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Landlords have been painted as money hungry monsters keeping people from homeownership. Here's why we don't accept this crushing stereotype: people like you.

6 Invaluable Rules for Being a Landlord But Not a Jerk

Landlords have a bad reputation. There’s a stereotype of a money-hungry merciless landlord that has persisted for centuries, dehumanizing regular homeowners. In fact, the term has so much bad blood behind it that at Belong we don’t even like using it. Instead, we refer to landlords as the more human and accurate description of  homeowners. Equally, we prefer ‘residents’ to ‘tenants’. 

Because having a rental home is more than just property ownership. It’s a vital community service for people who need a place to call home. A growing number of Americans aren’t in a position to own a home or may even prefer the flexibility of renting when moving for work or looking for opportunities in a new city. 

Providing shelter to a person or family has a significant impact on their lives. While it can be financially lucrative, it also comes with a lot of responsibility. If you want to be the kind of homeowner who can be a landlord without being considered a jerk, there are ways to be kind and considerate without losing out financially.  

Here are 6 invaluable rules for being a successful ‘landlord’ but not a jerk:

Partner with companies who reflect your values

Rule #1: Don’t think the worst of people.

Even though you’re currently a homeowner, there was probably a point in your life when you were on the other side of things — when you were living in a rental. You may even be renting now while someone else is in the home you own. 

As a renter, did you (or do you) make yourself at home? Did you ever invite a friend over to see “the landlord’s house?” Or did you simply say “let’s have dinner at my place”? 

Belong thinks it’s important to keep that dynamic in mind — to remember that when you own a house or apartment on the rental market, you’re not leasing out a dead space. You’re inviting someone to make themselves at home.

Just as people say “nobody ever washed a rental car”, there is an untrue belief that renters won’t care for places they don’t own. Yet if you do your due diligence to find great people who want to live in your home and treat them as such, there’s a good chance they will have pride in your home. They may even leave it in even better condition than when they arrived. 

One of the most important rules to follow as a homeowner is to maintain good communication with your residents. Whether it's about a rent increase, a repair, or a dispute, keeping the lines of communication open and transparent can help you avoid misunderstandings and conflicts. 

Particularly if you self-manage a home, it’s important to create an environment of mutual respect. Be considerate of their privacy, and make sure to give them notice before entering the home. Don't harass them with endless phone calls or emails, and try to be understanding if they are experiencing financial difficulties or personal issues that may affect their ability to pay rent on time. That’s not to say you shouldn’t enforce the rules of the lease agreement, but be careful not to treat them with contempt simply because you own the place they call home. 

Another thing that gives landlords a bad reputation is the desire to let things slide. From dodgy paint jobs, ignoring dead plants in the yard or taking your time making repairs, there is no shortage of cost-cutting short cuts for homeowners. 

But when you show a lack of commitment, you are sending signals to your resident that you don’t care about the home, which begs the question: Why should they? When you demonstrate you love your home – by quickly and responsibly investing in its maintenance – you are encouraging “love it back” behavior.

What’s more, something wonderful happens when everyone in a community works together to maintain houses: the values increase. And there’s a great deal of data which shows the tragic opposite is true: neighborhoods decline in value when people stop caring.

Rule #4: Avoid discrimination and judgment.

It's illegal to discriminate against tenants based on their race, religion, gender, or other protected categories. Make sure to treat all applicants and residents equally and fairly, and don't make any assumptions or judgments based on their background or appearance. Be open to different lifestyles and cultures, and try to accommodate peoples’ needs and preferences as much as possible.

Rule #5: Be reasonable with rent increases

Rent increases are a common occurrence in the rental market, but it's important to be reasonable and considerate when raising the rent. Make sure to give your residents ample (and legally required) notice before raising the rent, and try to keep the increase within a reasonable range. 

If your residents are long-term and reliable, remember that huge price hikes could send them packing and cost you money with vacancies and looking for new people just like them. 

Read more about the best way to price your rental home to attract long-term residents in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco Bay Area, Seattle or Miami. 

Rule #6: Partner with companies who reflect your values.

Self-managing a rental home is not for everyone. Those who take on the responsibility themselves often find it much harder to avoid inherent ‘jerkiness’ purely from the emotionally draining and time-consuming nature of property management. Try being nice when a furnace stops working at 11pm! 

Hiring a property manager isn’t always the quick-fix answer either. Think about the lengths that large hotel brands and vacation rental services like Airbnb go to make people feel comfortable and even “at home” when they’re staying with them. And yet traditional property management services — the very businesses who are supposed to be finding everyday living accommodation for people — do the complete opposite. 

