No house is perfect, but some 'quirks' are total dealbreakers for tenants. We share 4 fixable issues in that have the potential to turn renters off completely.

The Top 4 Dealbreakers For Renters — and how Homeowners Can Avoid Them

No house is perfect, but some imperfections matter more to residents than others: what are they, and how can homeowners address them preemptively? We share 4 dealbreakers that have the potential to turn residents off completely. 

These 4 issues are the most common dealbreakers for residents, but don’t worry — fixing these issues with Belong has never been easier. Soon you’ll have residents clamoring to live in — and love — your home.

The first thing many potential residents check is the appliances.  A dated refrigerator, a stove that doesn’t live up to what today’s foodies are expecting, or a dishwasher that has seen too many Thanksgiving dinners.

These might seem like small problems to a homeowner, but to a future resident, they indicate that a house hasn’t truly been loved. After all, a homeowner doesn’t care about the house enough to take care of these kinds of issues, why would a future resident It starts the relationship off on the wrong foot

If the idea of replacing any of that seems daunting — and you’re tempted to say “Let the new resident take care of it” — our advice is: Don’t. You’ll end up taking more off the rent than the improvements will cost you. And thankfully, Belong Pros – teams of contractors and craftspeople employed by the company full-time —  will be able to handle these replacements. 

Maybe your home is perfect, but the neighborhood isn’t. Although homeowners have no control over the surrounding area, they often have first-hand knowledge of hidden gems that potential residents might not know about. Fun neighborhood restaurants, bars, parks, and other attractions help make the resident feel like they already belong. 

Prepare a list of “Why I love this neighborhood” and make sure potential residents get to see it.  Belong is the unique property manager who knows how to market houses to overcome even something as difficult as the wrong neighborhood.

Belong has never heard of someone who says “I want LESS closet space.”  So what are your choices without undertaking expensive and time-consuming construction?  

First, try organizing potential storage space in clever ways to maximize a home’s livability (and lovability). Here are “Ten Easy Hacks that Will Make Your Small Closet Feel a Lot Bigger.”

You also might want to look downstairs; we love these “24 Smart Basement Storage Ideas for an Insanely Organized Space.”   It’s the perfect place for out-of-season clothes, and along those lines HGTV tells you how to build a closet in your garage.  

A potential resident adores your home. Then the price comes up, and the light vanishes from their eyes. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a technology that can help you find the right price — the Goldilocks price — that will make homeowners AND residents happy. Wondering where you can find that technology at the same place where homeowners will find lots of goodies that no property manager has offered before? Check out Belong Home’s “Market Pricing Optimization” model, and discover the sweet spot - and profitable spot - of your home and the current market conditions.

Finding the right resident is hard enough without having to convince them your home is lovable. Luckily, if you keep the tips above in mind, sharing your home is easier than ever.

Good upkeep on a rental home is the law - and a key part of keeping tenants happy and renting longer. So how do landlords find a contractor quickly?

How To Keep a Rental Home Well-Maintained and Habitable

Keeping a rental property well-maintained is essential to keeping tenants happy. Not only that, your tenants have a legal right to a habitable home. But finding a contractor when you need them (i.e. fast!) isn't always easy. 

Let’s conduct a little thought experiment. Let's say you didn't hire a property manager and decide to self-manage. Let’s say instead you went it alone or decided to work with a broker who helped find a tenant and did a background check draw up the lease and get it signed.

Now the tenant’s moved in, all settled, sending in rent checks without any prompting or follow up. Life seems pretty sweet. 

Then a faucet starts dripping. Which causes a mold problem. Which attracts bugs. Which attract spiders. Then randomly a Hitchcockian pigeon crashes into a window and shatters it. Hell breaks loose, in other words. 

What’s a homeowner to do? You don’t know any good contractors or exterminators, much less a good glazier. And what started as a minor repair has now escalated into a potential legal issue. 

Finding a contractor for rental repairs is easier said than done

What's next? You think, “I’ll call a contractor. Big whup. I need to pay a property manager just so they can call a contractor? That’s what you call a compelling argument?”

The fact is that finding anyone to get work done is hard on the immediate-need level, and finding a contractor organize and supervise everything is even more difficult. They are notoriously hard to wrangle, especially in major metropolitan areas, where there is often too much work and not enough skilled labor to perform it. As a matter of fact, currently, in America, there’s a massive contractor shortage.

Some property managers have relationships with contractors and service providers, having worked with them closely over the years. But you’re still relying on busy, overtaxed individuals, and taking care of problems as they crop up, on a case-by-case basis. Then there's the markups... 

