They’re each remarkably simple, but that’s part of what makes them so effective.
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Billy Evans’ ‘Theranos 2.0’ startup has patents, investors, and a missing CTO—but no product
Billy Evans has spent the past week as the breakout character of the year’s most talked-about documentary. Now attention is turning to his day job.
Evans, the longtime partner of convicted Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, runs Haemanthus, an Austin-based startup that says it can use lasers to detect disease in blood, saliva, and urine. Interest in the company has surged since A24 released You Can See Everything, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s documentary about the couple, on Oct. 16.
Haemanthus has reportedly raised as much as $20 million and holds at least one granted patent. What it doesn’t have, at least publicly, is a product customers can buy, or published data showing its technology works. It has also lost its chief technology officer.
Set aside the “Theranos 2.0” jokes, and a more basic business question remains: What has Haemanthus actually built?
Who is Billy Evans?
Evans, 34, is a grandson of William and Anne Evans, who founded Evans Hotels in San Diego in 1953. The privately held, family-owned company operates three resorts in Southern California. But in an Oct. 1 statement, Evans Hotels said Billy Evans is neither an employee nor a shareholder.
Evans graduated from MIT in 2015 with a degree in economics. After a stint at LinkedIn, he worked as a special projects manager at Luminar Technologies, a lidar startup building sensors for self-driving cars, from 2017 until January 2019, according to Forbes. His LinkedIn profile has since been scrubbed of every job except Haemanthus. Luminar filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2025, nearly seven years after Evans left.
Evans met Holmes at a party in 2017, when Theranos was already engulfed in scandal. They have two children, William, 5, and Invicta, 3. Evans refers to Holmes as his wife, but Holmes told People that the couple never legally married. “Maybe we’ll get married someday, but our bond is more than a piece of paper,” she said.
How Haemanthus says its technology works
Evans has listed himself as Haemanthus’ CEO since October 2022. According to marketing materials reviewed by The New York Times last year, the company’s device uses a laser to scan biological samples “on a molecular level,” identify biomarkers such as glucose and hormones within seconds, and use AI to detect cancer and infections.
The underlying technique, Raman spectroscopy, is not new. Shining light on a sample and reading the signal that scatters back is a long-established way to identify chemicals. Forensic investigators use handheld Raman devices to identify suspected drugs at crime scenes, and labs can analyze substances through plastic bags or glass without opening them.
Blood is a much harder problem. The molecules researchers want to detect are often present in tiny amounts, so their signals are faint. Other components in blood can produce stronger signals that drown them out, according to a scientific review published in Applied Spectroscopy.
That approach is also what separates Haemanthus from Theranos. Holmes’ company claimed it could run conventional lab tests on a miniaturized machine using a few drops of blood. “Theranos attempted to miniaturize existing tests,” Haemanthus wrote on X in May 2025, describing its own approach as fundamentally different.
A Raman spectroscopy patent assigned to Haemanthus and granted in January 2025 names two inventors, one of them former CTO Joseph LaChapelle, according to Forbes. Several of the startup’s early staffers, including LaChapelle, worked with Evans at Luminar, NPR reported. Eric Potma, a UC Irvine chemistry professor who consults for the company, told WIRED that the concept isn’t pulled out of thin air, though he declined to go into detail because of his advisory role.
A patent, however, does not establish that a test can accurately diagnose patients.
Haemanthus plans to start with veterinary testing before pursuing human applications. That market is far less regulated. The FDA does not require premarket approval for devices intended for animals, though it can take action against misbranded or adulterated products.
How much money has Haemanthus raised?
According to investor materials the Times reviewed last year, Haemanthus initially raised $3.5 million from friends and family. In spring 2025, it began approaching wealthy investors in Austin and the San Francisco Bay Area for another $15 million. The materials described an eventual wearable device for humans that would take three years and $70 million to develop. WIRED has since reported that the company has received as much as $20 million.
A person who spoke with Evans this spring told Forbes that Evans said early Palantir employees had invested.
The company has yet to launch a commercial product or disclose independently validated diagnostic results.
A quiet CTO exit
LaChapelle told Forbes he left in March. “I resigned on March 16, 2026, due to a conflict of interest associated with a stealth startup I had founded prior to Haemanthus,” he said, declining to elaborate.
Evans has told it differently. The same person who spoke with Evans this spring told Forbes that Evans said he had let the CTO go. That person also recalled Evans describing the company as “Theranos 2.0,” a label Haemanthus has publicly rejected. Evans did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
Is Elizabeth Holmes involved?
Holmes is serving an 11-year sentence for defrauding Theranos investors at a federal prison camp in Bryan, Texas, roughly a two-hour drive from Austin.
In May 2025, NPR reported, citing two sources with direct knowledge, that Holmes had been advising Evans from prison, though the nature of that advice was unclear. Haemanthus denied it on X, saying Holmes had “zero involvement” and “no role, now or future.” WIRED reported that Holmes’ name does not appear in Haemanthus’ incorporation documents.
The documentary muddies that picture. It shows Evans and Holmes on fundraising calls and discussing a medical-testing venture, and Evans tells Fielder, “The idea is to put the band back together and do it all again.” Forbes noted it’s unclear whether those calls were for Haemanthus or another venture. A source close to Evans told New York Magazine that the project in the film was separate from Haemanthus. According to that source, it aimed to make medical testing cheaper without conventional chemical methods and was shelved when a panel of tests still cost several hundred dollars.
