200 or so homes at Long Lake, in Spryfield. The Notebook photo.
Like many other realtors who might move posh multi-million listings, the bread and butter are selling homes priced from $200,000 to 450,000 – because that might involve collecting a full five percent commission, and there are more entry-level listings that sell on a frequent basis, as compared to the total number of posh mansion transactions.
And, as often is the case when a realtor takes on a multi-million dollar listing, that in many cases sees the realtor take a discount on the commission cheque.
Establishing strong bonds with clients, Dunn says, is very important, “because our business is built on referral business”.
“Our clients are our biggest salespeople”, he tells me.
Question: Would you today recommend the property business to a millennial as a life long career?
Dunn replies to The Notebook: “It is like anything. When it looks easy, then you are really professional at it. It’s like an athlete skiing downhill at the Olympics, and you say, ‘Geez that doesn’t look that hard’, but then you realize they have done it for the last twenty years, 24-hours a day, just to get that jump”.
“The biggest thing, I would encourage anyone that real estate is an incredible world to be in, and I always encourage people that if they are not familiar with being people orientated, then work in the hospitality industry first – really get a sense of people”, he observes.
“Now this is just my own opinion, but some of the agents who have done really well, almost all of them have had a background in hospitality, and therefore have done really well as realtors”, Dunn says.
As for Jurij Senyshyn’s $6.45 M Ketch Harbour mansion, I reported on it recently. Click here to read about it in The Notebook.
