The sharing economy is redefining ownership and the home is no different. Find out how Belong is redefining what it means to have a place you call your own home

Home Ownership - The Ship Has Sailed

Something profound has changed in the world. Belong is completely redefining what “ownership” means.

Once, we bought vinyl records and cassettes and finally CDs. (Some are still buying vinyl - but that’s another story.) Now our music comes streaming at us in endless torrents of code, and we don’t miss holding the songs in our hands – because we can still hold them in our heads.

It’s exactly the same with movies; Netflix has more than 200 million subscribers. When was the last time you bought a Blu-Ray disc? As a recent example of the virtual world’s ascension, consider the definition of ownership is fundamentally changing. As the latest example, take the NFT phenomenon.

If you haven’t heard about NFTs or “non-fungible tokens” – they are virtual goods that are recorded permanently on the blockchain. That could be the much-publicized (and sometimes-derided) cryptoart created by Beeple which sold for an astounding $69 million. 

Which brings us to Belong, where our mission is to give people the powerful emotional anchor of being rooted in a safe, enveloping, protective space. Ownership has nothing really to do with that; in fact, till you pay off the dreaded mortgage – and most people never do - you don’t really own it, anyway. 

Besides, our species evolved to be attached to shelter and homes long before the idea of “ownership” became a thing.  As Dr. John S. Allen, a neuroanthropoligist, points out in his wonderful book called “Home: How Habitat Made Us Human” that we were hard-wired over millennia to find emotional rewards in the concept and reality of home. (That was long before FHA mortgages.) He writes: “The feelings we associate with home are built on a cognitive foundation that we inherited from our ancestors.” Allen also notes that “We may understand houses from the outside looking in, but home is made from the inside out.”

In other words, Allen is saying that the deep feelings that wash over us when we’re at home have nothing to do with a physical deed. You can be moved by streaming a Taylor Swift song – no ownership required. And the feeling of opening your front door and being greeted by a fast-moving three-year-old and a hug, says “home” on the most fundamental, John Allen-ian level.

This perfectly sums up what we are committed to at Belong. I wasn’t aware of Allen’s work when I wrote the Belong vision document, but the ideas are perfectly aligned. In it, we talk about the fact that owning a home is just one kind of American Dream, but there are other equally valid paths, because we all “dream of living in a glorious home where we can put down roots and experience the sense of belonging.”

Our vision goes on to say that “We call ourselves Belong because want to make these dreams a reality…and serve the millions who love the idea of a house they can call home, but don’t love the idea of homeownership.”

At Belong we try not to overuse the word “rent” because it sounds so feudal – as does the word “landlord.” Anyone who was stereotyped as a “renter” has become a “resident” in Belong’s world. As a resident, they feel the powerful tug of belonging, and that connection means they care about the place they live in as if they owned it.

After all, as Professor Allen says, our homes helped up adapt as a species; we are all here today because we took care of the places we lived in with our families, and didn’t neglect them. Which is why the tired old expression “nobody ever washed a rented car” doesn’t apply at all to the way that our residents treat their homes.

Many economists describe the post-ownership world as the “sharing economy,” and there is a great deal of truth to that. Today you can rent or share everything from a dog to art to chickens. A great deal of it is driven by Millennials and Gen Z, who are not nearly as attached to physical as previous generations, and value experiences. When you invest your capital in a home - the ultimate “thing” – it is a mathematical certainty for 99.5% of the pupation that it will leave less disposable income for experiences. Which, though ephemeral, are profoundly meaningful, and in fact emotionally enduring.

I think this is a healthy trend, although it might be fighting against our hard-wiring. “You have to learn to share” is a grindingly familiar parental and teacher refrain, after all. But somehow, we are at least in part moving beyond it, and that can be a healthy sign for society.

At Belong we are doing our best to advance this trend, by creating productive, healthy, sustainable new relationships between people who own houses, and those who want to build their lives in them.

To return to “Home,” the book quotes the architects Charles Moore, Gerald Allen, and Donyln Lyndon, who write: “Its site is only a tiny place of the real world, yet this place is made to seem like an entire world.”

Created to connect homeowners who love their homes, with residents ready to move in and build their lives there, Belong is a tech-enabled platform that takes the bumps, frustrations, and uncertainties out of the experience – to create delightful interactions from Day One to Day Forever. Bringing the practices of leading hospitality companies to an industry that was marked by a lack of caring and manual processes – Belong reinvents every step of the journey, all the way through to Belong Pros who are talented, responsible, and prideful contractors. Each component we touch is an opportunity to advanced our mission. No matter which side of the marketplace you are on, Belong honors your role and the communities we serve.

A reflection on what it means to love your house – and how to share that love with the people you rent it to.