How minor repairs can create habitability issues for landlords

It's the law for landlords to provide 'habitable' rentals. This means a safe, clean and comfortable environment for your tenants, with a legal requirement to ensure:

The property is structurally sound and intact (including floors, stairs, walls, roof)

All electrical, plumbing, sanitary, heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and elevators are operating safely

No known hazards are posing any danger to tenants (such as lead pant, asbestos)

Reasonable measures are in place to prevent foreseeable criminal intrusions

This means that some minor repairs could quickly turn into a breach of your tenant's right to a livable place and allow them to take legal action against you, stop paying rent, or even move out without liability to their lease. For example, if your property has a front door that won't lock - this may sound like a minor repair, but it's classed as a habitability problem due to the risk of break-ins. Same with a faulty water heater. In these instances, you're going to need to get onto repairs very quickly, to keep your tenants comfortable (and yourself out of hot water). 

Belong connects you to over 10,000 vetted contractors

Belong's extensive vendor network puts over 10,000 qualified professionals at your fingertips. All you have to do is reach out to your concierge or put in a request through our app and we’ll find the perfect pro to do the job.

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.

Discover the surprising connection between the most physical of assets, and the most virtual of them.

Cryptocurrency and The Security Of Belonging

We discovered a surprising connection between the most physical of assets - the home - and the most virtual of them, cryptocurrency. Everyone is looking for a sense of security and belonging. 

Here at Belong, we think there is a reason that the word “real” comes before “estate.”  We believe in the power of home.  The value of a tangible investment.  

A lot of people agree with us: At this point in American history, more than 67 percent of us own our own homes. This is up from 47 percent at the beginning of the 20th century, which is especially impressive, considering the nature of the economy back then.

But at the same time, homeownership is not for everyone. As we say in our Vision:

“There is more than one American Dream. Owning your own home and loving it is one of those dreams... But there are other American Dreams.

Some of these dreams are about living differently than previous generations — for whom owning was everything. We may want to use the cash to start a business — perhaps the next Belong-. We may want to experience new places. We may not have the money yet for homeownership, but still, dream of living in a glorious home where we can put down roots and experience the sense of belonging.”

We’ve quoted John Allen before, who is the author of the book Home. (The book is subtitled “How Habitat Made Us Human,” which we think cuts to the quick of the matter.)	In the book Allen poignantly writes that “We know we have been successful in creating a new home when a dwelling feels like the one place in the world that belongs to us more than anyone else."

We’ve never found a better description, anywhere, of what Belong does. How it makes people feel. People don’t need a deed to experience a deep down sense of belonging.

So, home matters. Concreteness matters. But at the same time, let’s talk for a moment – just as everyone else is doing – about cryptocurrency.  There’s nothing more intangible than a $60,000 digital asset, backed only by the fact that someone is willing to pay $60,001 for it. 

And while crypto ownership is generally pegged at 14% of Americans (some estimates have it at nearly 50%, although that is debatable), that’s still a lot of people who’ve decided to invest in a virtual currency that was scoffed at even less than a decade ago.

How, then, do we reconcile the need for something tangible and the acceptance of a currency that has nothing of physical substance behind it?

The answer comes back to our name. Although Bitcoin is decentralized, as an article in the Financial Times writes, it is a network “defined by distinctive rituals, symbols and creation myths.” The article goes on to quote Mick Morucci, an anthropologist working in crypto, who writes that “Bitcoin community’s value systems and rituals . . . have helped to establish it as money (whose price is shaped) by community, beliefs and a sense of belonging.”

Looking at it through his clarifying lens, the same human emotion that draws people to the safety and security of home – and to the neighborhoods and communities where we live – attracts them to the shared values and community that exists in CryptoWorld. 

A blog post by Suhitesh Das – a venture capitalist and advisor – makes a similar point.  He argues that “Belonging can be easily related to cryptocurrency” because it is encrypted, noting that the same “sense of security is what people also experience with belongingness.”

We are now more inspired than ever to extend the state of belonging that exists between people and their homes, to a state of connections that flourishes within the larger Belong community.  Importantly, Das also writes that “Belonging is actually about recognizing oneself as a member of a community, and the higher-quality relationships that come with it.”

That community also connects everyone who works at Belong and shares the same mission – to our homeowners and residents. 

Fascinating, isn’t it, that whether you invest in a modern home or a modern currency, a desire to belong is behind it all.

Self-managing a rental property means more money in your bank account, but it's also stressful and time consuming. We look into where to find a happy medium.

To Self-Manage Your Rental Property or Hire a Property Manager?

Self-managing means more money in your bank account – but it also means more stress and time spent caring for the property. Many homeowners ask if there’s a happy medium – we dive into that here.

