This week, we are excited to feature Karen Tillery, a longtime OwnerRez user and the designer, builder, and vacation rental manager behind Restoration Log Cabins in North Alabama. Over the last 30 years, Karen has turned her passion for restoring old cabins and saving pieces of history into a successful career in design, construction, and vacation rental management.

Can you tell us a little bit about your history?

I’m Karen Tindall Tillery, but my friends call me KT. I’m a Southern girl born in Birmingham, a follower of Jesus, and an Auburn University graduate. A go getter at heart, I run 2 crazy, fun, and amazing businesses: Restoration Log Cabin Rentals and Karen Tillery Designs. I love all my jobs, from Mom and Gigi to designer, builder, and cabin rental manager. I started working with old, reclaimed buildings and materials over 30 years ago, and renovated my first cabin 22 years ago.

I later got my builder’s license so I could begin designing and building for other people. Since then, I have built cabins for clients and helped them set up their own vacation rentals through OwnerRez. My love for restoring log cabins and barns from the 1800s also led to an awesome career later in life as a designer on “Barnwood Builders.” My passion is taking the worn, weathered, and forgotten and turning it into something beautiful and new, while saving pieces of history along the way.

What is your background?

My background is in design and construction. I built and opened my first vacation rental in 2005 and, at one point, had 7 vacation rentals.

Were you always in vacation rentals or property management? If not, what did you do before?

I started my career in 1989 as a graphic designer at Southern Progress, best known for Southern Living Magazine, and then started dabbling in interior decorating in 1992. In 2004, I began my first cabin project. I went on to do my second cabin in 2008 and my third in 2012. In 2015, I started my fourth and largest cabin project, and in 2016, I transitioned to working full-time as a designer, builder, and rental manager.

The fifth cabin came quickly on the heels of the fourth and opened in 2017. I then undertook the design and construction of a 66-acre wedding venue consisting of seven structures. It opened for business in 2019. After that, I built two more cabins for clients and helped them set up their own vacation rentals through OwnerRez.

Are you from the geographical area where your properties are located, or did you move there later?

I only live about an hour from all of the rentals I built. Everything was centered around Lake Guntersville and the beautiful mountains overlooking that area.

What do you love most about the vacation rental business?

The flexibility of being able to manage my business from anywhere.

What do you dislike the most about it?

You can never get away from it, and if you run it all yourself, there is no such thing as a vacation.

How do you use OwnerRez to manage your business?

I use OwnerRez for everything from managing my calendar to keeping up with payments and invoices to keeping track of my taxes. I use the automated trigger emails, and most of my business is on autopilot.

What is the most useful feature OwnerRez offers?

The calendar syncing and the ability to share with my cleaning, maintenance and lawn care as well as pest control a link so they can see in real time when the cabin is open and when it is occupied and set up their service schedules accordingly.

Karen has done an incredible job of turning her passions into a successful career. We are proud to support her business and to help keep her day-to-day operations running on autopilot.