A Message to Property Managers on Valentine’s Day

On the occasion of Valentine’s Day, which seems to grow in commercial intensity every year – we’d like to reflect on an aspect of love that is central to what we do at Belong.

After all, our mission is to connect much-loved houses with people who will love them back. And there is absolutely no doubt that people do love their houses. Google can confirm that; there are over 7 billion hits for the simple yet evocative phrase “I love my house.”

Perfection is not the point, though, it’s not the predicate for love, not the reason you smile inside every time you arrive back home. As Paul McCartney sang in the song “I Love This House”:

“Holes in the gutters, holes in the slate, holes in the carpet but I won't evacuate.

I love this house, it's where I’ll stay, eat and sleep the night and day.

I love this house, it's where I’ll be, for you to spend some time with me…”

Putting aside slate/evacuate – not one of McCartney’s most elegant rhymes – it’s a relatable message, especially if you are a homeowner with more than one house. Because when the time came and you didn’t need to live in one of those houses – maybe you no longer needed someplace that big, or you moved out-of-the-town – you didn’t treat it like a clinical asset and sell it. It embodied too much meaning for you to do something like that, so you decided to keep it and hopefully find someone to live in it who would feel the same way. Someone who could build a parallel stream of memories. 

Before we started Belong, we took a close look at the way property managers treated houses. And we didn’t like what we saw.  There was an absence of love and caring – in fact there was even basic respect. So we decided to create something different; not to be too saccharine, but at Belong, we go about our work with a sense of responsibility to Home Love. We want to be a company built on the mission of sending every day Valentines. 

We do that thanks to the platform we have built, which combines what technology can do best – organize, communicate, track, and streamline – with what people can do best. If the secret of a successful relationship between two people is “responsiveness” and “anticipation” – then we believe the same applies to how we connect with the houses we love.

The Belong platform will respond to needs literally in the moment. Our Concierges are there 24/7, whenever a need arises, no matter how big, or how small. After all, as we all know, sometimes the smallest gestures and the simplest reminders that you’re there for someone can have the biggest impact.

But thinking ahead – the Art of Anticipation – is also an essential signifier of love. It’s tricky in People World, but not that complicated in House World. We know when the furnace filters need to be changed, when to check the weatherstripping, when to have the leaders and gutters cleaned – and all those moments can be programmed into an intuitive digital platform.

That’s one way technology can automate love, but come to think of it, when 1800Flowers reminds you of Valentine’s Day a week in advance – or an upcoming anniversary – isn’t that the same thing?

In a world that is growing scarier and more unpredictable by the day, the emotional power and state-of-love that a home represents has never meant more. In 2019, the National Book Award went to a book that was a memoir about…a house. Called “The Yellow House: A Memoir,” the book – by Sarah M. Broom – uses the titular house as the centerpiece for a narrative about family, New Orleans, and community. Broom’s description of how she felt when the house was destroyed by Katrina is a powerful description of what a house can mean:

“When the house fell down, it can be said, something in me opened up. Cracks help a house resolve internally its pressures and stresses, my engineer friend had said. Houses provide a frame that bears us up. Without that physical structure, we are the house that bears itself up. I was now the house.”

If you feel that way about the house you own, if want someone to live in it who understands that –  and want someone to manage it who doesn’t look at your home like a collection of walls and windows, but as a structure with a living past, present and future – we invite you to reach out to us. On Valentine’s Day, or any day.

Expanding your portfolio is a big step; our guide will walk you through the decision process

The Rental Property Owner’s Ultimate Dilemma: “Should I Stop at One?”

Expanding your portfolio is a big step; our guide will walk you through the decision process.

Whether you are a parent or not, you have no doubt heard the adage that having two children isn’t twice the work of having just one – it’s a lot more. There’s no doubt that a similar calculation can be applied to rental properties. For those who are renting out one home and are thinking about doubling up, we’ve put together this useful framework that will help you make this very consequential decision. 

The first question we’d pose is how long you’ve owned your current property. The reason is simple: unless you’ve owned a rental property for two or more years, you won’t have a clear idea of exactly what is involved. A year simply doesn’t provide complete visibility into all the moving parts of managing a rental. Think about all the expected and unexpected maintenance issues (including finding and managing contractors), the stress and pressure that comes from dealing with tenants, and the potential lack of predictability on the income side, which can wreak havoc on your cash flow. There’s so much that can go wrong with a rental property, it’s impossible that you encounter every problem in such a contracted timespan.  

Once you’ve reflected on these inevitabilities, and have decided that you can cope with at least twice as many, then it’s time for the other considerations that come into play. Needless to say, the first issue will be how you will finance the property. If you have excess capital and that’s not a concern, then the question is what percentage of your assets should be concentrated in real estate. 