Self-managing your own rental property presents a unique set of challenges: You have to market and show the house yourself, background check potential tenants, and draw up a binding lease agreement. Once the resident has moved in, you have to collect rent, attend to all their problems, and find contractors to make the repairs that you can’t handle yourself. 

That last part can be particularly difficult, especially in this day and age, when decent tradespeople are few and far between. You’ll likely have to spend hours researching contractors online, browsing Angi and Yelp, scouring Facebook groups and NextDoor, even consulting with neighborhood message boards. All in all, managing your own rental home is a mountain of work.

The possibility of hiring a traditional property manager – and not having to worry about the complexities mentioned above – is a tempting alternative. However, this option presents its downsides. First and foremost, traditional property managers often overcharge for their services, making it difficult for you to maximize your income. Traditional property managers also have less incentive than you, the owner, to treat a home with the love it deserves. You know all the wonderful nooks and crannies of your home, and it feels practically like a family member. But to a traditional property manager, your property is just another entry on a long, long list.

So let’s be honest.  Neither of the above options is ideal — managing your own property can drain your time and energy, while hiring a traditional property manager can lead to mistreatment of the home and the misuse of your money.

There are a few things you can do, however, to make self-managing a property a viable alternative. Here are some of the “middle ground” options we alluded to in our headline.

Instead of using NextDoor and Yelp and Angi to find individual contractors on a case-by-case basis, find a local handyman you can trust and rely on. He (or she) should have their own network that you can take advantage of, to fill in any expertise gaps.

Also we recommend making friends with those who live nearby your rental property. That way, if there’s an emergency and you can’t get a hold of your handyman or your home’s resident, they can potentially pop over and take a look themselves. Obviously they’re not going to be able to fix a big problem, but still they should be able to give you a sense of the scope of the issue. And, of course, if they have lived in the neighborhood for a while, they are likely to be able to add to your Rolodex of support.

There are a lot of great software platforms out there specifically designed for Homeowners to help with everything from rent collection to organizing and itemizing documents you’ll need come tax season. Investopedia has a list of the seven best programs. 

Your resident is always going to be your first line of defense – your eyes and ears.  When a problem occurs, they’ll be the first to know. So identifying residents who are super-responsible and vigilant is especially critical if you’re going to self-manage.

It’s also important that you find residents who love your home as much as you do, and who are willing to pitch in when needed. For example, if there’s a property-threatening problem with a simple fix, in an ideal world you want a resident who’s willing to provide a temporary fix, before the real experts can show up.

4. Ditch the property manager for a modern alternative

Belong is has ditched the property management model to provide the services you have been waiting for – the happy medium that has never existed in property management. Whether you go it alone or get the full-service treatment, Belong can support your path to financial freedom. 

Our smarter, future-ready services include:

Guaranteed rent every month, regardless of if or when your residents pay

Optimized rental pricing that uses technology and real-time demand to price your home with accuracy

The Belong app that gives you and your residents access to everything you need

Innovative financial products including the option to spread maintenance payments over the term of your lease agreement

Access to dedicated landlords insurance to protect your asset (as well as coverage for your residents)

Integration with the most popular rental platforms to get your home loved faster

Instant access to an expansive vendor network of over 10,000 professionals that can handle everything from routine repairs to home upgrades

…and we’re just getting started! Belong is simplifying the rental experience and helping more homeowners reach their financial goals through real estate. Visit our homeowner's page to find out more about services in places like Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Oakland, Miami and many, many more.

If you're asking yourself "should I invest in a rental property", you also need to consider "am I cut out to be a landlord?" If not, help is here.

Investing in Rental Property Is Easy, Managing It Isn't

With housing shortages biting and rental prices increases, many are asking "should I invest in a rental property?". With that comes another question: are you ready to take on the responsibility of being a landlord? 

When you have some money to invest, it's natural to start looking at whether to invest in property vs. the stock market. It's a subject long debated by financial professionals around the globe. Sadly, there's no easy answer. 

This article from Forbes says it well: “It’s impossible to adequately compare the returns of privately held individual real estate investments to the broad-based stock market.” MillionAcres makes the same point: “This question of real estate vs. stocks is tough to answer. There’s no way to reliably gauge individual investment property returns on a wide scale.”

What we can say reliably is that when it comes to analyzing the pros and cons of investing in real estate, one thing that always comes up is the stress and strain of being a landlord. Many homeowners new to rental ownership consider managing a property themselves to save money, without necessarily understanding the level of work that is required. 