Belong is changing that. Its human approach is turning the rental experience into a world-class hospitality service for both you and your residents. Unlike traditional property management services, Belong provides a complete end-to-end service with full transparency. Belong matches houses with residents that are looking for a long term place to live — somewhere to call home. 

Find out how Belong can both optimize your passive income opportunities and help you be a respected homeowner here. 

6 Invaluable Rules for Being a Landlord (But Not a Jerk)

You can’t predict what 2022 will bring, but you can take these steps for property management success

5 New Year Tips for Self-Managing a Rental Property in 2022

You can’t predict what 2022 will bring, but you can take these steps for property management success.

As the calendar turns to 2022, a lot more happens than just having to write a new date on our checks (assuming, that is, you are still writing paper checks). There’s a switch that occurs in our brains – which is why New Year’s Resolutions have been so important throughout history, and from culture to culture.

The switch is called “The Fresh Start Effect,” and it’s powerful; here’s a study that describes it in scientific terms: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior.

By now you may be wondering, “What on earth does this have to do with my rental property?” The short answer is: a great deal!  The best way to plan for a successful new year is by looking at it as a fresh start, rather than a continuation of last year’s stresses.

Here are five tips to help you achieve that goal – some emotional, some practical:

1. Get rid of negative thoughts. Literally.

Research shows that if you write negative thoughts down on a piece of paper – and then crumple the paper up and throw it out – it helps you deal with them.  So why not do just that?  Write down all your negative thoughts about property management, whatever they might be:  the stress of collecting rent; the inability to find a furnace repair person;  the worry over paying the taxes.  Then crumple up the paper and toss it.

We are sure there were stressful moments during the year. Our tendency as human beings is to get emotionally caught up in them, and then once the drama is passed, to move on. Now is a good time for reflection and some learning.

Think back on what made self-managing your property so hard, and then ask yourself: did you overreact, thereby creating friction with your resident? Was the crisis a result of you putting off the inevitable?  Then start to think of possible solutions. Can you get ahead of the “inevitable” when it inevitably recurs? Could the situation have been prevented or mitigated by advance planning? For example, dealing with the sudden onset of a leaky roof is less stressful if you have a list of three trusted roofers in your file. 

Based on this self-reflection, determine the steps you can take now to better cope with the unexpected hiccups that will undoubtedly arise in 2022.  The very practice of planning can in itself be calming.

We don’t know if your tenant will be expecting a gracious note wishing them a happy New Year, but we do know that it will be more than welcome when the email slides into their inbox.

Take the opportunity to wish them the best of 2022, and also to tell them how fortunate you are to have them living in your home – that it means a lot to know someone is living there who loves the property, and takes care of it, as you would.   It will make both of you feel good – and selfishly, it will also create reciprocity and encourage your resident to act even more responsibly.

While you’re at it, send similar messages to the contractors and others you rely on most – whether it’s the plumber or the landscaper.  These people are in great demand, and normally they get complaints, not thanks.  Reaching out now will definitely put you on the top of the list for 2022 projects.

4. Don’t continue your record keeping. Disrupt it.

This gets back to our “Fresh Start Effect” advice. Whether you keep your records digitally or with paper and pencil, or a combination of both, don’t roll into 2022 as if it is the thirteenth month of the year. Start a new excel spreadsheet, or buy a new notebook, or buy a new set of files for your invoices.

You will feel the difference psychologically, we guarantee it!

This is the perfect time to re-set expectations with your resident. For example, if you were overly responsive last year – and that led to frustrations and lifestyle interruptions – then should consider communicating that, with a “2022 Rules of the Road.”

For example, you will be available as soon as possible for something serious, like a leaky roof, but your resident shouldn’t expect the same level of responsiveness for something like a leaky faucet. That kind of task triage is reasonable and once you establish the guidelines, both you and your resident will find life to be much less stressful.

Especially now, when the uncertainty of the pandemic has put everyone on edge, residents need to understand that landlords are people, too!  The vast majority of tenants will be extraordinarily cooperative – and respectful. We see it every day.

The “we” in the language of these hopefully helpful hints is Belong. We are the 21st century innovator who is transforming each and every aspect of what property managers do.  We combine the power of technology to simplify and organize, and a dedicating caring team of humans – starting with a concierge and extending all the way to our vendor network of contractors – who are there to provide nothing short of a magnificent end-to-end experience.

So if this is the year you decide to work with not just any property manager – but one who defies the norms of what has been possible – we would welcome hearing from you.

