By The Grackle 4 min read Everybody loves the idea of a vacation rental. Buy a charming little house. Put some nice pillows in it. List it online. Then sit on the porch drinking something with a lime in it while strangers quietly deposit money into your bank account. That is not how this works. I have spent enough time perched on Austin power lines watching humans drag sofas through narrow doorways to know that a successful vacation rental is a business. It has customers, com

A Grackle’s Guide to Making Money While Strangers Sleep in Your House I have been informed that owning a short-term rental is an investment. This means we can't simply ask, “Did we make money?” No. Humans have developed an entire vocabulary specifically to make answering that question more difficult. ROI. Cap rate. Cash flow. Occupancy. ADR. I have learned these terms. I do not respect them. But if you're thinking about buying or operating a short-term rental, you should prob

A Grackle’s Guide to Giving an Old Austin House Another Hundred Years I’ve been around Austin a while. I’ve watched bungalows get bulldozed, McMansions sprout overnight, and perfectly good old houses painted entirely gray for reasons no bird or man can adequately explain. So when it comes to old houses, I have opinions. Historic homes are weird. The floors lean. The doors stick. There’s usually at least one light switch that appears to control absolutely nothing. And somewher