David Swensen, a respected investment guru who successfully managed the Yale pension fund for many years, believes that no more than 20% of your assets should be allocated to real estate – not including the value of your home. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but it is a good yardstick to make sure you are reasonably balanced between real estate, equities, fixed-income investments, and other asset classes.

If you’re comfortable with the capital allocation, the next step is how you will pull together the money.  If you have what you need in cash or cash equivalents – like a money fund – then it will be relatively easy to find the capital for a down payment. But even if you can do that, you might want to consider a “cash-out” refinance, which means you would take a larger mortgage on your current property, and use the proceeds (all or some) for a mortgage on your expanding real-estate empire. 

Deciding whether to take cash out of an existing property by refinancing, or liquidating other assets – or a combination of both – is an important financial exercise, and you will probably want to consult an accountant or advisor before making the final call.  

As part of your decision-making process, you should consider the tax implications of the entire transaction, including potential capital gains and losses that might result from selling stock or other assets to accumulate the down payment required for your next rental property. Every action has a reaction, in other words.

There’s another perspective that should be considered as part of the overall analysis, and that is the overall real estate market where you are considering an investment – which includes both housing prices, and also rental prices; both will influence your decision. There are a lot of dependencies at work, which complicates the situation. For example, if prices are high, it will be more difficult to afford a second property. But at the same time, assuming your first rental property is in the same area, it means you are more likely to benefit from the strong market. 

At the same time, there’s the relative strength of the rental market; currently, the demand is there, especially with millennials. The New York Times recently noted:  “As more millennials seek to become first-time homebuyers in this immensely competitive pandemic market, many are finding that renting is the only option — even though they have the income and down payment required to make a purchase”

The fact is that there’s a real housing shortage across America, and experts are saying that the housing shortage will “continue for years to come.” The pandemic is a big driver of this – people are leaving cities and moving to the suburbs and exurbs for more space, especially as work-from-home becomes the New Normal. So even if prices seem high now – and you are worried about a bubble – if you take the long-view, real estate tends to be a smart place to put your money.

The last point here is that if you do decide to invest in a second home, it might be time to set up an LLC – a limited liability company – as a new taxable entity. As you would expect us to say by now, there are pros and cons for taking that step. Here’s a good overview, but we advise you to review everything with a tax professional.

To return to where we started, though, how you decide to manage your property will also enter into your decision. If you are currently self-managing and are on the fence about a second property because of the work and stress, it’s likely time to consider a property manager. But – spoiler art – not just any property manager.

Specifically, we’re thinking of Belong. Belong is truly the 21st-century property manager; we bring the best of technology together with a 24/7 Concierge team for an end-to-end solution.   From our crews of Belong Pros available for getting your place rental ready, to creating our free photography and video tours that will find you the best possible tenants – at the best possible price -  there’s nothing we can or won’t do. 

Oh, did we mention our legendary rent guarantee? Yeah, that too. And if you decide to sell the place, we will deduct any management fees you’ve paid us from the commission due.  

 If you want to learn more – and there are a lot more goodies that await -  just ask!  

If you own an investment property, buying more and expanding your rental portfolio is a big step. This guide will walk you through the decision process.

Communication, collaboration, and innovation: These are three pillars of the work philosophy at real estate startup business and residential network, Belong.

The Way We Work

Here is a snapshot on how we think about work at Belong.

Much of what we loved and celebrated about work and other parts of life – but didn’t appreciate enough -  has been challenged by the past 18 months. The way we think about work has been put to the test and was forced to dramatically change. But it's now time to reconsider the norms that were imposed on us by the appropriately stringent requirements of our collective health.

We define the ideal working environment by the experience of our community members. That is paramount because our culture revolves around our community. Thus, when making decisions we always begin by thinking about how to serve our community in the best possible ways. We start there because we started Belong in service of a broken industry, and because we wake up every day determined to fulfill our promise. 

We are in a very delicate stage of our growth: the infancy of our operations, product, and culture. Three interdependent factors will critically determine our destiny as we scale: communication, collaboration, and innovation. So, our work philosophy has evolved in relationship to them.

Our business is fueled by cross-team collaboration. There is simply no substitute for working through challenges and problem solving by being physically together in the same space. Especially at this point in our growth trajectory. 

We all know that technology has progressed quickly, allowing new levels of virtual collaboration between teams.  But there is also no doubt that much is lost when we bounce from Zoom to Zoom,  or respond to flat, emotionless messages in Slack instead of looking our teammates in the eye, reading their body language, and seeing their smiles.  (Or disagreements, that’s important, too.)

As a startup, we need to make decisions faster than big companies. That is an imperative that we must never waiver from.  And due to the physical nature and human aspect of Belong, we have stronger dependencies between ops, experience, growth, and product.

