“Real estate is about home, lifestyle, and experience,” says DAWN MCKENNA, founder of Dawn McKenna Group (DMG). It was her desire to furnish her own home in 2003 that led to her initial foray into real estate. “I had always been interested in real estate and something of an open house junkie, so I decided to get my license. My goal was to refer a client or two per year to a local agent and use the referral fees to buy a couch,” she laughs. Within four weeks, she was a full-time agent and Hinsdale’s Rookie of the Year. By 2016, she had established DMG, surrounding herself with like-minded team members who demonstrate her same passion for excellence: a ravenous work ethic and impeccable style with an energetic, youthful, and service-oriented approach. Today, DMG is Coldwell Banker’s No. 1 leading luxury real estate team in Illinois and No. 10 among all brokerages in the nation with offices in Chicago’s Gold Coast, Hinsdale, Lake Forest, and Winnetka, and on 5th Avenue in Naples, Florida. She counts her late mother, Barbara, as her role model. “Her wisdom still guides me today,” McKenna says. “She taught me to look my best and act the part, even if we were riding on the CTA bus home eating French fries soaked in ketchup out of a brown paper bag.” For McKenna, real estate is not about dirt and bricks and paint. “Whether in person, on a video, or in a photo, when I represent a client’s home or a buyer, I try to look my best and reflect well on the home, lifestyle, and experience I am selling,” she says.

Dawn McKenna Group is located at 8 E. Hinsdale Avenue in Hinsdale, 630-686-4886, dawnmckennagroup.com.