Evans has acknowledged the film may backfire. Speaking at the All-In Summit before he had seen the finished cut, he said, “I might think this is like the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
A fight over the film’s profits
The documentary reveals that Evans asked for a share of its profits, a request that worried the filmmakers about their independence. Fielder says they reluctantly agreed. A postscript says Evans ultimately decided not to accept payment.
That may not be the end of it. Page Six reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources, that Evans has been seeking Hollywood legal representation over a possible cut. One prominent litigator reportedly declined to take the case, and a source said Evans might donate any proceeds to charity.
The film has put Holmes back in the spotlight. Theranos whistleblower Tyler Shultz and Bad Blood author John Carreyrou have both weighed in, and Fortune has questioned whether her new persona distracts from the real story. It has also drawn far more scrutiny to Evans and Haemanthus. The company has yet to publicly show that its technology can reliably detect disease. It also remains unclear when its veterinary device will reach the market, or how close its larger ambitions are to reality.
Economist finds reasons for cautious optimism with rates in the 7s
“Even in a really tough market, we’re still getting 4 million annualized sales,” Kushi said. “I think that’s the life events we’re talking about. Even in a tough market, an affordability- and inventory-constrained market, you’re still seeing this sort of lower bound of 4 million sales. And that’s not nothing.”
Home prices are adjusting city by city. Some once-hot metros have slipped while others keep climbing.
“It’s not a house price crash, right? It’s been a gradual decline,” she said. “We’ve seen in places like Dallas, there’s been year-over-year price declines. A lot of the formerly pandemic darling markets are now seeing some house price moderation or declines. But then in Chicago, a top-performing market, 5 to 6% house price growth. But those price declines do help to bring affordability into better balance, even with higher or elevated rates.”
What could change
Kushi said volatility is very challenging for the market right now. Some of the jumps in mortgage rates over the past several weeks have been especially large compared with the last couple of years.
“You get the folks that say, ‘Well, mortgage rates are actually at historical averages,’ which is true,” she said. “A rate from 7.5% to 8% is the pre-pandemic historical average for the 30-year fixed rate, but it’s not the level, right? It’s the change. So the change we had in 2022 was very rapid, and nowadays it’s the rate lock-in effect and whether it gets worse or it gets better, right? But I think what we’re all looking for is stability and predictability, so that buyers and sellers can plan.”
10 College Towns Where Football Saturdays Pay Your Mortgage in 2026
It’s still 94 degrees out, but everyone has collectively decided it feels like fall; somebody’s uncle is already furious about a backup quarterback he has never watched play a snap; and 100,000 people are about to drive four hours to sit on hot aluminum and scream at 19-year-olds.
Football season is also the most dependable revenue spike a short-term rental gets all year in a few select cities. It’s six or seven Saturdays where your nightly rate does things it would never do in June.
I pulled AirDNA data on more college markets than I am proud of to figure out which towns actually turn that into money. Then I did the part nobody does and read the zoning ordinance in every single finalist. That second step took about nine hours, and it reordered the whole list.
Reality Check
Are these the 10 best short-term rental markets in America? Not really, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
If you want pure returns with no strings attached, there are markets out there with better math and simpler rules that have nothing to do with football. Half these towns have a fall rate premium under 1.3x, which means the football effect is close to a rounding error on their annual revenue. Several have zoning rules that limit what you’re allowed to buy. And one or two would not make anybody’s top 100 if you took the stadium away.
If one of these towns is already on your radar because you went there, your kid is going there, or you live two hours away and know which streets are which, then football season is a real tailwind. Six or seven weekends when your rate doubles are genuine money, and it shows up clearly in the data.
What I would not do is buy a house 900 miles away in a town you have never visited because a team is ranked 11th. Every market on this list has a specific catch, which I put in each entry. Read those before you fall for a yield number.
How I Ranked These
I started with the home markets of the top 50 programs. Programs playing inside major metros got cut first, because a 100,000-seat stadium in a metro of 2 million disappears into the noise, and the data proved it.
Markets too thin to read a rate curve went next. Twenty-two made the full workup.
Each one got scored on five things:
- Revenue yield after property tax (35%): Annual STR revenue divided by the Zillow Home Value Index, less the estimated effective property tax rate for a non-owner-occupied property. This is a market-comparison metric, not a property-level return. It does not subtract management, cleaning, utilities, insurance, furnishing, maintenance, or platform fees.
- In-season lift (30%): The single highest month between September and November, divided by the average of June and July. I ran that for 2023, 2024, and 2025 and averaged the three. It’s designed to capture a market’s biggest football-month rate spike, not its full fall-season average.
- Revenue trend (20%): Year-over-year revenue change.
- Appreciation (10%): One-year change in home value.
- 2027 recruiting class (5%): 247Sports Composite team rank. It’s a small, forward-looking proxy for program relevance, expected fan demand, and the odds that future home schedules will remain commercially interesting. It does not predict returns on its own. It matters enough to me as a tiebreaker to carry 5%.
And unofficially, whether the town is a ghost town from February through August, because a few of these very much are.
Revenue, ADR, occupancy, and supply figures are AirDNA market estimates for the trailing 12 months through July 2026. Home values are Zillow Home Value Index figures pulled in August 2026. Regulations were reviewed in August 2026 and are constantly changing. All of it is a market-level estimate, not a projection for any specific property.
Two gates sit on top of the score. A market with revenue down more than 5% over the trailing year didn’t make this list. That’s a screening rule, not proof that no individual deal can work there. And a market where a remote investor can’t operate at all is out.
The preseason poll rank is here for context and carries zero weight. I tested it against returns. I’ll show you where it breaks at the end.