If not – but you still have some questions that you’d like a professional answer to – we are happy to help as well.

These four tell-tale signs are all you need to know.

When is it Time to Divorce Your Property Manager?

When it is time to part ways your property manager? These four tell-tale signs are all you need to know.

We’re sure you’ve heard the story of the boiling frog, which has its own Wikipedia page. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately try to jump out. But if you put a frog in a pot of nice comfy warm water, and gradually turn up the heat, the frog will be slowly but inevitably cooked to death.

We’ll borrow that metaphor to describe what can happen with a property manager who – little by little – fails to deliver. You make excuses for each misstep, or you’re too busy to deal with finding a new provider, or some combination of both. You enter into a state of learned helplessness.

But that’s a condition you need to overcome. There’s no reason to be stuck in a bad relationship with a property manager. To help you know when it’s time to ask for a divorce – as opposed to when you’re just in a rough patch – here are four signals that can’t be ignored.

Responsiveness is a core attribute for property managers. It’s essential, obviously, for emergencies, but also must be ingrained as standard operating procedure. Communication is an essential part of their job. If it takes more than 24 hours for them to respond to a request, that’s a problem.  

Lateness can also become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you let it go unchecked the first time it happens, the next time it’ll be 48 hours; the time after that, it’ll be 72. So our advice is to let your property manager know what your expectations are; if you established a response window when they were hired, remind them of it in no uncertain terms. If you don't, it's never too late.

We also believe that responsiveness – or the lack of it – is an insight into the overall professionalism and standards of a property manager. If they disappoint you in the one area where you have complete visibility, imagine what things are like when the situation’s more opaque.

Property management is a business of details, and many of them are related to repairs – both expected and unexpected. Whether it’s a toilet that won’t stop running, or a furnace that barely runs, property managers are expected to arrange for maintenance, and make sure that the work is done promptly and at the highest level.

If your property manager takes a slipshod approach to that, and doesn’t follow up with your tenant – and you – to make sure that all the repairs were performed in a satisfactory way, that’s a bad sign. If it happens repeatedly – along with the other red flags identified herein – it could be grounds for divorce.

Sign #3: 'Nickel and Diming' You to Death

It could be that the agreement with your property manager entitles them to upcharge for items like first-class photography, video tours, and other necessary steps to find the right tenant.

But these charges add up fast – as do other hidden costs, like when your property manager charges you for rent when the home is vacant.

So take a good hard look at what is covered by your agreement and what isn’t. At the same time, we urge you to examine what’s involved in canceling the contract before the stated expiration date. If there are penalties for ending your relationship, that tells you a lot about the property management company’s confidence in their ability to keep landlords satisfied, without the threat of penalties.

We all know how our lives have been transformed by the move to digitization. The list of things we can now do from our phones has gone from unimaginable to expected. But what about your relationship with your property manager? Can you talk to a concierge online, 24/7? Are all your records – rent collections, repairs, the works – available electronically? 

If that’s not the case – if your property manager is still operating in a paper-and-pencil, index-card world – it’s probably time to start considering a new relationship. The amount of your valuable time that it takes to deal with the deluges of paperwork involved in owning rental property is more than you might realize; accepting an analog relationship makes you the frog in the pot!

Property management is broken. Belong instead. 

If you're experiencing these problems, you don't need a property manager. You need Belong. Why?

It doesn't need to be an emergency to get in touch with us after hours. We have a 24/7 concierge service to respond to both you and your residents. Because every enquiry is important to us and life doesn't always happen in the 9-5. 



The team at Belong pays rigorous attention to every detail. When it comes to repairs and maintenance, Belong doesn't outsource work to third-party contractors, with talented, quality-vetted Belong Pros who work to the highest standards, and document everything. 



The costs are transparent, with no charges for setup, lease renewal, video marketing, repairs. The list goes on. 



Belong is tech-forward, always. We offer dedicated apps for homeowners and residents that are part of our residential network. 

With all that – and more – as part of Belong’s offering, a break up with your current property manager may occur sooner than you realized. If you want to learn more,  the glorious details of why so many homeowners are finding Belong to be the property manager that lifts – and exceeds – their expectations, look no further than here.

When it is time to part ways with your property manager? These four tell-tale signs are all you need to know.

When is it Time to Break Up With Your Property Manager?

Tips for homeowners looking to take advantage of this monumental and forever shift toward flexibility and working from home

How Work From Home Is Changing Property Management Forever

Tips for homeowners looking to take advantage of this monumental and forever shift toward flexibility and working from home.

