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From finding good tenants to late rent and repairs, there's a lot of stressful situations when renting your home to someone else. Belong eliminates them all.

4 Stressful Problems Landlords Face (And How To Avoid Them)

Putting your home on the rental market can be stressful business, read on to find out how Belong is taking the headaches out of being a landlord with forward-thinking technology and a human approach. 

There are many reasons that renting a home to someone can be stressful. That’s why so many people opt for a traditional property manager. But that can create stress in and of itself, because they can be expensive and won't always deliver what you need. Belong is a property manager like none other, taking the uncertainty and stress out of renting your home. 

Here are four common stresses that homeowners face in the rental market and how partnering with Belong can avoid the headaches. 

1. Stressing about finding the right tenant

If you’re someone with a house that you love – but aren’t ready to sell – there are a lot of open issues to deal with. For example, finding the right tenant is not trivial – there’s showing, screening, validating – and all the legal work that goes with it. The experts at Belong have streamlined this entire process, so there’s no stress, no friction, ever. And in the unlikely scenario that they chose the 'wrong' tenant, Belong will cover legal costs up to $15,000 to handle the eviction process. 

Learn More: Discover Belong PRO, the best alternative to Property Management in Seattle, Redmond, Oakland, and many more cities across California, Florida and Washington State.

Nothing feels worse than not charging all the rent that your wonderful house deserves. How to avoid that? The folks at Belong have created an advanced “Market  Pricing Optimization” model. It uses specific data on your home and neighborhood to perfectly price your home to capture the most rent possible, without overpricing it (another problem!). 

This is the Big One. There’s a reason there are 60 million Google hits for “My tenant is late on their rent". Belong solves the problem in the most effective and obvious way possible: they guarantee the rent. They can even pay the entire year in advance.   Many people have told Belong that the guarantee made the difference between selling their homes and making them available for rent.

See why thousands of US homeowners are ditching outdated Property Management in San Francisco,San Diego, Los Angeles, Tampa, Jacksonville, Concord, Berkeley, Orlando and more.

You don’t need Murphy Brown – for those who remember that show and its live-in housepainter —  to tell you that finding reliable contractors can be challenging even in the best of times. These days, with the ongoing boom in construction, it’s beyond challenging — in fact it’s almost impossible. We’re currently in the midst of a major labor shortage: according to some tallies there are over 300,000 contractor jobs waiting to be filled.

Belong has an extensive vendor network of over 10,000 professional, vetted contractors across the country. Homeowners can ask their concierge to organise the right tradesperson for any job, 24/7. You can even subscribe to regular services, making maintenance one thing to truly cross off your to-do list and never stress over again. 

Belong takes the stress out of being a landlord

If you have any questions about these benefits — or want to know more about what Belong can do for you, or if your home qualifies to be on their platform — learn more at belonghome.com.

Find out how Belong is using the hospitality experiences of restaurants, hotels, and even Ferrari to transform traditional property management for everyone.

Rejecting The Unfriendly Norms of Property Management

You absorb – and become - your influences.

It’s true for individuals, and it’s true for companies.

It’s safe to say that at Belong, we have not been influenced by the “property management industry” – other than by learning what not to do! That’s because this $96 billion dollar category is built on friction, that frustrates those who own houses, and those who rent them.

The core of the problem is that property managers treat houses as commodities. House A and House B and House C might as well be the same. Read more about how to deal with a bad property manager here.

For Belong, a house is precious and much-loved dwelling that unites the homeowner and the resident. By the way, that’s how we described the two sides we bring together. We try and avoid using the ugly, medieval words “landlord” and “tenant.”

The other fundamentally broken piece of property management is that they view the world as zero-sum game. In other words, if they let a leaky pipe leak, they’re saving the owner the cost of repair. The lack of transparency in property management fees is alarming.

In reality, a run-down house benefits no one, and a well-run house benefits everyone.

If we reject the unfriendly norms of property management, what are we replacing them with? That’s where the headline of our article wanders into the story.  We have studied and absorbed the best from those who are brilliant at serving both sides of the service equation – from restaurants, and hotels, and the elevated values of Ferrari.

What we seek to create at Belong is a welcoming experience that is a completely new manifestation of hospitality in our industry.  Indeed, the very use of that word when it comes to property management feels odd and unexpected, which precisely captures how seismically different we are.

One of the leading and most profound voices in hospitality today is the restauranter Danny Meyer, who is probably best known for the Union Square Cafe in New York. Danny’s book “Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business”  inspired us in many ways. We seek to create a “Belong experience” for homeowners restaurants that lives up to this definition:

“Hospitality is present when something happens for you. It is absent when something happens to you. Those two simple prepositions - for and to - express it all.”