One more thing before the list: This is a market-level screen, not a property-level pro forma. AirDNA numbers are market estimates, not a promise about a specific house.
Before you buy anywhere on this list, confirm that a non-owner-occupied whole-home rental is legal at that exact address, verify any night limit and whether a permit is actually available, and read the HOA or condo documents.
Honorable Mentions
State College, PA (Penn State)
The only market I removed on regulation, and it stung, because it produced the highest gross revenue of anything I studied at $46,825. State College permits short-term rentals only when the property is the primary residence of an owner or tenant living there for eight-plus months a year. Adjacent College Township caps them at 30 nights.
Auburn, AL
It was the second-best football premium in the entire study at 2.14x, but the numbers still say no. Supply grew 29% last year while occupancy fell 10.7% and revenue dropped 10%. Auburn houses run $423,354, which puts revenue yield at 6.7%.
College Station, TX
The No. 1 recruiting class in America, and it missed the top 10. Revenue was down 4.2%, with flat appreciation and 1.50% tax. The football signal is real at 1.63x. Permits are workable: $100 plus a $100 inspection fee, $75 to renew, and a monthly hotel occupancy tax owed to both the city and Brazos County.
Knoxville, TN
Tennessee’s 0.37% effective property tax is the cheapest carry anywhere in this study. What kept it out of the top 10 is 2,685 active listings, more supply than any market here, and a 1.06x fall premium.
If you shop it anyway: Type 1 permits require that the property be your principal residence, so an investor needs a Type 2, which is only available in nonresidential districts. Buy downtown or mixed-use.
Lincoln, NE
Nebraska has sold out every home game since 1962. Everybody who wants to watch Nebraska play already lives in Nebraska. The rules are clear, though: a $250 annual license, most residential zones qualify, and no night cap.
And without any further ado, here’s the top 10.
10. Columbus, OH (Ohio State Buckeyes)
- Revenue: $35,143
- Median home price: $248,686
- Revenue yield: 12.7%
- ADR: $170.23
- Occupancy: 62%
- In-season lift: 0.98x
Why it works
The highest occupancy of anything I studied was 62% on a house under $250,000. Columbus has an economy that has nothing to do with Saturdays. It’s the home of Intel, Nationwide, a giant hospital system, and a convention calendar that never really stops. That’s why it books in February while neighboring Oxford sits empty.
Football update
Ohio State opens No. 1 in the country with the seventh-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Ohio State is the best team in America, and Columbus is 10th on this list. Sit with that for a second, because it’s the whole argument of the last section of this article.
The market posts a 0.98x lift, meaning a football night costs a hair less than an average night. I zoomed into the campus submarket looking for any signal at all, and October still finished behind May, which is graduation plus the Memorial Tournament. Home values also slipped 1% last year.
Rules are easy here. You’ll need an annual permit through the Department of Public Safety, which is $150 a year for an investment property plus a $20 application and a $32 background check. You disclose that you don’t live there, and that’s the end of it. No night cap.
You do need a local responsible party and $300,000 in liability coverage that specifically names short-term rental use.
9. Columbia, MO (Missouri Tigers)
- Revenue: $29,920
- Median home price: $327,680
- Revenue yield: 8.3%
- ADR: $158.50
- Occupancy: 58%
- In-season lift: 1.25x
Why it works
Revenue climbed 15.6% last year while the number of listings dropped 2.7%. Fewer properties splitting more money is about the best setup an existing operator can ask for. Columbia is also one of only three towns here where fall revenue beats summer revenue outright.
Football update
Missouri sits 25th in the coaches’ poll with the 28th-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
The top earner in this market is a 12-bedroom on 51 acres. It opens 125 nights a year and generates $99,000 in revenue. The listing that put “Mizzou Stadium” right in its title finished dead last of the top eight.
There’s a reason a 12-bedroom can exist: 51 acres almost certainly puts it outside city limits. Inside Columbia, the rules get specific in a hurry: Every short-term rental is capped at eight occupants. The city issues one license per owner, so a portfolio is off the table.
And if you don’t live in the property, you need a conditional use permit from the City Council to rent it for more than 120 nights, with a cap of 210 nights. Downtown and mixed-use zones get looser treatment.
Compliance runs in three steps, and they have to happen in order: zoning clearance, then rental inspection, then business license.
So the play here is on country land or a downtown parcel, not a four-bedroom in a neighborhood.
8. Columbia, SC (South Carolina Gamecocks)
- Revenue: $36,303
- Median home price: $230,662
- Revenue yield: 14.6%
- ADR: $178.39
- Occupancy: 61%
- In-season lift: 1.02x
Why it works
Columbia has the third-best revenue yield of all 22 markets. A $230,662 house pulling $36,303 at 61% occupancy actually pays you in March, which almost nothing else on this list does.
Football update
South Carolina is receiving votes but sits outside the top 25, with its 2027 class ranked 27th.
Investor angle
Here’s what actually decides whether you can buy: Columbia allows short-term rentals outright in mixed-use, activity center, commercial, and employment-campus districts. If you want a residential base zone, a non-owner-occupied rental has to front a four-lane street classified as a major arterial, minor arterial, or collector. Most neighborhood houses don’t. So shop commercial and mixed-use first.
The city also adopted a 365-day moratorium on new residential STR permits starting in June 2025. Whether that expired, got extended, or was replaced by something else is exactly the kind of thing that changes between when I write this and when you read it. Ask the city in writing before you go under contract.