Innovation does not only happen in controlled environments such as structured brainstorming sessions and meetings. Many -if not most - great ideas come from casual conversations at the coffee machine, water cooler, lunch table, or, a favorite of Belongers, going for a walk together around sunny downtown San Mateo.   In a favorite book of ours “Where Good Ideas Come From”,  Steven Johnson writes about the coming together of divergent minds in the 18th century London created waves of innovation.  

Because of the promise we made to our community and ourselves - to create a better, technology-enabled marketplace for homeowners and residents as quickly as possible -  we cannot afford to miss out on t interactions that can significantly accelerate our development. To facilitate this further, we will encourage more walking/coffee meetings. We will be holding all brainstorming, decision, and all-hands meetings in person.

Wars have started because of poor communication. Companies have failed because of it. Marriages have been split asunder.  It is our duty to create the right channels and flow of communication as we scale.  To build on my earlier comment about virtual communication,  it remains difficult to truly connect with the people on the other side of the camera. Virtual communication negates the formal debrief, the informal post-game chat, and the quick temperature-taking that are so critical to the alignment and relationship ecosystem we need at this stage in our growth.

The dream we are working so hard to achieve takes us on weekly roller coasters. What we are doing is hard. It is revolutionary. And it is why we must work, shoulder to shoulder, with our teammates. 

We must be together to feel like we truly Belong, to evoke that sense of togetherness that we want to cultivate among our Community Members.  Our name is more than a word, it describes how we operate internally to change the world around us.  It reminds us why we started our journey in the first place. #​​we_are_team_players

It is our duty, as owners of this company and masters of our own growth, to create and maintain the best conditions for it to flourish.   We have a high bar for excellence, and achieving that requires intense focus on every detail of that environment. #we_have_high_standards.

At the same time, we recognize that there is a lot of value in having the space for undisturbed deep thinking and in retaining commute time. Having a deep focus, time to reflect, and time to take care of personal matters is critical to Belongers’ overall well-being and commitment to our mission; it is valuable for us to create and cultivate that space.

Having one WFH day per week will allow for more purposeful interactions when we are together delivering on our mission. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, we will congregate in our offices to problem solve, create, innovate, and maintain our sense of Belonging. 

Thus, every Belonger whose job requires high collaboration will have the flexibility to work from home on Wednesdays. 

This policy will take effect immediately, and will apply to our teams based in our offices in North America. Our wonderful Pros, of course, are exempt from it. We are working with our excellent overseas teams to determine the best structure for their workdays. 

After much thought, here are specific logistics for each of our six teams:

Most of our team is located in the field, doing wonderful work on behalf of our community members. Clearly, our field team will continue being out there seven days a week, come rain or come shine, serving as the face and heart of Belong. 

Our HQ Ops team, divided between Draper and San Mateo, benefits enormously from being co-located with each other – Scheduling with Inspections, Vendor Relationships with Field Execution – and with other closely cooperating teams: Experience and Growth. 

We need to plan to spend as much time together as possible. During our work from home day, we’ll continue being online, connected, and available to each other and our colleagues, as Operations, still has many reactive components that necessitate being hands-on and available. We’ll also use our work from home day to focus on those vital initiatives that may require extra focus, which isn’t always an option in an office environment. 

Large portions of the design process are inherently collaborative. We listen and collect feedback from other teams cross-functionally. We sit and brainstorm solutions with engineering. We give each other feedback on mockups and feature releases by literally pointing at pixels on the screen. Being in person most of the time is essential, so the plan is to be together 4 days a week, using WFH Wednesdays for those moments when being alone creates windows for a different kind of focus and insight-generation.

The nature of Engineering has already allowed us to establish a remote culture with a team of engineers from San Mateo, Argentina, and soon Mexico. 90% of the engineers are individual contributors. At the same time, they have to work closely with Product, Design, and other stakeholders to build successful products.  With the help of software tools (like JIRA, Balsamiq, Figma, Google Suite) we can achieve the required collaboration remotely. 

Communication within the team is also crucial for our collective. For that reason, we are deliberately clustered around specific locations to foster communication between engineers in the same time zone. The expectation is that engineers will be available from 9 am - 6 pm in their local time zones, and will proactively let the team know of any unavailability during this period. This is essential as all our meetings will be virtual and we strive to minimize the delay in getting responses from each other. 

Engineers from San Mateo should plan to work at least two days from the office to bridge the gap in culture between HQ and other locations. We will revisit this policy once we have established a stronger remote culture and process.

Engineers should get approval from their managers to work outside of the home location.

The Concierge team requires a high level of collaboration between Growth, Operations, and our Front Lines teams to deliver on our team’s mission of building the world’s most loved rental experience through unparalleled service and authentic connection. 

