Hello Fellow Weirdos!

Chelle and I want people to know that as of this month, much like Dart Bowl, The Alamo Drafthouse Ritz, Holy Roller, I LUV VIDEO, Threadgills and Magnolia Cafe, the Weird Homes Tour has decided to shut its doors….for now. After eight wonderful years, and due to business slow down during the COVID19 pandemic, the Weird Homes Tour has decided to retire. 

But this is a wake, not a funeral. We started this event in Austin eight years ago and then expanded to a coffee table book, a YouTube channel, a podcast with the Austin American Statesman, and physical tours held in Houston, NOLA, Detroit, Portland and Austin. Due to the pandemic, and like any good startup they pivoted when needed, going to a virtual format as well by hosting home tours on ZOOM, Instagram Live and YouTube. 

However even with a startup like pivot, times have been rough. In one of our favorite cities of NOLA, they call the median a no man’s land. That’s where we are with physical events right now. People are exhausted by constant online meetings and events, but are too scared to go out and be in physical spaces for events, especially homes.

Chelle and I feel blessed that the tour has been featured in Austin Monthly, Tribeza, The Austin Chronicle, CBS We Are Austin, Texas Monthly and Travel and Leisure Magazine as well as winning the 2020 Anne Durrum Robinson Creative Initiative Award. We’ve also been part of two pilot TV pitches to HGTV and NETFLIX! 

Kevin Shaw, our badass Managing Director, had this to say about the last eight years “I really loved meeting the people behind these amazing homes. They are extremely fascinating people whose homes reflected their passions. I found a lot of inspiration through them and I hope that our guests did as well.” With special thanks to all of our amazing home owners like Lois Goodman, Brandon Hodge, James Talbot, Valerie Chaussonnet, Dave Claunch, Gregangelo, Christine Bold, Sam Malvaney, Shanise Tucker, Sandy and Randy Robertson, Kicker Kaldozi, Barbara Irwin Christine and Charles Claringbold, Lester Marks, Katy Nail and Jim Swift, Florence Ponziano, Selia Qynn, snd Sue Shefman.

In the end we’ve been very proud that our business was also a social impact company. We took our profits and gave back to our communities through investing it into smart, well-run nonprofits and other social impact businesses that fight for affordable housing. Over the last eight years we invested over $18,000 dollars in affordable housing all over the United States!

So what’s next for us? 

We are going to retire this event for now. And not in a Ozzy Osborne has one more tour way, or a Michael Jordan comes back to play baseball way. We will only bring back this brand if we receive a true sign that Austin is ready.

For now, we invite people to explore over 150 wonderfully weird homes on our website as well as on our YouTube Channel.

Want to have a breakdown of how we did our marketing/social media/advertising/fundraising on your Podcast or Blog? Contact us. Interested in saving the weird and whimsical and bringing the tour back in 2022? Contact us. David and Chelle are open to offers and can be contacted at contact@weirdhomestour.com.

Want to still support keeping Austin strange? Go grab a copy of our coffee table book “Weird Homes : The People and Places that Keep Austin Strangely Wonderful” at Book People or online here: https://the-weird-homes-tour.square.site/