About Me
Melanie Dunaway is a serial entrepeneur, real estate investor, business manager, property designer, economics writer political commentator, and wife.
No matter which role she is playing at the moment, her philosophy is always the same: you win with the basics.
Whether it's a business transaction or a real estate deal, Dunaway has been highly successful by adhering to three core principles: (1) Be efficient, (2) Be honest, and (3) Be polite.
From starting and running one of the largest multi-location funeral and cremation service businesses in the country to stabilizing value-add multifamily projects, Dunaway's goal is always the same simple principle: increase return while decreasing risk.
And she's been successful with this philosophy. In 2019, her funeral/cremation businesses, Advent Funeral and Cremation Services, Rapp Funeral Services and Chesapeake Crematory, were acquired by a private equity firm in one of the largest transactions of its kind in the Metropolitan Washington DC area. She built the business and reputation on a mundane concept: just be nice to people and do what you promise.
Her nose for real estate deals is well known, too. In 2019, she earned an astounding 25% return and with the deals currently in the pipeline, Dunaway expects 2020 to be even better.
Known as a fastidious researcher and accomplished writer, she's written a multitude of commentaries on Trumponomics and it's impact on the minority vote. She's also worked to reach under-educated voters with basic economics discussions focusing on the Austrian School.
Married to Jeffrey Dunaway, former CEO of Ameritrial OTC Research and adjunct professor in the MBA program at The Johns Hopkins University, she splits her time with her husband and three dogs in messy houses in Annapolis, Maryland and Palm Beach, Florida.