7. Norman, OK (Oklahoma Sooners)
- Revenue: $29,336
- Median home price: $265,617
- Revenue yield: 10.1%
- ADR: $187.66
- Occupancy: 47%
- In-season lift: 1.23x
Why it works
Revenue was up 12.2% last year, the third-best on the board, on a home price that still starts with a 2. There were only 558 active listings.
Football update
Oklahoma enters at No. 9 with the fifth-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Norman has the cleanest rulebook I found in nine hours of reading these things:
- Short-term rentals are allowed in every zoning district except the industrial ones.
- No owner-occupancy requirement anywhere in the city.
- A license runs $150 plus a $50 annual inspection.
Planned unit developments require council approval, so check with the council before you make an offer.
One trap worth knowing: The city’s guest tax published rate is 8%, but Norman put a proposition on the April 2026 ballot to raise it to 10% and extend it to RV spaces, so verify the current number before you price out anything.
September rates hit $226, compared to $172 in summer. Real, but modest.
6. Iowa City, IA (Iowa Hawkeyes)
- Revenue: $34,270
- Median home price: $305,824
- Revenue yield: 9.5%
- ADR: $177.33
- Occupancy: 60%
- In-season lift: 1.23x
Why it works
This was the best growth story in the study. Revenue was up 18.8%, while occupancy was up 12.4% and rates up 7.8%. Supply was down 3.6%. This market grew revenue by nearly 19% while losing listings.
Football update
Iowa opens 22nd with an unranked 2027 class, which cost it a couple of spots in my scoring.
Investor angle
With only 291 active listings, this was the smallest market on this list. I saw that number and assumed a permit squeeze. I was wrong in the other direction.
Iowa preempts city STR regulation at the state level. Any stay of 30 days or less counts as residential use, and cities can’t ban them, cap them, add conditional-use hurdles, or charge an STR-specific permit fee. Iowa City requires a rental permit and compliance with the housing code. That’s the entire list.
Iowa’s 1.71% property tax is the highest anywhere on this list, and it’s the only real drag on the yield.
One more thing worth a look: Three of the eight top earners in Iowa City are log cabins outside town. The secluded cabin 15 minutes out beats the house you can walk to Kinnick from. That pattern showed up in six different markets in this study, and it’s the most consistent thing I found.
5. Lubbock, TX (Texas Tech Red Raiders)
- Revenue: $29,154
- Median home price: $212,191
- Revenue yield: 12.2%
- ADR: $164.38
- Occupancy: 53%
- In-season lift: 1.26x
Why it works
The cheapest real door on this list. A $212,191 house earning $29,154 works out to 13.7% before Texas takes its cut, and Lubbock County takes 1.51% of it.
Football update
Texas Tech comes in at No. 12 with the ninth-ranked 2027 class, second-best recruiting in this top 10.
Investor angle
Football is not why you buy in Lubbock. The fall premium is 1.26x, and the highest-rate month of the year is May. Texas Tech graduation outearns Texas Tech football, which I checked three times before I believed it.
Buy it because it’s a cheap house in a market with 6.8% revenue growth. You’ll need an STR permit and to remit monthly taxes on occupied guest nights.
4. Athens, GA (Georgia Bulldogs)
- Revenue: $38,028
- Median home price: $344,516
- Revenue yield: 10.2%
- ADR: $265.88
- Occupancy: 45%
- In-season lift: 1.71x
Why it works
Athens doesn’t win any single category, but it finishes near the top of most of them: Revenue was up 7.6%. A 1.71x fall premium. A tax rate of 0.82% that won’t hurt you.
Best detail in the market: Athens lost 7.2% of its listings last year and raised rates 17% anyway. Supply walked out the door, and the operators who stuck around collected.
Football update
Georgia opens third in the country with the 12th-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Read this before you get excited about the No. 4 ranking: Athens is not an easy market for a remote investor, and the rate data is doing all the work here.
Athens-Clarke County runs two STR categories. A Home Occupation permit requires you to be the owner-occupant or a long-term tenant, which rules out anyone buying from out of town. A Commercial STR drops that requirement but is zoning-dependent and needs a Special Use Permit.
That permit is discretionary, and the commission has not been friendly to them. In January 2026, they denied one, and the minutes have several commissioners saying they oppose the process generally.
So Athens is a specific-address market. Buy in a qualifying commercial zone, budget for a public hearing, and don’t sign anything you can’t walk away from if the vote goes badly.
3. Oxford, MS (Ole Miss Rebels)
- Revenue: $41,703
- Median home price: $419,443
- Revenue yield: 9.1%
- ADR: $438.41
- Occupancy: 33%
- In-season lift: 2.21x
Why it works
This is the most football-dependent market in America. It has the highest nightly rate anywhere in the study: $438; lowest occupancy: 33%.
A night in Oxford costs $277 in July and $611 in September. And it doesn’t drop back down after. September, October, November, and December all clear $500.
Think about what 33% occupancy actually means. The average house there sits empty two nights out of every three, all year long, and still produces $41,703. That’s what 28,000 people and a 64,000-seat stadium do to a rate calendar.
Football update
Ole Miss enters 10th with the 14th-ranked 2027 class.
Investor angle
Here’s the strange part, and I only found it by reading the actual Land Development Code: Oxford doesn’t cleanly classify a non-owner-occupied whole-home short-term rental as a use. The code addresses an owner-occupied bed-and-breakfast, which is a special exception in the AG, RCN, ER, SR, and NR districts. A regular Airbnb where nobody lives full-time isn’t on the table of uses.
That is not the same as permission. The code states that an omitted use isn’t automatically allowed, and Section 1.9 delegates interpretation of omissions to the Planning Director. So whether your specific house qualifies comes down to a written determination, and you want that in hand before you close, not after.
