Always moving forward – Hawke’s Bay’s Darren Cuneen

For Arizto’s newest Hawke’s Bay recruit, real estate - like life - is about making up for lost time.

A seven-year veteran of the profession after 35 years of building industry experience, father of four Cuneen lives with his wife in the beautiful suburb of Taradale, nestled in the hills about 10 minutes drive from the city centre.

Marrying a local girl, Cuneen moved down from the ‘City of Sails’ in 2010 and hasn’t looked back, like many who have come to the East Coast for the warm and dry climate, beautiful parks and gardens as well as the internationally renowned vineyards.

“I always wanted to get out of Auckland, it was just always a rat race,” he said.

“Effectively you live in a big city, but I very rarely went to the other side of Auckland – there’s parts of Auckland I never went into and I lived there for the first 40 years of my life just about.

“The appeal of a small town took my fancy, and once I met ‘Rach’ and we married, it set the wheels in motion.”

It also allowed Cuneen to take another step forward in life, something he is well aware is never promised to any of us.

On January 23rd, 1988, the-then 19-year-old builder was involved in a horrific car crash at Huapai on the way home to Waimauku.

Driving the car with his sister and his partner, their vehicle rolled six times after clipping a curb before crashing through a wire fence that ripped the roof off.

Thrown out of the wreck and crashing head-first into a building, Cuneen’s heart stopped and the attending emergency personnel were ready to declare him dead when he was unresponsive to CPR.

“However, the young paramedic working on me refused to give up, insisting on administering one last shock.?

“Miraculously, that shock jolted my heart back to action and I will be forever grateful for that young man.”

Lying in a coma in Auckland hospital, the doctors gave Cuneen little chance of regaining consciousness and even if he did, felt his brain injuries would leave him severely disabled.

However, his mother refused to give up hope.

“As I gradually progressed in my recovery thanks to all the therapy I was receiving, the doctors and others started talking about residential care facilities where I could live and be taken care of for the rest of my life.??

“Again my amazing Mum would not accept the prognosis - she told the professionals ‘no, I’ll take him home to live at my place’.??

“After hearing that I had to be able to walk before I would be released from hospital, my next challenge was locked in.??

“I went from crawling to walking in a few short days due to my incredible determination – well, ok, to be honest it was a stagger not a walk.

“Due to my stubbornness and determination, in telling me that I would never work and would be on a benefit forever, ACC had effectively held a red flag in front of a bull.

“I had been a builder up until this point and being told this frustrated me and I became more and more determined to regain my independence.”

After intense physiotherapy and occupational therapy over the next four years, Cuneen got back into work on a volunteer basis for a couple hours a day at the engineering workshop of a semi-retired acquaintance.

“After four years of pushing myself to do better I was working eight hours a day.

“During this time ACC saw that I had proven all predictions wrong, I was able to rebuild my life and able to work again.”

It was still not an easy journey, Cuneen focused on retraining in welding qualifications as his equilibrium remained unsteady for other building site tasks, while he also studied part time towards achieving a diploma in Sales & Marketing.

Ten years after the accident, he also began to experience epileptic seizures, which were caused by the shrinking of the scar tissue on his brain.??

“My body took a hammering over the next year or so, if you can imagine me standing there one second and the next second dropping like a sack of potatoes as I became instantly unconscious.”

Medication eventually brought an end to the seizures, while coupled with a dedicated fitness regime, attending gym 6-7 days a week, Cuneen saw great progress in his health.

The personal highlight was when he and his mother climbed to the summit of Mt Eden – fulfilling a vow she had made that they would do while looking out the window of his hospital room 20 years before.

“Life after the accident is a delicate balance between embracing my second chance and acknowledging the scars that mark my journey,” Cuneen explains.

“While the accident took away so much from me, it also gave me a renewed perspective on life.?

“It ignited a fire within me to live fully, to pursue my dreams with unwavering determination.

“It taught me that setbacks are not the end of the road but opportunities for growth and transformation.”

Although he wanted to remain in the building industry, the physical exertion required proved too taxing and so Cuneen put his years of knowledge and his marketing diploma into entering the real estate game in Napier with a national brand.

