Property people talk property

For Trevor Dunn and his wife Linda, their home at Port Coogee, WA, represents the fulfillment of a dream they’ve shared since their first conversation more than 20 years ago. “I remember during our very first conversation when we were talking about life, the universe – everything,” recalls Trevor. “Sort of out of the blue I asked, ‘what would you like to do in life and where would you like to go?’. And Linda said ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to live next to the beach.’ We moved on to talk about other things, fell in love and here we are. From then on, my idea of success was to live next door to the beach.”

Over the next two decades, Trevor built a successful career as a Project Director in the construction industry, eventually moving on from residential developments to work on multimillion-dollar, large-scale projects. The couple built and owned a number of homes during this time, but Trevor always kept that first conversation in mind. It wasn’t until 2014 when the couple found themselves driving by the newly established development at Port Coogee one Sunday evening, that their dream became a reality.

“I was just blown away by the location and the quality of the development,”

recalls Trevor. “Often you have a main road between you and the beach. But here, you’re right next to the beach. Even the way the landscaping had been done was very impressive. They hadn’t just been thrown together.” Trevor went home that night and started putting pen to paper and running the numbers, seeking advice from his friends and colleagues in the industry. It was only a matter of months before the couple had secured their long-held dream; a 250sqm block just steps from the beach. “The process of designing and building was a lot of fun,” says Trevor. “I came down every couple of days to keep an eye on things – which makes me the nightmare client for most builders.” “I already felt positively about Frasers as the developer of a quality community, but they also listened. That to me was really important,” says Trevor. “When I’ve been putting together major projects in my professional life, the most important thing is to be listened to rather than talked at. They held workshops and asked the really key questions from us; What is it that makes your community tick? What are the good things? What are the bad things? It was really professionally done consulting.”

Trevor and Linda have been settled in their home for more than three years now, and they’re happy to report that it’s everything they dreamed it would be all those years ago. “You become wedded to the lifestyle,” says Trevor. “I have colleagues that ask to put me in for a meeting at 7:00am and I say ‘No, sorry. I’m going down to the beach at that time.’ The other thing that’s really interesting has been engaging with the community, who are not just people you’d normally become friendly with.” “In my professional life, if I feel that a particular consultant or contractor is not doing the right thing then I have no hesitation in calling them forward and letting them know exactly what the issues are. But by the same token, I think it’s really important to balance that. So, when I see something or experience something that is very positive I’d like to go out of my way to make sure that people are aware that they’ve done a really good job, and that’s definitely the case with Frasers. We absolutely love it all. At one point we talked about putting the house on the market so we could buy the block three doors down and do it all again. That is our aspiration. To do it again and again and again.”

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New edition out now - Live Proud Spring/Summer 2019. This latest edition tells the story of our 95 year history of creating communities in Australia, as well as many more customer stories. We hope you enjoy the read.