Home Not Alone: Blue Tulip Provides Travelers Peace of Mind

By: Karen Chaney

Dallas native Carol Stine has her roots planted deep in the heart of Texas. 

She graduated from Lake Highlands High School in 1975 and earned a degree in finance from Texas A&M University in 1979, followed by a master’s in business administration in 1985 from SMU. 

Along the way, she married and started a family, which was a catalyst for a career change from accounting to real estate. She earned her real estate broker license in 1986. 

“What I decided was I would get my real estate license and be a part-time real estate person,” Stine said. “Real estate is not a part-time thing, and I had three boys in four years, so I was mostly a stay-at-home mom.”

Over the ensuing years, Stine volleyed between working in real estate, accounting, finance, and small business ownership.  

“I really wanted to be a business owner,” she said. “My grandparents had a grocery store way back when I was little bitty down in Gonzales, Texas. My dad had his own business for a while; my brother had his own business. Small business ownership is in our genes.”

In 2016, while living in Minnesota, Stine purchased a non-medical home healthcare agency. By 2019, due to family obligations, she sold that business and moved back to Dallas, where she resumed working as an accountant. Due to the impact of COVID-19, Stine was working remotely, her hours were dwindling, and she began to ponder additional revenue streams. 

An idea she had been mulling over for some time became her second venture into business ownership when, in 2020, she launched Blue Tulip Home Watch. 

“Our business is not home security; it is a home watch service,” she said. “We do visual inspections of the outside and inside of homes and look for issues such as water damage from leaking pipes, vandalism, and storm damage.”

She chose the business name because she said blue tulips symbolize peace, tranquility, trust, and loyalty. 

“I want my clients to get that feeling of they trust me and have peace of mind,” Stine said. 

Her first clients came about because of pandemic travel restrictions.

“He had a house in Dallas, and his parents were elderly in England,” she said. “He could work remotely, so he left his house in Dallas and went back to live with his parents for a while.” 

Another couple had a house in Dallas, but they were in China when the pandemic lockdowns occurred, so they couldn’t come home. 

Stine recently moved from University Park to Colorado to be near her grandson, so hired Katherine Winford, a Preston Hollow resident, to take care of her Dallas clients.