As each member of the team is expected to act like an owner and builder of Belong, we found it to be imperative our team's workflows are designed to foster in-office collaboration across teams. We expect each Concierge to be in the office 4 days a week with the optionality of working from home on Wednesdays. If you choose to WFH that day, your office must be professionally set up for taking Member calls - and that you are completely available. There should be no difference in the quality, responsiveness, and availability that you would have at home vs an in-office setup from the Perspective of the Member. 

Our Coordinators who work in the Philippines have already demonstrated the ability to work from home the past few years. We will continue to operate as a fully remote team for our Philippines team but will review every quarter whether the performance of this setup aligns with our team’s mission and KPIs.

We are investing in a new team of Coordinators who work in the U.S., so we have the Voice of the Community Member in our HQ2 at all times. At this stage, we believe it is vital to have this team operate 100% in the office so we can learn the most from the team’s feedback and so Belong can quickly respond to Member’ needs. We will evaluate this policy quarterly/ at review time as well as the team grows in its maturity. 

As an early-stage startup taking on a 4.5T marketplace, Belong is a pioneer in addressing one of the world’s best-untapped marketplaces. Our ambition is to be the next great real estate tech startup, creating an unparalleled experience for homeowners and residents alike.

As we define our culture, we offer the unique opportunity for each early team member to leave a lasting impression and make valuable contributions in shaping the environment that will be a catalyst for the next great tech unicorn.

With all the buzz around bitcoin and blockchain currencies, many landlords may be wondering "Should I accept rent in bitcoin?" Here's why you should hold off.

Should Landlords Start Accepting Bitcoin?

Should landlords start accepting Bitcoin? It’s a tempting question. Here are some important answers.

Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency. Digital dollars. The blockchain. Even those who are totally immersed in managing their rental properties must be aware that this new digital payment model has taken the world by storm. You can purchase cars with it, and watches with it – but that’s just the start.

Here’s a link to some surprising items you can buy with Bitcoin, which range from furniture to socks to pizza. 

So if you’re a landlord, the thought may logically have crossed your mind: “Should I be accepting bitcoin or other forms of digital currency?” Let’s start this discussion by looking at what some of the big dogs are doing, as a signal.

Last year, Rick Caruso – who is a billionaire real estate investor – announced that his company would “begin accepting bitcoin as rent payment at its residential and retail properties.” Notably, Caruso’s firm had invested some of its own money in bitcoin, and was partnering with Gemini, a cryptocurrency exchange co-founded by Tyler Winklevoss. (The Winklevoss twins are huge proponents of bitcoin and have “amassed a $6B fortune.”)

The Caruso announcement got a lot of buzz, but not many giant landlords followed. There’s a reason. Keep in mind, as you consider this step, that bitcoin fluctuates wildly in value, as do other digital currencies like Ethereum and Dogecoin. Last November, a single bitcoin was worth roughly $66,000; as we write this piece it has plunged to $43,000. 

Clearly, as a landlord you can’t afford that kind of volatility. It would be devastating, because it’s likely you work on a thin margin.  Note that in the Caruso announcement, it’s apparent that he already owns a boatload of bitcoin; if you are a landlord in a similar position, then you probably have a separate set of circumstances – and have a different level of sophistication. We are writing this piece for the digital currency landlord.

Let’s say that the rent you collect is $2,500 a month. If you get paid in bitcoin, by the time it converts into dollars it may be worth $2,300 or $2,700. Do you really want to turn your rental property into a casino?

Also, there is some payment infrastructure you’ll need; while Coinbase and other virtual wallets do make it easier to accept digital currency – and to withdraw it – there’s still a learning curve. We do need to point out, though, that the Coinbase website notes that 73 million people and businesses “trust them to buy, sell and manage” crypto. So clearly this is moving from into the mainstream. But it’s mainly as an investment class, not a form of payment.

Another option – and a way to offset the volatility – is to accept rent in the form of stablecoins. Stablecoins are what their name suggests; Coinbase offers them, too, and note that because they are pegged to a “reserve asset” like the U.S. dollar (or even gold) they fluctuate far less and are “A form of digital money that is better suited to everything from day-to-day commerce to making transfers between exchanges.”

There are other pros and cons involved in accepting digital currency as a landlord – this piece lays them out well – and they include the anonymity they provide tenants, which might not be appealing to you.  Plus there are tax implications. As the article from GeekEstateBlog notes, “Paying taxes as a landlord and understanding the related filing obligations is already a stressful process. Throwing cryptocurrencies into the mix won’t make tax season any easier on landlords.”

So net-net, it’s early days. There’s a new app that theoretically enables paying rent with crypto, but the fact that it shows up in a blog called “Futurism” tells you it’s likely not ready for prime time. 