For what it’s worth, I also found no code provision expressly imposing an owner-occupancy mandate, an annual night cap, or a 1,500-foot separation rule on a whole-home rental. People repeat all three online. The separation rule appears to belong to Oxford, Mississippi. But because the use isn’t clearly classified, the absence of a restriction doesn’t mean a green light.
2. Tuscaloosa, AL (Alabama Crimson Tide)
- Revenue: $37,800
- Median home price: $232,816
- Revenue yield: 15.3%
- ADR: $360.85
- Occupancy: 34%
- In-season lift: 2.04x
Why it works
Fall nights average $513 against $252 in July. That’s about 2.04 times July’s rate, or 104% higher, and it lands on a 34% annual occupancy rate.
So Tuscaloosa sits quiet most of the year and then becomes the most expensive address in Alabama for seven Saturdays. There are currently only 525 active listings, the second-thinnest supply in the study.
Football update
Alabama enters 11th. Its 2027 recruiting class ranks 41st nationally.
Investor angle
Now, the part that decides your deal, and it’s the single most important sentence in this article: For a residential dwelling in the applicable Tourist Overlay area, Tuscaloosa allows short-term rental operation by right for no more than 45 days per calendar year. Going beyond that may require discretionary approval.
That $37,800 revenue figure is a market average. It includes grandfathered operators and approval holders running full calendars. At $360 a night, 45 nights gets you to roughly $16,000. If you’re buying by right, underwrite 45 nights and treat any approval as upside rather than the plan. Call the Office of Urban Development, give them the exact address, and get the night count in writing.
One more thing: Alabama assesses owner-occupied homes at 10% of value and rentals at 20%. Your effective rate doubles the day you list it, so budget 0.90%, not the 0.45% published.
1. South Bend, IN (Notre Dame Fighting Irish)
- Revenue: $39,546
- Median home price: $202,170
- Revenue yield: 17.7%
- ADR: $285.89
- Occupancy: 46%
- In-season lift: 1.82x
Why it works
South Bend finished 18 points clear of second place, the widest gap on the board, by winning nearly every category at once. A typical house costs $202,170, and the average listing earns $39,546. Revenue is up 7.7%. Home values are up 6.9%, the fastest appreciation in the study. September rates run 82% above the July floor.
Football update
Notre Dame opens fifth with the second-ranked 2027 class, behind only Texas A&M.
Investor angle
The 46% occupancy rate scares people off, and it shouldn’t. Six or seven Saturdays at $433 a night is the whole model, and Irish alumni will fly in from Phoenix for a 6-6 season.
Here’s the comparison I want stuck in your head: Ann Arbor produces $38,872 per listing, within $700 of South Bend. A typical Ann Arbor house costs $536,036. You’d be paying an extra $334,000 for identical revenue and a better football team. Only one of those shows up in your cash flow.
There are two things to watch anyway. The Common Council held a public meeting in July 2026 about regulating STRs and floated annual permits plus public owner contact info, which is the mild end of what a city can do. Nothing passed. Check the agenda before you close.
And Indiana caps non-homestead rentals at 2% of assessed value while giving them none of the homestead deductions, so budget 1.9%, not the 0.86% any county lookup shows you.
Final Play Call: What the Data Actually Says
1. The best football markets are the hardest ones to buy into
Three of the five largest fall-rate premiums I measured are in towns with the tightest rules:
- Tuscaloosa at 2.04x with a 45-day by-right limit
- State College at 1.80x with a primary-residence mandate
- Athens at 1.71x behind a discretionary permit
That is not a coincidence. Football pushed rates so high in those towns that investors poured in, neighbors got loud, and the council responded. The thing that creates the premium is the thing that creates the restriction.
2. Football is a rate event, not a volume event
Across the 17 markets where I could read monthly occupancy, I did not find one where fall occupancy consistently beat summer. In this sample, the football effect showed up far more reliably in nightly rates than in booked nights. You’re usually monetizing a handful of higher-value weekends, not counting on a broad lift in annual occupancy.
3. Poll rank and recruiting rank don’t reliably predict returns on their own
Recruiting tested negative against revenue in this sample. Texas A&M has the No. 1 class in America, and College Station didn’t crack the top 10. Oregon is ranked second in the country, and Eugene finished dead last out of 22. Ohio State is No. 1, and Columbus posts a 0.98x football premium.
I still gave recruiting 5% of the score as a forward-looking tiebreaker because college football relevance is part of what this list is trying to capture in the first place.
4. Published property tax averages understate what an investor pays
County effective rates get averaged across a pool full of owner-occupants claiming homestead exemptions and assessment treatment you don’t get. I checked five states, and each one understated the non-owner-occupied tax bill. Alabama assesses rentals at double the owner-occupied ratio. Indiana caps rentals at 2% while denying them any homestead deductions.
That’s a lot of numbers. If you’ve had AirDNA, Zillow, and ESPN open in three tabs for the last 20 minutes, I get it.
So do what Lee Corso did every Saturday morning for almost 40 years: Reach under the desk, pull out the mascot head, and commit. That’s how you go from tab-hopping to the Heisman of hosts.
Three New 90K Signup Bonuses for Chase Avios Cards (Ending 10/29)
Chase Avios Cards 90K Bonus
Update:
Chase has launched new welcome bonuses on all three Avios credit cards. You can now earn 90,000 Avios from each card when you spend $5,000 or more within three months. The offers are showing up through your British, Iberia or AerLingus accounts, but the links are public for everyone to use. All three offers end October 28, 2026. Let’s see the details of the new offer and the benefits each card provides.
