Uptown, Downtown

Then there were Two St. Augustine Guest Houses 

Wendy and I were in love. Not only with each other but with St. Augustine and we loved being vacation rental hosts. As we were heading out of town, we decided to extend another day and look at a house that was about a 10-minute walk from downtown. We went into this really cute neighborhood with hidden streets and saw a house that had a circular driveway and a Spanish influence and we toured it. Across the street was another house, and leaning against the house was a for sale sign, we were curious. 

Behind the white fence were two dogs, and I bravely opened the gate (they were small dogs), befriended the dogs, and rang the bell. When the woman answered the door, I asked her if her house had just been sold. She said no, it was about to be listed the next day. We asked for a tour of the house and she walked us through and it was amazing. I wasn’t expecting the giant parrot as we opened the door to the backyard when I screamed and we all laughed.  Wendy and I had a plane to catch.  Could we buy this house?  Should we buy this house? We were new to the vacation rental business, but we couldn’t resist the opportunity and we got home and bought the house the next day after seeing it for about 10 minutes. 

This house was amazing and fairly new as it was built 10 years ago in a historic neighborhood.  The concrete block home had been freshly updated with the finest appointments–travertine floors, new carpet, granite, and quartz countertops, LED lighting, a fireplace, custom closets, and so much more. We decided to rent it as a long-term rental for a year while we got our feet wet in the vacation business, learned more about St. Augustine, and got to know the house.  We rented it to a nice family for a year as we continued our St Augustine vacation rental adventures and became a 5* Airbnb Superhost and VRBO Preferred Partner with our downtown guest house. 

It’s been a few years now and people love this house and we love this house. Our family loves this house. Our friends love this house and our guests love this house as it’s so close to the historic district, so close to Francis field where all the festivals are and so close to the Village Inn where they have Free pie on Wednesdays.