Soon enough, though, it will likely be commonplace; A recent study from Piplsay found that “49% of millennials polled own cryptocurrency compared to 38% of Gen Xers and 13% of Gen Z,” and millennials are more likely to use crypto for payments, with 53% saying they are “very likely” to purchase products or services with crypto. That trend will only get stronger as more and more zoomers enter the marketplace.

As a landlord that owns one property – or just a handful – it’s tempting to consider accepting digital currency; it does help you stand out and brand yourself as innovative, which is no doubt one of the reasons that Rick Caruso and a few other giant landlords have taken the plunge.

But waiting seems to be the prudent option. One thing you don’t have to wait for, though, is  other ways to bring your property into the digital world. That includes choosing a property management company that brings a new level of digital sophistication to what has been an industry lagging in innovation.

Belong has built end-to-end digital experiences that move the requirements of property management onto a digital platform – everything from booking appointments to managing renovations to collecting rent to communication with your 24/7 concierge.

So if you’re looking to signal to your tenants that you are a modern, forward-looking landlord, you don’t need to go all the way to bitcoin. Yet.

For more information about how to bring your property into the digital age, make an appointment with Belong here.

See how owners of rental properties can use Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deductions to reduce their tax bill thanks to what’s called a 199A deduction.

What Are Qualified Business Income Deductions For Landlords?

Also known as the section 199A deduction, the Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deduction lets landlords potentially deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income (QBI). Let’s look at this in more detail.

Can I get the QBI deduction on rental income?

The good news is that any non-corporate landlord should qualify for the deduction.

Rentals that are classified as trades or businesses under IRC § 162 are not considered passive. If the management of the rental property rises to the level of a trade or business as defined by § 162, then it qualifies for the deduction. 

Rental properties are typically treated as passive activities—these are excluded from the definition of a qualified trade or business. But it’s important to understand the following:

You might qualify for the QBI if you’re organized as an S-Corporation or a pass-through LLC, estate, or trust (If you’re a C-Corp, you’re out of luck.).

Rental income declared on a Schedule E or K-1 also qualifies.

If you pass hurdle #1, you might qualify if you meet a number of conditions.

If you spent more than 50% of your time during a tax year in your real estate business – and that represented more than 750 hours in the same year, you passed the next hurdle. Congratulations!

The QBI is a deduction that you take on top of the standard deduction if don’t itemize, or the itemized deduction if you do.

But you’re not there yet. Your QBI is subject to limitations based on your taxable income that include the following:

The amount of W-2 wages paid by the qualified trade or business; and

The unadjusted basis immediately after acquisition (UBIA) of qualified property held by the business, which is the basis of the qualified property on the placed-in-service date.


Note that only items included in a landlord’s taxable income can be counted toward the QBI deduction. Some of the most common income sources include rent, non-refundable and forfeited deposits, late payment fees, pet fees, and federal rent subsidies (HUD). This also generally includes, but isn’t limited to the deductible part of self-employment tax, self-employed health insurance, and deductions for contributions to qualified retirement plans.

The safe harbor rule comes into play when a landlord owns a handful of rentals but doesn’t qualify as a real estate professional. In this situation, he or she can still qualify for the QBI deduction, provide the rental activities constitute a trade or business.

The IRS published a notice in 2019 that provides a safe harbor for landlords to qualify for the IRC Section 199A deduction. In order to qualify the three requirements that must be satisfied:

Keep separate books and records to show income and expenses for each rental real estate enterprise;

Perform at least 250 rental services (Or other services, such as those provided by tradesmen and property managers) per year. Activities that satisfy the 250-hour requirement include landlord-related. The IRS says that rental services also include:

(i)         	Advertising to rent or lease the real estate;

(ii)       	Negotiating and executing leases;

(iii)     	Verifying information contained in prospective tenant applications;

(v)       	Daily operation, maintenance, and repair of the property;

(vi)      	Management of the real estate;

(vii)    	The purchase of materials; and

(viii)  	Supervision of employees and independent contractors.

3. Keep contemporaneous records of time reports, logs, or similar documents, such as hours of services performed; dates and descriptions of services performed; names of those performing such services.

Note that the safe harbor doesn’t apply to triple-net leases because the tenant is responsible for costs that would otherwise be the responsibility of the owner. As such, the IRS says that the rental income from a triple-net lease doesn’t qualify as trade or business income. It’s merely investment income.

If a landlord doesn’t qualify for the safe harbor, 20% of his or her rental income may still qualify as trade or business income, if they must meet some additional requirements

In 2021, real estate investors earning over $329,800 (if married and filing jointly) or $164,900 if filing as a single individual can claim the deduction as a percentage of wages paid with respect to the trade or business, or the combination of a percentage of wages paid, plus a percentage of the unadjusted basis of the property. These limitation thresholds are adjusted annually for inflation.

Landlords who own multiple rental properties should note that there are additional planning strategies that can maximize the IRC Section 199A deduction.