Welcome Offer
- Earn 90,000 Avios after you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening.
- $95 annual fee
- Learn more:
Card Details
All three cards offer the following benefits:
- Earn:
- 3 Avios for every $1 spent on purchases with Iberia, British Airways, LEVEL, and Aer Lingus.
- 2 Avios for every $1 spent on hotel accommodations when booked directly with the hotel
- 1 Avios for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Extended Warranty Protection
- Purchase Protection for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
- No Foreign Transaction Fees
Then there are some card specific perks:
- British Airways Card
- Iberia Card
- 10% off paid Iberia flights
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases, you receive a $1,000 Iberia flight discount voucher to use toward two tickets on the same flight
- Aer Lingus Card
- Priority boarding on Aer Lingus flights to and from the United States.
- Every calendar year you make $30,000 in purchases, you will earn a Travel Together Ticket good for two years.
Eligibility
This product is not available to either current cardmembers of this credit card, or previous cardmembers of this credit card who received a new cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months. This card also falls under the Chase 5/24 rule.
Guru’s Wrap-Up
This is a good offer, but not the highest we have seen. The highest ever offer was for 125,000 Avios but with a lot more spend. Avios can also be used on Qatar Airways, Finnair and Vueling.
These new bonuses will get you good value, but considering the cards fall under the Chase 5/24 rule, you should probably take a look at other Chase products first.
HT: r/churning
Our site doesn’t have credit card affiliate links so we will always give readers the best possible offers!
How Pepsi fell behind in the cola wars—and then lost KFC
Pepsi has suffered many setbacks in recent years, but perhaps few were as symbolic as being jilted by a long-time partner it used to own, KFC.
The fried chicken chain said last week that it would begin replacing PepsiCo’s namesake soft drinks with Coca-Cola products at its 3,700 U.S. restaurants in January. The two companies’ partnership stretches back 40 years, since the time PepsiCo bought the fast food chain. (PepsiCo spun KFC off in 1997.) KFC represents a tiny sliver of Pepsi sales, but the defection reflects the ongoing deterioration of the drink’s brand power.
How Coke pulled ahead
For decades, the Coke vs. Pepsi cola wars were a part of mainstream culture, with memorable ads showcasing blind “Pepsi Challenge” taste tests of the two drinks. Pepsi’s TV commercials with pop star Michael Jackson and model Cindy Crawford in the 1980s and ’90s became part of the larger zeitgeist. Back then, Coke’s U.S. market share was just a percentage point or two more than Pepsi’s.
ourtesy of Pepsi/—Getty Images
It’s a very different story now. Last year, Pepsi-Cola had 8.1% of the U.S. carbonated soft drinks market by volume last year, far behind Coke’s 18.5%, according to trade publication Beverage Digest. In 2024, Pepsi fell to third place behind Dr. Pepper for the first time and remains there. What’s more, sales of Diet Coke and Coke Zero are multiple times higher than their Pepsi counterparts.
Pepsi didn’t so much collapse as get outmaneuvered. Coke has reshaped its business around brand building and innovation, shedding its capital-intensive bottling business and successfully betting on faster-growing categories like dairy-centric and protein-based drinks. PepsiCo has remained a sprawling portfolio company where soda was one priority among many, and one that got less attention than it used to. The result is a PepsiCo that generates more than twice as much revenue as Coca-Cola but whose market valuation is only about half as big.
Soda on autopilot
Wall Street analysts say that for years PepsiCo CEOs have turned their attention away from the company’s soda business in North America because of what was long seen as soda’s secular decline. And it’s true that soda sales slumped for 16 straight years. But starting in 2021, the U.S. soft drinks industry stabilized, with Americans gravitating toward healthier and more functional beverages, like those featuring protein and energy additives. PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta has admitted that the still-massive business deserves more attention.
“We do not feel good about the beverage business,” Laguarta told Wall Street analysts earlier this month. “So we are putting all the urgency of the business and focus on improving our performance in soft drinks.”
Last quarter, PepsiCo’s $28 billion North American beverage business shrank 2% by volume. That decline occurred even as its non-soda drinks business—including Gatorade, Aquafina and Ocean Spray—improved, suggesting deeper declines for its soft drinks. (PepsiCo does not break out subdivisions within its beverage segment.)
PepsiCo is a behemoth of a food and snacks and beverage company, taking in nearly $94 billion in revenue last year. Some 58% of that came from its Frito-Lay food and snacks division that includes Fritos and Doritos chips and its Quaker brand. Its beverage business generates the rest of the revenue, with a full 30% coming from North American beverages.
Qilai Shen—Bloomberg via Getty Images
The company’s North American Frito-Lay unit has regularly reported operating profit margins twice as large as the domestic beverage business. As a result, the snack business has earned the parent company’s investments at the expense of soft drinks, which PepsiCo has left to run on autopilot, Beverage Digest editor and publisher Duane Stanford told Fortune.
“It worked so long as the Frito-Lay continued to be a powerful engine,” said Stanford. The problem now is that PepsiCo’s North American snacks business is under pressure as inflation-wary consumers balk at high prices. Sales are flat so far this year. Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that prices for some of PepsiCo’s chips had risen 50% since 2021. At one point, a party-size bag of Tostitos cost $7.29. Consumers have pushed back, and PepsiCo cut snack some prices this spring.