Property management is not a simple task. Just take a look at Investopedia’s entry on the subject of rental property ownership: they ask “ Do you know your way around a toolbox? How are you at repairing drywall or unclogging a toilet?". Landlords need to respond to tenants whenever problems arise, even when it's inconvenient. Then there's the economic impact of vacancies between tenants and collecting overdue rent. If you're not well prepared or don't have a lot of time on your hands, it can get very stressful, very quickly. 

The alternative to self-managing a rental property

What if there was a way you could remove all of the stress of being a landlord, without forking over tons of your hard-earned cash to a traditional property management company? Would it make the decision easier? 

Here are some of the many ways that Belong is making things easy, by creating a simple, tech-forward option for those self-managing with the option to outsource all the hard work, too: 

Guaranteeing rent for homeowners, regardless of when it’s paid by residents



Providing real 24/7 customer support for both homeowners and residents (not just logging maintenance emergencies)



Not charging hidden fees like setup costs and lease renewal charges



Providing cutting-edge marketing and video tours at no extra cost



Taking a human approach to placing the right long-term residents that match your home



Shielding owners from costly evictions if we ever place the wrong people



An app that puts everything at your fingertips — from documentation and cash flow insights to finance and insurance solutions 



Connecting you with the most expansive, vetted vendor network of more than 10,000 professionals that can handle everything from regular repairs to full renovations



Offering insurance solutions that protect you, your home, and your residents



Innovating financial solutions for managing cash-flow on your terms, letting you split the cost of repairs, maintenance, and even your placement fee



Using true market data and real-time interest from potential residents to maximize the value of your home


While making a real estate investment requires a thorough analysis on your personal financial situation, with Belong’s ability to take the time and complexity out of being a landlord, you can definitely take those frustrations out of your decision process. Learn more about how Belong is making long-term renting lovable in cities like San Diego, Oakland, Redmond and Tampa. 

By taking a human approach to the rental market and going above and beyond for both homeowners and residents, Belong is redefining property management.

Taking A Unique Approach to Property Management

Looking for a property manager near you? It’s not just about geography. In this article we remind people of the connection they have to their homes, demonstrate how hard it is to find the right residents, and discuss how Belong is solving these problems.

The ideal property manager is one who recognizes a home is not just a deed or an address.  It has much more meaning.

That’s the reason why Belong goes out of its way to avoid certain terms and phrases that bring to mind the worst qualities of the real estate industry. “Landlord,” for instance, seems like a relic from feudal times. “Tenant” can make someone feel like a second-class citizen.

So is it any wonder, when one side’s given so much power at the expense of the other, that the landlord-tenant relationship can turn adversarial so easily?

Instead of “landlord,” Belong uses the word “homeowner.” Not only is it friendlier, but it’s more accurate, too. Because most of the people who turn their houses over to  Belong aren’t traditional landlords. By and large, they aren’t professional investors.  They don’t own a fleet of buildings and apartments that they’re constantly renting out. 

Some are in the process of downsizing, but aren’t quite ready to give up the family home — maybe they imagine that someday their children or their children’s children will want to move back in; others are “accidental homeowners,” who’ve inherited the property from a family member who’s passed away.  They see an opportunity to generate passive income, but critically, they aren’t opportunists. 

Learn more about the pros – and cons – of owning a rental property

They are people who love their homes, who have an emotional attachment to them, and want the next residents to feel the same way.  They care about putting the right people in their homes, first and foremost.

That’s why Belong works so hard to match the right residents to the right homes.  Of course,  credit checks, identity checks, and criminal background checks are all industry standard.

Belong goes above and beyond those basics, personally interviewing each and every potential resident.  Finding the perfect person – or couple or family – means they will take great care of the house, and also stay in it longer.   Which reduces vacancies. Stability is a good thing.

But finding the right resident is just the beginning of the journey, not the end of it. What if you could ditch property management services to modernize your entire rental experience? Belong does exactly that, combining industry-busting technology with human smarts to make renting lovable for both homeowners and their residents.

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.

How do I rent out a property as a landlord, but live far away? Do I need a property manager or can I manage myself? We answer FAQs on owning interstate rentals

Long-Distance Landlord: How To Manage a Rental Home From Afar

Whether you had to move for work or picked up a steal of a property in another city, it’s not uncommon to live far away from a home you rent out. Even more so in 2024. With many homeowners holding onto interest rates too good to give up, renting out a home is often a better option when opportunity knocks in another city. 

This is why we get asked so often, “How do I rent out a property when I live far away?” 

Particularly if you’re considering the DIY self-management route, there’s a lot to consider before taking on the challenge from another state. It’s not impossible, but here are six questions to consider first. 