The Section 199A deduction is scheduled to automatically expire in at the end of 2025. In order to claim the current section 199A deduction, taxpayers who own real estate must be able to show that they’re operating a real estate business as a trade or business and not simply holding real estate for investment.

Keep in mind that, as helpful as this piece might be, we strongly advise that you speak to your accountant to get a firmer grasp on the implications and ramifications of the laws being discussed here. They will have a much firmer understanding of your individual circumstances and can clarify any questions this post might have raised.

Tax calculators feature on many real estate websites, but how well can they account for the nuances that go into determining how much landlords owe the IRS?

Tax Calculators – How Useful Are They, Really?

Tax calculators are a popular feature of many real estate websites and services. But how well can they account for the nuances that go into determining how much you owe Uncle Sam?

Anyone who owns a rental house – or is thinking of buying one – needs to keep the tax consequences in mind. Each aspect of the ownership picture – from depreciation, to expense write-offs, to of course overall income – will have implications for your personal taxes. 

If you don’t own the home personally, but in an entity that files a separate tax return, such as a C-Corp,  that’s a different story completely. There are pros and cons to that decision, and here’s a good summary of them.

At  Belong – a new kind of modern property management company – we have built a tech-forward platform that helps homeowners keep all their financial ducks in a row, and stay organized. You won’t have to be chasing your paperwork -  it’s all in one place – including any improvements you’ve made through Belong. That’s because Belong employs its own contractors and manages the entire process.

We know from our homeowners that it can be a real effort to stay on top of their personal finances, and their taxes.  They ask us all the time about whether a tax calculator can be useful as they keep track of their tax liabilities during the year.   That’s not surprising, because, in addition to owning real estate, many of them are entrepreneurs who have multiple sources of income and dynamic, unpredictable tax situations.

Which Tax Calculator is Best for Landlords?

When you Google “tax calculator” – and a lot of people are doing it, because there are 675M hits – there is no shortage of links that pop up.  To make your life easier, your intrepid friends at Belong spent some time analyzing them to see if there is one that rises to the top of the calculation heap.

To start with, there are a lot of familiar names that show up high on the first page. Not surprisingly, there are free tax calculators and “estimators”  being offered by H&R Block, TurboTax, Nerdwallet, Jackson Hewitt, and many others. 

In the cases of the big names, for the most part, these calculators are a marketing technique, they are offered “free” but their goal is to sell their software programs.  So you have to enter some personal information before you have access to the full platform. Of the ones listed above, Nerd Wallet gives you the most access without being sucked into their sales funnel.  AARP also has a calculator that doesn’t require too much disclosure. 

Keep in mind these are very basic tools, so use them only as guidelines.  It’s best that you have access to an accountant, especially given what looks like dramatic, upcoming changes in the tax code.  That’s especially true if you are self-employed.   We found two calculators that are designed for those who are not traditional W-2 employees, one is from TaxAct and the other from KeeperTax.  

Given the complexities of owning a rental house, while a tax calculator can be useful for providing some basic guidance, expert accountants can pay for themselves.  If you don’t have one, and your personal network has been exhausted, there are platforms like 1800Accountant that might be useful. Unless you feel really confident, being your own accountant can be as risky as being your own electrician.

Lastly, to wrap this up, who knows more about the taxes than the IRS? They have an online tax withholding estimator that is pretty good and is free of charge. 

While you're busy doing maths, take a look below at our back-of-the-napkin maths calculator to do some quick sums on putting your rental on Belong.  Not only will we make your finances easier, all maintenance expenses, management and placement fees are tax deductible.

Stress is toxic - and managing your own rental property is a stress machine. Learn more about the hidden stresses of being a landlord and property manager.

The Right Property Manager Can Help You Achieve Profound Well-Being

The hidden stress of managing your own property, revealed!

If you own a rental property, and you’re considering managing it yourself, we suggest you hit the pause button and listen up.

Taking that on yourself – rather than hiring a skilled property manager – is a serious undertaking.  So you owe it to yourself to consider not just the obvious stresses, but the hidden emotional, physical, and financial costs of assuming that responsibility. 

Of course, there’s also a cost associated with property management, and we’ll get to it later on.  But first, to establish a context for whatever fees you will need to pay, let’s walk through the burdens of acting as your own property manager.

Stress is toxic. And managing your own property is a stress machine.

The fact is that stress is so pervasive, that many of us are dealing with the symptoms without even understanding what’s behind them.  That’s a risk, because stress’s effects on the body are profound, leading to conditions like digestive problems, insomnia, and weakened immune systems. Even weight gain.

What does this biology lesson have to do with managing your property?  Everything!  Because the entire property management process, from listing, to getting the place in rental shape, to finding and vetting a tenant, is ridiculously stressful. 

