Short-Term Rental Rules on Lake Granbury

The Regulatory Framework: County-Level vs. HOA-Level

Lake Granbury sits primarily in unincorporated Hood County. Hood County has not adopted a county-wide short-term rental ordinance that would impose registration requirements, operational standards, or restrictions on STR use in residential areas. This means that for properties in unincorporated Hood County without HOA restrictions, there is no government-level permit or registration process specifically for Airbnb or VRBO operations. The city of Granbury (for properties inside city limits) may have its own regulations — buyers should check with the Granbury city government for any applicable city-level STR ordinances or registration requirements, as these can be enacted independently of county rules.

The practical implication: the primary STR regulation on most Lake Granbury waterfront properties comes from private contractual arrangements — specifically, HOA covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) that bind all property owners in communities where they have been recorded with Hood County. These are not government regulations; they are private property contracts. But they are legally enforceable under Texas law, and Texas courts have upheld HOA CC&Rs that restrict short-term rental use, including the 2022 Chu v. Windermere Lakes decision that confirmed enforceability of STR prohibitions in HOA documents.

What Most Lake Granbury Gated Communities Actually Allow

Lake Granbury's most established gated communities — Indian Harbor, Harbor Lakes, DeCordova Bend Estates, Pecan Plantation, Canyon Creek — all have recorded CC&Rs. The specific content of those CC&Rs varies by community and has often been updated since the communities were originally established. The general pattern across these communities, based on available information, is that most have some restriction on short-term rental use, ranging from minimum rental period requirements (often 30 days or longer) to more specific limitations. Outright prohibition is less common in older CC&Rs but may have been added through amendments as the STR issue became more prominent in the 2015 to 2025 period.

The key point is that "most established gated communities have some restriction" is not precise enough information to make a purchase decision. The only reliable information is the specific language in the recorded CC&Rs for the specific community you are buying in, read by you or a real estate attorney before contract — not summarized by a listing agent, not described by the seller, and not inferred from what you have heard about similar communities elsewhere.

How to Obtain and Read CC&Rs

Every recorded CC&R document is filed with Hood County Clerk's office and is publicly available. Your title company can pull the recorded documents as part of the title search. Your buyer's agent should obtain them for you. Online at the Hood County Clerk's website, recorded instruments can be searched by subdivision name or grantor/grantee. Look specifically for:

• Language about "residential use only" — courts have sometimes interpreted this as prohibiting commercial STR use even without specific STR language
• Minimum lease terms — "no lease for less than 30 days" effectively prohibits Airbnb/VRBO without requiring explicit STR prohibition language
• Any specific language about vacation rentals, short-term rentals, or temporary occupancy
• Whether the HOA board has rule-making authority to restrict rentals (some CC&Rs give boards this power without amendment; others require a full member vote)

Areas Where STR Operations Are More Permissive

For buyers specifically seeking STR-permissive Lake Granbury properties, the most permissive environment is in unincorporated Hood County waterfront lots without recorded deed restrictions or with minimal restrictions. This typically means:

• Individual waterfront lots or small older subdivisions that predate the era of comprehensive HOA formation and never had CC&Rs recorded
• Properties on county roads outside any named gated community
• Properties in communities where the CC&Rs are minimal and do not address leasing restrictions

Confirming the absence of recorded restrictions requires a title search or CC&R search by your title company — absence of an HOA does not automatically mean absence of recorded deed restrictions, as older plats sometimes include individual deed covenants that run with the land.

Hotel Occupancy Tax Obligations

Texas Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) applies to any residential rental of fewer than 30 consecutive days, regardless of county or HOA rules. The state rate is 6%. The city of Granbury adds its own HOT rate for properties within city limits; properties in unincorporated Hood County pay only the state rate. Airbnb and VRBO both collect and remit Texas state HOT automatically for transactions on their platforms. Direct bookings outside these platforms require the property owner to collect and remit HOT to the Texas Comptroller directly by the 20th of the following month.

The STR Market Reality on Lake Granbury

Lake Granbury's STR demand is real and driven by the Fort Worth and DFW market — roughly 7 million people within 90 minutes, with no comparable lake at shorter distances offering 8,200 acres of water. Weekend demand from May through September is consistent, and the Granbury Square gives this market an additional cultural draw that pure recreation lakes cannot match. STR properties with functional private docks, clean updated interiors, and 4 to 8 person capacity command meaningful nightly rates on summer weekends.

The constraint on the STR market is HOA-level restriction, not demand. For buyers who complete the regulatory research before purchasing and identify legitimately STR-permissive properties, Lake Granbury represents a viable STR market. For buyers who purchase in an HOA community without reading the CC&Rs and discover the restriction post-closing, the investment thesis collapses in a way that is entirely self-inflicted and not correctable without expensive legal action or HOA amendment processes.

If STR income is a material component of your financial plan for a Lake Granbury purchase, treat the CC&R research as the prerequisite to the rest of the analysis — not something to verify after you fall in love with a property. The lake has permissive STR opportunities; they are simply not the same properties that happen to show up first in a Zillow search.