No one should expect any quick relief for PepsiCo’s snacks business, which has a 38% share of the $80 billion U.S. savory snacks industry. “It’s tough to forecast much sequential improvement absent a material change in the consumer macro environment,” JPMorgan analyst Andrea Teixeira said. That puts even more pressure on PepsiCo’s beverage business to shape up.
Laguarta’s earnings call comments suggest the company will try to lift soft drink sales by building the brands of its soda lineup that include Pepsi, Mountain Dew, and Poppi, a prebiotic soda it bought last year for $2 billion. That investment will likely mean pouring more money into marketing and advertising, paying retailers for more shelf space and presentation, and lowering prices as needed.
Is a breakup the answer?
Over the years, activist investors have proposed a far more radical solution to PepsiCo’s woes: split up the sprawling portfolio company.
In the 2010s, investor Nelson Peltz spent two years trying—ultimately unsuccessfully—to convince PepsiCo to separate its food and beverage businesses into two companies to better “unlock” the value of each.
More recently, investors have pushed PepsiCo to follow some of the moves employed by Coca-Cola, which has no food business and relies on franchisees—rather than its own facilities—for its bottling and manufacturing needs.
A year ago, Elliott Management called PepsiCo a “dramatic underperformer” and urged it to consider, among other things, re-franchising its company-owned bottlers. In 2010, both Coca-Cola and PepsiCo acquired their bottlers believing that a vertically integrated approach to production and distribution was essential. Coke quickly reversed the decision, which has reduced the cost pressures stemming from the capital-intensive activity. It also freed Coke to invest in brand building and innovation, two strengths that helped sway KFC to switch to Coke.
“A new partner in Coca-Cola gives us a platform to innovate, meet changing tastes and give customers more reasons to choose us,” KFC U.S. president Catherine Tan-Gillespie wrote in a memo to staff. (Since KFC dropped Pepsi, fast food rival Taco Bell has extended its contract with Pepsi for another 10 years.)
Laguarta surprised analysts earlier this month with the mere mention of re-franchising; he said it could lead to “better execution and potentially better margins.” At the same time, re-franchising shouldn’t be seen as a panacea, analysts warned. “If ‘accelerated’ re-franchising is indeed the right path, [but] this would not be without significant disruption,” Barclays’s Lauren Lieberman wrote in a note. Analysts say it could take a decade or more to re-franchise entirely: Coca-Cola’s re-franchising took a decade or so to pay off.
“We’re open to revisiting every option,” the CEO of eight years said on the earnings call. A PepsiCo spokesman declined to comment on re-franchising beyond the CEO’s remarks.
PepsiCo does have one beverage bright spot that could serve as a model going forward: Gatorade. The drink’s sales have risen this year (the company does not quantify those gains) thanks to updates such as the March launch of its lower sugar variation. Beverage Digest’s Stanford thinks PepsiCo can indeed rebuild its soda drinks empire, but doing so will require a shift in mindset after years of the board and CEOs seeing soft drinks as products with dim growth prospects.
“Everyone counted carbonated soft drinks out and now we see that was a mistake,” he said of PepsiCo leadership. “This is a conglomerate that knows how to execute. They just have to make the decision to do it.”
How Long Does It Take to Turn $300 per Month Into $1 Million in the Stock Market? Here’s What History Says.
You don’t need to start with tens of thousands of dollars to become a millionaire. In fact, you don’t necessarily need a huge monthly investment to hit that goal either. Just $300 a month can get the job done.
It won’t happen quickly, though. You’ll need a disciplined process in which you consistently invest each month, regardless of market conditions, and resist the temptation to sell when things get bad. If you can do this, you can turn $300 a month into $1 million.
Source: Getty Images.
Over the past century, the S&P 500 (^GSPC -0.52%) has delivered an average annual return of roughly 10% with dividends reinvested. While nothing is guaranteed, that’s a good assumption to use for U.S. stock returns in the future.
Assuming you invest $300 monthly into something like the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO -0.53%), here’s how long it would take to amass $1 million at different annualized rates of return.
| Annual return | Years to invest |
|---|---|
| 6% | 48 |
| 8% | 40 |
| 10% | 34 |
| 12% | 30 |
Source: Calculator.net
At a 10% annual return, you’d invest a total of $122,400 over the course of those 34 years. That means roughly 88% of your account balance would have come from capital growth on your investment. That’s the power of long-term compounding returns.
The process for achieving this doesn’t have to be complicated either. Invest $300 a month into the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and continue doing so for as long as you can. Increase your monthly investment over time or add pay raises and bonuses to your brokerage account, and you can hit the $1 million mark even quicker.
With enough time, the seemingly impossible is quite realistic.
David Dierking has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (And How to Answer Them!) #jobinterview
TOP 5 MOST IMPORTANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS (And How to Answer Them!) #jobinterview #interviewquestionsandanswers #interviewpreparation #interviewquestions
There are five most important questions you will have to answer in your job interview. They are called the most important question because if you answer any of them incorrectly, you will not get hired.
Let me tell you what those five questions are and how to answer them. Take notes.
Most important interview question number one is, why do you want this job?
I recommend you say you want the job because you are passionate about the role and industry and your research tells you their company has a positive workplace culture.
Most important interview question number two is, why should we hire you?
Say to the hiring manager they should hire you because you are ready made for the position, you are commercially aware, that means you understand you must give them a great return on your salary and you have a track record of success which you will replicate for their company in the role.
Most important interview question number three is, why do you want to leave your current job?
Do not be negative in any way about your current employer, co-workers or manager. I recommend you say you want leave your job simply because you are seeking a fresh challenge with an exciting company like theirs where your skills and qualities will be put to good use.