And lets us not forget about dealing with vacancies and collecting the rent!

This post on Reddit sums it up perfectly:

“I am a new landlord and I think I'm getting an ulcer from the stress. Can y'all give me some tips on how not to be so stressed about tenants all the time?”

The Right Property Manager is like a Meditation App for Homeowners

Most people intuitively understand that acting as your own property manager is a highly stressful endeavor. However, there are so many bad property managers out there – an overwhelming amount, in fact – that many people are driven to do it themselves.

In fact, the proliferation of property managers that fail to deliver inspired the founders to create Belong.

Belong performs all the services that traditional property managers attend to, and they do it with a thoughtful, homeowner-first approach and impeccable attention to detail.  They even go so far as to guarantee the rent, and they have a team of their own talented contractors – Belong Pros – who take the stress out of repair and renovation.  Which is one of the most frustrating and infuriating parts of being a homeowner.

Yes, working with Belong costs a bit – but so does working with any property management company.  The 8% of monthly rent that Belong charges is comparable to what you’d pay to traditional property management companies, which don’t offer the same kind of end-to-end services. 

The right way to look at that cost is that it’s a small price to pay for your well-being.  We do so much else to stay healthy today – we eat, we exercise, we try to get enough sleep – why undercut that by dealing with the stress of a leaky faucet or a late check?

You said there’s a financial cost of NOT hiring the right property manager.

We did. Here are two costs to start.  First – you may not be charging enough rent.  Driven by the fear of having a vacant house sit on the market if the rent’s too high, many homeowners charge too little.  Belong solves that problem with a price optimization technology that takes your home and your neighborhood into account, and identifies a price that will get new residents moving in ASAP.

The second hidden cost of being your own property manager is what economists call “opportunity costs.”   Simply put, what else could you be doing with your time when you’re not dealing with piles and piles of forms and paperwork?

Well, maybe you could be starting a business!  The data shows that millions are becoming entrepreneurs; more than 4.4. million “pandemic businesses” were started last year.

Having someone manage your property gives you the time and peace of mind to get that going.  Which means one source of income – your home – can be joined by another.

Boosting your immune system and your net worth – who would have thought the right property manager can make that possible?

Property management was unsatisfactory for both homeowners and renters - until two entrepreneurs decided it was time to disrupt the old model with Belong.

How Two Entrepreneurs Are Elevating Property Management

Property management was unsatisfactory for both homeowners and renters - until two entrepreneurs decided it was time to disrupt the old model with Belong. Read on for the story of how Belong started and their mission. 

In the case of Belong, our founders – Ale Resnik and O. Savir – were inspired by their experiences with the very act of “Belonging.”

They captured it poignantly and personally in a blog, writing:

We are a company started by immigrants. As immigrants, we had to redefine, multiple times and in numerous ways, what Home meant to us.

Is Home the walls around you and the ceiling above you?

As they began thinking deeply about what home meant – along with another founder, Tyler Infelise – these imaginative serial entrepreneurs had an important revelation about its fundamental essence.

They put it eloquently in that same blog post:

“With time, we discovered that Home isn't a place. Home is a feeling. Home is where our heart is.”

As they looked for their next entrepreneurial venture – conducting a lot of research and spending a lot of time talking to friends and family – an opportunity began to take shape.  An opportunity that involved a total, bottom-up reinvention of something known as “property management.”

Ale and O decided to take on this challenge because they saw that the need was great.  As they wrote, “We chose an industry that hadn't changed in centuries and offered no elements of delight to those it was meant to serve.”

The founders recognized that tenants often feel like temporary guests living in somebody else’s home.  Some are treated badly (we’ve all heard our share of landlord horror stories), and often are treated like second-class citizens.  So the company’s mission – concisely put – is to make tenants feel like they belong. 

Central to the vision that these two founders had was to create a company where people who loved their houses  – Belong calls them “homeowners” –  could be connected to people who would love them as much as they do.

If you’re a homeowner – whether you are downsizing, or are dealing with a long-term family home – Ale and O have built a system and culture where you will be incredibly well looked after.

Read about Belong’s unequaled suite of services here.

Belong will find the perfect residents, screen them, and help them move in – and you move out – with precision and care.  They use technology to streamline, and committed Concierges (people, not bots) to make sure everything runs perfectly. 

Once someone moves in, their full-time team of Belong Pros handles all maintenance – expected and unexpected – which is a remarkable service in a world where reliable and talented contractors are in great demand.  It feels great when work is done right the first time around.

Another benefit of Ale and O’s vision is that happy residents – which they enable – will stay longer and reduce vacancies, which are expensive!

If you’re a homeowner, Belong’s founders have built something that can, candidly, rock your world.  Ale, O, and Tyler wrap it up like this:

Welcome to The Playroom