Working from home is here to stay. The drumbeat of statistics is deafening, no matter how you look at them. 

70% of companies are planning to adopt a hybrid model

58% of people want to work entirely at home, even post-pandemic

97% of people desire some form of remote work

The implications for anyone who has a home to rent are obvious. A WFH world creates novel priorities when it comes to finding a place to rent; people are looking at floorplans in a new way, trying to reconfigure old layouts to accommodate new ways of living and working.  

Working from home is shaping up to be a full-time reality for many people — and at least a part-time situation for others. Using a small portable table in the corner of your bedroom as a desk and the top of your dresser as a filing space is not a long-term solution. Neither is turning your couch into your office and the coffee table into your main Zoom station.

So how should homeowners set up their rental properties for success in this world? Have no fear, your trusty friends at Belong are here to help.

Assess strengths and weaknesses of the space

This is an essential and realistic place to start. You’re probably not prepared to add a greenhouse office to your property, but it’s critical to take a hard look at your property, while keeping in mind the art of the possible.

Remember that a WFH space needs a measure of quiet and privacy.  Meaning part of a kitchen or family room is not an ideal place to convert into a home office. In fact, you probably don’t want your home office to even be adjacent to such noisy spaces.  

If you have a small house, though, you might not have a huge amount of flexibility; you can’t turn a bedroom into a home office if you only have one bedroom. In that case, we have some suggestions:

Stage your kitchen so that visually it feels like it could be used as a home office. 

If the kitchen table is going to serve as a desk, set it up with a laptop and the proper work essentials, including a desk lamp. This subliminally sends the right signals to potential tenants.

Also we recommend clearing the table of kitchen paraphernalia; it shouldn’t look like the family is about the sit down to dinner. 

You can turn an unfinished attic into a charming office. Take a look at these cozy and comforting attic offices for inspiration. We are particularly drawn to the way that so many of these use the angled roofline as an architectural feature. 

If you are going to transform your attic space, we suggest that you make sure it is well-lit – many attics suffer from an absence of light – and that you liberally populate the office with plants.  When someone walks up the steps and is surrounded by green energy, they can feel it right away.

For more tips on staging your home, check out this post

Next up: Forget curb appeal, how about subterranean appeal? There are innumerable ways to reinvent your basement as a home office. These examples should get your wheels turning. Basements can be quiet hideaways that can add immediate value to your rental. 

If you want to explore options beyond the kitchen, attic, and basement, may we introduce you to…

Since we’re all working from home now, we don’t need to dress for work the same way we once did. We need fewer clothes, and therefore less space to store them.  So how about taking advantage of wardrobe shrinkage and transforming your closet into … well, a cloffice.

It may not be the most graceful coinage we’ve ever heard – sounds a bit like a Congressional procedure – but in fact, these examples from our friends at Food52 are elegant enough to distract us from the clumsiness of this particular neologism.

We’ve heard that many people are spending gloriously productive working hours outdoors, on patios and terraces, in gazebos, and under pergolas.

So when you are showing and staging your rental home, don’t forget the opportunity to demonstrate the irresistible appeal of a bucolic backyard office setting. 

Thinking about upgrading your backyard? Learn how to do it well for less money

And if you want to go the ultimate step and build a backyard office to blow the socks off any prospective tenant, remember that ADUs – or Accessory Dwelling Units – are becoming easier and easier to build in California and elsewhere. 

Which means you can not only take advantage of this legislation to build a “granny flat” or a rentable unit, but to build home offices as well. Here’s a link to a contractor who builds ADUs in San Francisco; here’s another to a marketplace of ADU builders in LA.

Now, if these improvements all sound great, but the idea of finding a contractor to execute on the plans is far less attractive, may we direct your attention to Belong.  We are a new – in fact a totally new – kind of property manager.  We take care of homeowners end-to-end, including any repairs or renovations required. Which means our teams of contractors and craftsmen (Belong Pros) can handle converting your attic, basement, or closet into an office space.

If you’re interested in learning more about a property manager like no other – for a time like no other – we’d be interested in learning about you.

Adam Hanft

Adam is a futurist - co-author of "Dictionary of the Future" - brand strategist, public-company board member, former comedy-writer (but he hasn't stopped being vaguely amusing), and an investor in Belong.

Brett Jaffe

Eric Vandekerkhove

Harrison Kelly

Dom Difurio

Jane Allison Gunn

Brett Jaffe

Eric Vandekerkhove

Harrison Kelly

Dom Difurio

Jane Allison Gunn