We built Belong to make things happen “for” those in our community, which involves removing friction, anticipating problems, and solving them in ways that bring  instant joy. So, if a homeowner in our community is moving out, we handle the logistics for them, and we do it painlessly.   We also make any necessary repairs, and make their home Instagrammable. Then we show it and find someone to love it.

That’s how we bring hospitality to what has been the dreary and delight-free world of property management.  After all, the word “hospitality” is derived from the  Latin word “hospitalitis” – which refers to the special relationship between guest and host. 

Our homeowners are hosts, are residents are guests, and we elevate the relationship!

Or, as Danny Meyer puts it “Hospitality exists when you believe the other person is on your side.” That’s exactly what we strive to create at Belong; our concierges are on the side of both our homeowners and residents. We believe, as we said, that when you are are focused on creating a home that is is gracious, inviting and brilliantly run, everyone wins.

Our influences also extend to hotels, and specifically, the Four Seasons, who have raised hospitality to an art form,  We think about them accomplishments every day.  Service sits at the core of what they do, which they define as “a repeated set of behaviors…a promise of a great quality of life that only dedicated staff can deliver, without any script.”

We love the idea of consistency and no script; it sounds counter-intuitive but really isn’t, because that’s what is possible when your people are “embedded” into the culture of an enterprise.

That’s what Four Season’s is relentlessly focused on, and it represents the same principles by which we are building our service culture.  By giving our residents and homeowners Four-Seasons-like service, we will redefine property management for the future, and forever.

Another important dimension of Four Seasons that is at the very core of our belief system is that role that  “connection” plays in their mission.  As Heather Jacobs, their Senior Vice President of People & Culture elegantly states: 

“Whether you work with us, stay with us, live with us or discover with us, we believe our purpose is to create impressions that will stay with you for a lifetime. It comes from our belief that life is richer when we truly connect to the people and the world around us.”

We can say the same – whether a resident stays with us for 10 years or one year, we seek to create memorable impressions through the connections we make:   between residents and their homes; residents and homeowners; and between residents and the community. 

The last profound influence on us that we want to share is Ferrari.  Everyone knows them for their impeccable engineering and craftsmanship – which creates vehicles of monumental affection, and enduring value. 

Yet when they describe themselves, they don’t mention their cars, but celebrate their people:  

“Our individual people are our strongest asset and can reach excellency only when working together as a team, with strong communication, sharing and improving together for best results.  We live our company with enthusiasm, with a strong sense of pride and with emotion: Ferrari is lived with the heart.”

That language could describe what gets us up in the morning.    They also say, in perfect symmetry to our company, “We all have a strong sense of belonging…”

Wow, we got goosebumps when we read that.  

So now you know our influences, who we admire, and who we measure ourselves against.  That doesn’t mean we get it right all the time.  On the contrary.  But we are a learning culture and, to reference the endlessly quotable Danny Meyer one more time, “A great restaurant doesn’t distinguish itself by how few mistakes it makes, but how it handles those mistakes.”

Houses are complicated machines to run, there is always something about to go wrong, and you’re not going to get an email from your roof when it decides to leak.  (Although sensors are not far away, and we will be the first to property management company to install them.)

But when we hold fast to the principles of hospitality and commitment, even when things go wrong, we intend to be measured by our homeowners and residents saying “Belong did right by me.”

Why is it important to have a loving, long-relationship with something that is brick or stone or timber - and fundamentally inanimate? Read more here to find out.

How to Have A Loving, Long-Term Live-In Relationship With a House

As I write about our deep connection to the places we live – something that is at the heart of Belong – I want to introduce you to a little book I love called the “Poetics of Space.”

It was written back in the 1950s by a Frenchman named Gaston Bachelard, and it’s a work of philosophy and reflection based on our relationship to our dwelling places.

It would be a wonderful housewarming gift for every Belong homeowner to leave on the kitchen table for a new resident.

Bachelard turns over and over in his mind the singular importance of the home, and he comes down to this profound formulation:

“If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protect the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”

Anyone who has lived in a house for even a little while knows what that relationship, that overwhelming security of being at home when you step inside, feels like.  

I see it is not dissimilar from the relationship we have with someone we love in a physical sense.  Trust in a person give us the same confidence, the same emotional surrender, to “dream in peace.”

Why is it important to have a loving, long-relationship with something that is brick or stone or timber - and fundamentally inanimate?  Because in a threatening and scary world, we need to be in love with the roof over our heads, and everything below it.  We need a place where we can de-stress and be ourselves with a warm and welcoming glow around us.

