Ashley Crawford
COVER STORY
WRITTEN BY ZACH COHEN | PHOTOS BY JJHOMES PHOTOGRAPHY
COMMITTED TO HER COMMUNITY
“My theme is I'm a comeback queen,” Ashley Crawford Dailey begins proudly. “That’s how my career has been. I've had a lot of setbacks and a lot of comebacks.”
Now in her 13th year in real estate, Ashley has mastered the art of perseverance. She’s achieved success at every level she’s been, but it’s come with its fair share of obstacles. Overcoming those obstacles has made her a stronger person and a better REALTOR®.
The Comeback Queen
Ashley started her real estate career working for homebuilders in 2010. She was featured in the National Association of Home Builders magazine twice en route to becoming the sales manager for one of the top builders in Oklahoma. In 2014, she stepped away from homebuilding to focus on raising her teenagers. For the next three years, she served as the business development manager for real estate title and closing companies.
“I got a divorce, and I was a single mom,” Ashley reflects. “I had to scale it back during that time.”
This period was challenging for Ashley. She went from an established sales manager to a single mom barely scraping by. She returned to sales in 2015 as a general REALTOR®.
“It took me three years to fully build my business and have the confidence to do real estate full time,” she reflects. “I closed five deals in 2017, but I found my people. By 2018, I was closing 40 to 50 deals. By 2020, I became a top producing agent.”
Ashley was soaring as a top agent, and she’d rebuilt her personal life, too, getting remarried to her husband, Amos, in 2019. But in 2021, she was hit with a health challenge that once again upended everything. She needed a spinal implant, putting her down for the count for several months.
“The radiologist told me my spinal cord was almost severed. It was the scariest thing, but I persevered,” Ashley says. “All of the challenges have motivated me to want to leave my mark on the world.”
Somehow, 2021 still became a career year; she closed 89 deals. It’s also the year she founded her team, Dailey Properties. She convinced her best friend, Brittani Carns, to leave her full-time job during a pandemic to join her in real estate. Brittani stepped up to the plate when Ashley needed a hard working agent like herself.
Drawing on her Roots
Ashley is motivated to make a positive impact, and she is doing just that. She’s not only a top REALTOR®; she’s a social justice warrior. Ashley is a supporter of minorities in and out of real estate, a farmer working to bring back native grasses and plants, and a community advocate.
“My husband is Native American, and I'm Hispanic. We are doing regenerative farming on the Osage Reservation, planting native plants,” Ashley explains. “The motivation behind that is food sovereignty… We’re bringing back indigenous plants, growing our own foods, and promoting indigenous roots in the community. It's also about overall wellness. The end goal is serving our community and teaching others how to grow their own food, solarize their prairie, and bring back native grasses. I want to share that knowledge.”
Ashley also serves with Burning Cedar Sovereign Wellness, a nonprofit organization “dedicated to bringing the knowledge of healthy traditional foodways and indigenous wellness practices to families living in the urban Tulsa community.”
It’s All for Community
Ashley’s work in real estate and with minority communities intersect. She’s lived on the Osage Reservation for her entire life, and her heart is in her community. She is committed to supporting minority populations, with over 40% of her clients coming from those groups.
“Only 25% of Native Americans own homes,” she explains. “It feels like it's my mission to put it out there. There are programs that nobody knows about. We work with a lot of tribes with first-time homebuyer programs. We're educated on what's available, and we promote that.”
Ashley wants to leave a legacy of being a giver and a devoted community member. She is committed to teaching people how to grow their own food and teaching people how to grow wealth.
“I’m different from most REALTORS®. I'm just not your average real estate agent. I never saw any Hispanic agents growing up. I protest. I have a voice. I go against the grain. I immerse myself in these beautiful communities we have here in Oklahoma. I'm good to those communities, and, my gosh, have they been good to me.”
Family Spotlight
Ashley’s children, Dax and Mady, are now 20 and 23. Ashley also has a passion for rescuing animals; she has three rescue dogs, Suzi, Frida and Maggie.
