VIE Magazine: Building a Business

Building a Business: A conversation with Jeanne Dailey

by Sallie W. Boyles, Photography by Romoma Robbins 

(Excerpt from the September/October issue of VIE Magazine)

Celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of her company, Newman-Dailey Resort Properties, Jeanne relays how she began her career in real estate management, sales, and rentals from the ground up (in a construction trailer, no less), when the odds of making a living in a largely unknown market were terrible. She might have been naive for diving in, but Jeanne rolled up her sleeves, put her talents to work, and soon realized she had found her calling.

For all of her accomplishments, including her leadership in establishing and promoting the Destin area as an upscale family destination, she remains grateful and down-to-earth. What an inspiration!

Back in 1983, when Jeanne Dailey first crossed the Destin Bridge to visit her college roommate, the tide was in, reflecting the deepest emerald to cobalt hues of the Choctawhatchee Bay and Gulf of Mexico. Thanks to her girlfriend, she had a few interviews lined up, but the new college grad had no grand illusions about how relocating to the World’s Luckiest Fishing Village with her business degree from East Carolina would propel her career. Even so, she easily warmed to the idea of living on a coast that resembled the Caribbean—at least until a future connection led to a “real job.” Meanwhile, assessing her student-loan debt, Jeanne decided she had nothing to lose.

Her one offer resulted from an interview conducted in a single-wide trailer at the end of a dirt road (She could have skipped the high heels!). Property developer Randy Newman would pay her a salary of $12,000—not much for college graduate in the early eighties—to work as his sales agent and property manager for Woodland Shores Townhomes, his development under construction. The trailer would be her office. Jeanne accepted, never imagining that the move was her first step toward running her own enterprise, Newman-Dailey Resort Properties, now celebrating thirty years in business.

In 1983, with the economy emerging from a recession and interest rates hovering above 12 percent, resort property developers assumed big risks. “Those were the days when we’d build it and hope the buyers would come,” Jeanne says. “Now the plans are all on paper. We presell units and then the developers build.”

Click here to view full story.