With that goal in mind, is here is set of frameworks for house-love that I derived from what we know about successful interpersonal relationships.

Let’s start with the idea of anticipating needs, which is a way of demonstrating love.  We all know how important that is with a significant other – or even a friend; it fills us with joy to be recognized, and we feel really crappy when we are ignored.  The same is true for a home.  Don’t wait for problems to start, get ahead of them with some healthy preventative maintenance.  You don’t want your home to experience months of neglect when the coldest day of the day rolls around. And the very act of anticipating will build positive emotional connections.

Psychologists also tell us that spending time apart is important for a thriving relationship. Yes, there is truth in that ancient wisdom that absence makes the heart grow fonder; when your significant other walks through the door after a while, the dopamine sparks fly.

It’s no different, when we arrive home after a vacation, even a short one.   The familiar feels newly fresh and we appreciate it more.  But there’s no reason to limit that experience to a vacation.  Try a brain hack and consciously look at house afresh, as if you are seeing it for the first time. 

It’s actually a useful exercise in general; breaking out of our conventional observational patterns can spark creativity and imagination.

Experts also advise that a secret of a long-term successful connection is to try new things together.  A study from the Journal of Personal and Social Psychology found that couples who participated in “novel and exciting” activities reported greater relationship satisfaction.  

It’s intuitive that breaking routines creates new opportunities for appreciating your “better half.”  And the snap from “better half” to “better house” is also an intuitive one.  So to create an even more loving relationship with your house, just dive in and change things.  

That could mean re-arranging your furniture to create some new drama, or paint or wall a surprising color, or – now that the in-person gatherings are on the list again – invite some people over who’ve never met, with your house as the backdrop for provocative conversation.  Showing people around the house will deepen your connection.

Relationship gurus also consistently remind us to stay positive.  It’s obvious but not always easy to live up to, because in many ways our brains are wired for negativity, especially when there are triggers.  And houses have lots of trigger; after all, things large and small are always going wrong  - it’s the natural course of events.  

If we react to them by saying to ourselves “This place is falling apart” or “I never should have rented it” – you’ll start a cycle that is hard to extract yourself from.  Instead, you need to re-pattern yourself, stay positive, and see these temporary annoyances as way to improve your house and your relationship with it.  

Focus on all the joy your house brings you; as Darby Saxe. Ph.D. noted in Psychology Today, “…maintaining a favorable balance of positive to negative emotions helps people – and relationships – thrive.”

Lastly is what might be the most toxic emotion of all.  Couples experts continually warn us against “letting jealousy in.”   The same is true for its toxic cousin, envy. Don’t be riding up and down the block, coveting other houses and wishes you lived there.  That’s a self-sabotaging act, in any kind of relationship.

The other side of that – gratitude – is enormously uplifting and key to a life of happiness.  There’s an entire branch of psychology focused on how gratitude reduces stress, increase optimism and actually rewires your brain.

In other words, improving your relationship with your house can improve your entire life.

That’s not what you expected when you started reading this, but I hope that’s what you get out of it.

Learn 7 proven tips for accidental landlords to attract reliable tenants. From setting criteria and competitive rent to fraud prevention and modern screening tools, discover how to reduce risk, maximize ROI, and keep vacancies low with Belong’s data-driven approach.

Why Is It So Hard to Find Contractors in 2025?

If you’ve ever tried to schedule a plumber, electrician, or handyman for your rental property, you know the struggle is real. Skilled trades are in short supply, and demand has never been higher. Landlords looking for reliable help often face long wait times, inflated bids, or contractors who simply don’t call back.

The reality? The US is in the middle of a historic contractor shortage, and it’s not going away anytime soon. So what’s behind this crunch, and what can you do about it?

What’s causing the contractor shortage in 2025?

Industry data shows the U.S. is short 430,000 contractors today, and more than a million more will be needed over the next two years. That gap impacts every homeowner, but landlords in particular feel it most, because they need reliable help quickly to protect tenant safety, keep properties habitable, and prepare homes for the rental market.

Belong’s nationwide vendor network was built to solve exactly this problem, connecting homeowners instantly with more than 10,000 vetted professionals. But to understand why that network is so valuable, it’s worth looking at the four big reasons skilled labor is harder to find than ever.

1. Why are new housing and renovations outpacing supply?

The U.S. housing market is booming. With limited inventory available, builders are rushing to construct new homes, while many current homeowners are investing in major upgrades to make their existing spaces more comfortable.