6 questions to consider before self-managing a rental home out-of-state

1. How often can I travel to my rental home? 


When preparing your home for the rental market, you will need to get it move-in ready. You’ll need to arrange a deep clean, attend to repairs and have professional photographs and video taken for your online listing. These are not remote tasks. Someone will need to be at the home to let in contractors, cleaners, and a real estate photographer.

If you travel to your rental home, be sure to keep accurate records of everything from your trip. You may be eligible to claim some costs such as airfares, hire car and petrol, even hotel accommodation as a tax expense for managing your rental home. 

If travel is too far or just not a viable option, is there someone you trust close by that you could enlist for help? This is where having a property manager or modern alternative like Belong can make the process much smoother, taking care of all preparations and listings on your behalf. If you do hire someone to manage the process, you can claim these fees at tax time too. 

Discover Belong: The best alternative to Property Management in Seattle, Redmond, Oakland, and many more cities across California, Texas, Utah, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Washington State.     


When you live far away from your rental home, how you collect rent is another consideration. Checks and cash are out of the question! Thankfully, paying rent online is commonplace these days — not to mention safer. 

But before you choose an online platform, be aware that using popular peer-to-peer online payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and Cash App can leave you open to disputes and rent payment fraud. While simple and user-friendly, they are not designed for landlords or rent collection. 

There’s also the issue of late payments. Do you have the time and resources to follow up and stay on top of unpaid rent bills from out of state? Aside from the time, effort and stress, the reality is that mortgage and expenses don’t stop adding up when the rent goes unpaid.

This is why guaranteed rent is Belong’s most popular product. It’s proven and beloved by over 2,000 Belong homeowners, who receive their rental income like clockwork (no matter when the residents pay).

Read More: How Guaranteed Rent is Changing Property Management Forever

3. Who will manage home tours and inspections?


Property management is not a set-and-forget kind of job. Aside from the initial tours to lease the home, inspections can help to monitor wear and tear or damage. It’s also an opportunity to connect with your residents to make sure they’re happy and are sticking to the conditions of the lease agreement.

You could opt for video inspections if you have established a good relationship with your tenant. But if this is a new lease or you ask residents to show you around virtually, you could miss important clues to damage or repair needs on the property. 

This is another reason why many long-distance rental owners prefer to hire someone to manage the home for them. If you still want to DIY, you’ll need to enlist some local help for the role of on-site inspections. This could be a trusted friend, an employee, or a service such as Inspectify, who can arrange an inspection report on-site. 

4. How easily can I access good local contractors? 


If there’s a maintenance or repair issue in your rental home, how soon can you respond from afar? It’s an important question for out-of-state landlords, because how you resolve issues is a reflection of your professionalism and can avoid minor issues from turning into costly headaches. 

If you’re fielding maintenance requests from out of state, you will need to have fast access to good local contractors close to your rental home. This is easier said than done, with the US experiencing a major labor shortage in most trades that homeowners need. With so much work to go around, contractors are often drawn to large jobs that pay the most. This can leave rental homeowners waiting months for repairs and maintenance. 

If you don’t have good local knowledge or access to contractors, Belong can help. Our expert team will handle all resident communication and have an extensive vendor network of over 10,000 contractors for fast maintenance and repairs.

Read More: Why Ignoring Rental Home Maintenance Could Cost You More Than Repairs

5. Are local laws different from my home state?


Tenant-landlord legislation varies between states and counties. If you live in Austin, but rent out a home in Seattle, you’ll need to be up to speed with the laws that govern both the state of Washington and the local cities of Seattle. Not doing your homework could land you in hot water if you get it wrong. 

For example, the City of Seattle has unique eviction laws that prevent families from being displaced during a school year. They also have a first-in-time ordinance that you must rent your home to the first qualified applicant. 

This is just one of many varied examples. If you own a rental home in San Diego, you may be responsible for noise complaints against your residents, even while you sleep hundreds of miles away. 

Your options? Get comfortable with local laws or hire a professional to avoid navigating a confusing legal system alone and from afar. 


Have you done the math on renting out your home? If you’re looking to achieve passive income through real estate, the numbers and time commitments need to make sense. 

Consider the time you have available, travel costs, and the expense of on-site help when needed. Once you’ve considered the personal costs vs outsourcing costs, you can decide if you’ll really be saving enough by going it alone. 

If you choose to partner with Belong to look after your out-of-state rental home, you won’t have to lift a finger. Enjoy guaranteed rent and innovative financial solutions to keep you cash flow positive, the security of home insurance and expert maintenance, plus 24/7 support for you and your residents. 

What’s the difference between property management services and what Belong does? Get the down-low on property management vs Belong PRO in this article. 

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