Most important interview question number four, where do you see yourself in five years time?
You must say you still want to be working for their company in five years time either in the same role with more responsibility or having earned a promotion.
Most important interview question number five, how would you deal with a conflict with a coworker
Do not say you would ask your manager to help you deal with the conflict. You must say you will take responsibility for the conflict to reach an amicable solution.
Now, if you want more great top scoring answers to most important interview questions, click the related video link below.
source
University Of Hawaiʻi Opens All 10 Campuses, Including UH Mānoa, To Seniors With No Application
Key Points
- Direct2UH now offers Hawaiʻi public high school seniors GPA-based admission to all 10 UH campuses, with UH Mānoa added for the Class of 2027.
- A 3.20 GPA qualifies for every campus, and every eligible senior qualifies for at least one of the seven UH community colleges.
- The form is free and due May 1, 2027, and students at 13 public charter schools are eligible for the first time.
The University of Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education expanded Direct2UH to all 10 UH campuses on October 15, 2026, adding the flagship UH Mānoa campus for the Class of 2027. The program offers eligible public high school seniors direct admission based on their GPA, the same basic idea behind Michigan’s new direct admission portal.
Students at 13 public charter schools are eligible for the first time this year, after the 2025 launch covered only traditional public high schools. Seniors who complete the free Direct2UH form by May 1, 2027, can secure a fall 2027 spot without the standard college application process or its fee.
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Why It Matters
Most colleges charge about $50 per application and some charge $90, according to our list of colleges with free applications. Direct2UH drops that cost to $0 and replaces the application with a short form that confirms a student’s ID and campus choice.
UH President Wendy Hensel framed the expansion around access: “There is a place for you at the University of Hawaiʻi.” The bigger payoff is cost.
UH reports that about 90% of its community college graduates and 65% of its four-year graduates finish without student loan debt, which pairs with the state aid covered on our Hawaiʻi student loans and financial aid page.
How Does Direct2UH Work For The Class Of 2027?
A senior’s GPA decides which campuses they can choose. Students with a 3.20 or higher qualify for all 10 campuses, while students below 2.70 qualify for the seven UH Community Colleges, giving every eligible senior at least one community college option.
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Direct2UH GPA Tiers For The Class Of 2027
| GPA | Campuses Offered | Resident Tuition |
|---|---|---|
| 3.20 Or Higher | UH Mānoa, UH Hilo, UH West Oʻahu and all 7 community colleges | $3,144 to $11,760 per year |
| 2.70 To 3.19 | UH Hilo, UH West Oʻahu and all 7 community colleges | $3,144 to $7,632 per year |
| 2.69 Or Below | All 7 community colleges | $3,144 per year (24 credits) |
Source: University of Hawaiʻi. The College Investor.
The process takes four steps, and a student’s spot isn’t final until UH verifies the official transcript:
- Visit Direct2UH.com and verify the HIDOE student ID.
- Pick an eligible campus and submit the form, with no fee, by May 1, 2027.
- Expect campus offers within five to 10 business days, according to trade coverage of the expansion.
- Stay on track to graduate, since UH confirms GPA and eligibility against final records.
Private high school students aren’t covered, and charter students must attend one of the 13 participating schools. Those students can still apply through applytoUH.org and use the same Hawaiʻi state aid programs.
What Will Direct2UH Students Pay?
Resident tuition runs $11,760 a year at UH Mānoa and $7,632 at UH Hilo and UH West Oʻahu, per Hawaii News Now. Community colleges charge $131 per credit, or $3,144 for a 24-credit year, which makes the community college route the cheapest entry point by far.
That gap adds up for a student with a 3.20 GPA who qualifies everywhere. Two years at a UH community college costs $6,288 in tuition versus $23,520 at UH Mānoa, a $17,232 difference before financial aid. That math assumes the credits apply toward the bachelor’s degree after transfer. Those figures use current rates, and UH has proposed a tuition freeze for 2027-28 and 2028-29 that regents haven’t adopted yet.
The Hawaiʻi Promise scholarship (PDF File) can shrink the community college bill further. It covers unmet tuition and fee costs for residents taking six or more credits at a UH community college, and it served 1,941 students in 2024-25. Families saving ahead for the four-year leg can look at Hawaiʻi’s 529 plan options.
How This Connects
Direct admission is spreading fast. Michigan launched a portal with 21 colleges in August, and California’s SB 640 expands CSU direct admission statewide by fall 2027.
The Hawaiʻi version stands out for how little it changes the odds. UH Mānoa already accepted 88% of first-year applicants in fall 2025, so for Mānoa, Direct2UH mainly strips out paperwork and fees. It also fits a broader enrollment shift, with 41% of Common App members receiving fewer applications last cycle despite a record total.
Year one gave UH a working model to build on. In the 2025 launch, seniors with a 2.70 GPA or higher could pick up to three campuses, according to a Research for Action program profile (PDF File). That meant two four-year schools and one community college. The design leans on state K-12 records instead of a nonprofit-run portal like Michigan’s, and it cuts a step for first-generation college students whose parents haven’t been through admissions.
What’s Next
Admission is only half the equation. Hawaiʻi Promise requires the FAFSA, and the 2027-28 FAFSA is already open for seniors to file this fall. The next signals to watch are the Board of Regents vote on the tuition freeze and UH’s first enrollment results from the Class of 2026, which the system hasn’t published yet.
Editor: Colin Graves
The post University Of Hawaiʻi Opens All 10 Campuses, Including UH Mānoa, To Seniors With No Application appeared first on The College Investor.