He found himself very adept at the work, not struggling with any issues regarding information memory or completing tasks.

“Learning all the time - learning people’s names, people’s traits, learning how they react.

“It wasn’t a challenge - it was never going to be something I couldn’t do.

“It’s awesome that over the years I have been privileged? to share my story with many people at meetings and company days? and hope that my experience inspired them to push their own boundaries??

“[My accident’s] not a secret, it’s public knowledge.

“When I started, things were just ticking along [in the market], nothing extraordinary, and then probably around 2020 it started to ramp up, and then with Covid it just went ballistic, went crazy.

“Because I lived in Taradale, I just focused more on Taradale, Greenmeadows, that sort of area.

“But that was the only reason - I love both cities and living in Taradale I'm perfectly positioned to service both cities. I love the whole city.

“I wasn’t allowed to work in Hastings, which is part of the reason I came to Arizto.

“Although in saying that, I am always one to buck the trend and do what I’m not allowed to do, and beg for forgiveness afterwards.

“I just told them I was listing properties in Hastings in Flaxmere, and started listing properties in Hastings in Flaxmere.”

With only 20 minutes of State Highway driving between the two cities, Napier with a population of over 67,000 and Hastings with just over 52,000 in the urban area, offers a good salesperson a chance to help vendors in one location become buyers in the other - so Cuneen always found it frustrating to have office barriers put in his way to offering that full service.

Another element he implemented at his previous brand shows he was already following Arizto’s ethos before even joining the company – that of using a cutting edge digital approach to getting crucial documents signed, rather than time-consuming and ungainly paperwork.

“I bought Docusign about four years ago, and for the last four years I’ve gone out to do appraisals, but I’ve never gone out to list a property or present an offer.

“I did it all over the phone. I just thought, ‘I’m not driving all around town, what a waste of time’.

“I could get it [signed] instantly on the Docusign via email, so that’s how I done it.

“I can’t see the point in driving 25 minutes for a signature, and then driving 25 minutes back to get it initialled by the vendor, when you can do it instantly online, and it’s all right there.”

But feeling he could accomplish more with a brand that embraced such technology fully and had no restrictions on where he could list in the Hawke’s Bay, Cuneen finally decided to make the switch this past November.

“I obviously felt like a change and I looked at a lot of places, everyone was trying to poach me.

“I had a coffee with Dan [Budd, Arizto CEO], the first time, three and a half years ago.

“I almost come over a few times, but it took three and half years to get me, and I’m glad I’ve come – it’s the best move I’ve ever made.

“Great decision, great company, great foresight, just a total game-changing company.”

In mid-February, Cuneen sent his 14th active property listing live, twice as many as he ever held at one time with his previous brand.

“The major deterrent to getting 14 listings, or 20 listings, was that the [paper] reporting was so much more involved.

“It’s a lot more efficient and a lot more streamlined here, so the tech is great.

“I’ve got a really good habit of everybody I meet, I save their name, number and the date in my phone.

“So I’ve got 5500 contacts in my phone.

“I contacted pretty much everyone [when I switched], and they’re coming back.?

“The way I pitch it is I say, ‘you get, with me, everything you got [previously] and more, plus not only do you get that, but you get half commission costs.

“Word’s getting out there, I’ve got radio ads playing, I’ve got signs up with sponsorship at the local community pool, and down at the bowls club.

“Things are just rolling and now when you’ve got a couple of listings, well, that just feeds itself – listings come off listings.”

Always going “a million miles an hour” to make up for the lost time of those dark years, Cuneen is making himself a home with a user-friendly brand that gives him the tools to work at the speed he desires.

“I’m just getting warmed up.

“I work from 6am when I get back from the gym, to 9pm at night, and just go, go, go, all the time.

“There’s no fancy-ness, I don’t do anything exceptionally different to anyone else, I just do a lot of it.

?“It’s whatever I set my mind to, I do.

Is it finally time to make the switch? Contact Arizto today to discuss joining New Zealand’s expanding and an exciting team!