From Start to Finish, This Lochwood Meadows Flip Was Kismet

This Lochwood Meadows ranch home is the epitome of kismet. From the investors to the stager, it was all meant to be.

I spotted the house a few days ago on my friend Karen Otto’s Instagram page. Otto and her husband Eddie own Home Star Staging in Plano and are known for creating a unique style and character in properties. I asked her for the inside skinny, and she pointed me to Shawn Xu and his business partner Jay Fang, owners of U Property Management.

After 15 years in the telecom industry, Shawn was ready for a new challenge.

“Jay and I have a network of friends with rental properties that wanted better property management services,” Shawn said. “So we got into the business, and it’s been very successful. With the management business, we gained resources like flooring vendors, painters, and landscapers, and it struck us that maybe we could do some renovation projects on the side. We have great lenders, and we have good taste, so we thought, why not  give it a try?”

Go Big or Go Home

Shawn and Jay are the sorts of guys that believe in the adage, “Go big or go home.” Not only did they begin to renovate, but they also started a real estate brokerage. Then they put their networking skills to work.

“We’re Chinese, and we know a lot of Chinese people want to buy real estate and invest in rental properties,” Shawn said. “We have developed a trust with our network, so when they become landlords and need to renovate, they let us know. It’s not our main business, but when we find good properties, we will renovate them for ourselves and our clients.”

When Shawn and Jay found 11111 Shortmeadow Drive in Lochwood Meadows on MLS, they could immediately see the potential. They had targeted this area because they knew it was popular. Unfortunately, the property had been snapped up.

However, here comes more kismet. It had been purchased by a wholesaler in their network who sold it to them!

“We had been eyeing this community for a while, and last year, there was a property that inspired us to move forward,” Shawn said. “The floorplan is typical, and I knew it would not be a huge challenge to convert it to the popular open floor plan. I did my research, looked up the original photos of the home, and figured out why they used a Midcentury Modern style and particular colors.”

They got to work on their 1,982-square-foot, four-bedroom, three-bathroom Lochwood Meadows ranch and, after the dust had settled, agreed it needed staging.

Yes, this is more kismet.

“We had some examples of staged homes we liked,” Shawn said. “We rely on Google reviews for everything because we believe real people generally leave honest reviews, so it’s a reliable source.  We had never used a staging company before we found Home Star Staging. They sent us examples of their staged homes, and among those was a home we had pulled for inspiration. So it was perfect!”

Or was it kismet?

This Lochwood Meadows beauty was listed on May 21 at $549,000. It had a contract in four days. I think we better add Shawn and Jay to our list of Ones to Watch and keep an eye out for U Property Management’s next project!