For contractors, steady, long-term work on new housing projects or high-margin renovations often looks better than small, one-off rental repairs. Add in the time wasted chasing leads on sites like HomeAdvisor and Angi, and it’s no wonder many tradespeople avoid episodic jobs from landlords.

What this means for landlords: Expect longer wait times if you’re trying to book contractors on your own. Competing with large projects makes it difficult to secure skilled labor quickly, especially for smaller jobs like fixing leaks or patching drywall.

2. Why do older rental homes need more attention?

The average U.S. home is getting older, and in California, the median home age is 45 years, with Los Angeles homes averaging 57 years. Properties of this vintage almost always need more work: from plumbing upgrades to electrical rewiring and roofing fixes.

When these homes enter the rental market after long-term owner occupancy, they often require multiple repairs at once. That sudden demand only piles more pressure on a contractor workforce that’s already stretched thin.

What this means for landlords: If your rental property is older, anticipate higher demand for skilled trades and plan preventive maintenance early. Waiting until after move-in risks stacking urgent repair requests when contractors are already booked months out.

3. How did the “Great Resignation” shrink the workforce?

Over the past few years, millions of U.S. workers have quit their jobs, rethinking their priorities and seeking more meaningful work. That cultural shift, amplified by the pandemic, has hit the trades too. Experienced professionals retired early, younger workers pursued other careers, and fewer apprentices entered the pipeline.

This labor shortfall means even fewer skilled contractors are available to meet growing demand. As Nobel laureate Paul Krugman put it, many workers are now “rethinking their lives,” leaving traditional industries short-staffed.

What this means for landlords: The shortage is structural, not temporary. Even if demand cools, rebuilding the workforce will take years. That makes it harder for independent landlords to find consistent, reliable help, especially on short notice.

4. Why do licensing requirements make replenishing the workforce slow?

Becoming a licensed contractor isn’t easy, and that’s a good thing for safety and quality. But it also means new workers can’t quickly fill the gap.

For example, to get a C-9 Drywall Contractor’s License in California, applicants need at least four years of journeyman-level experience and must pass a two-part state exam. Similar requirements apply to plumbing, electrical, and HVAC trades.

This high barrier ensures skilled, qualified professionals, but it also means the contractor shortage will be with us for years, even if more people start training today.

What this means for landlords: Availability will remain tight. Without a trusted network, you may end up waiting weeks or even months for something as simple as a drywall patch or outlet repair.

How Belong Solves the Contractor Crunch for Homeowners

Trying to compete with big developers and high-paying renovation projects for contractor time is a losing battle for most landlords. That’s why Belong built a vendor network designed to give homeowners access to quality professionals, without the stress of calling around or waiting for weeks.

Belong connects you to a 10,000+ strong team of vetted contractors, tradespeople, and handymen across every major trade, available at the tap of a button through the Belong app. Residents submit requests, our AI system triages them, and trusted pros are dispatched immediately, whether it’s a leaky faucet, a faulty furnace, or a full renovation.

By partnering with Belong, you’re not just getting access to contractors. You’re getting:

Peace of mind knowing your home is cared for by licensed, insured professionals.


Faster response times than trying to book contractors independently.


Transparent pricing and optional financing to protect your cash flow.


Tenant satisfaction through proactive, professional service that keeps homes safe and habitable.


Bottom line: If you’ve got the house, Belong has the contractors. From small fixes to major upgrades, we put the right people on the job so your property, and your investment, is always protected.

1. Why is there such a contractor shortage in 2025?


A mix of booming housing demand, an aging housing stock, the “Great Resignation,” and long licensing timelines have created a perfect storm.

2. How does this shortage affect landlords?


It’s harder to book reliable contractors for small jobs. Wait times are longer, and competition from large projects means landlords often get pushed to the back of the line.


Not quickly. Licensing and training requirements mean it could take years to replenish the workforce, even if more people enter the trades now.

4. How can Belong help me with contractor access?


Belong offers access to a vetted network of 10,000+ contractors. With our concierge and app system, you get reliable professionals dispatched quickly, without chasing quotes or waiting months.

Discover why finding reliable contractors in 2025 is harder than ever. From a booming housing market to labor shortages and strict licensing, learn what’s driving the crunch, and how Belong’s vetted network of 10,000+ pros helps landlords get fast, dependable service.

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.

Melanie Kershaw

Belong

Natalie McNeal

Lucas Hanft

Jane Allison Gunn

Melanie Kershaw

Belong

Natalie McNeal

Lucas Hanft

Jane Allison Gunn