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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This Q&A guide will walk through some of the most common questions around becoming a landlord and the time commitment of self-managing your own rental property.

How Do I Manage My Own Rental Property? Your Questions Answered

Homeowners new to the rental market often ask "how do I manage my own rental property?" This Q&A guide will walk through some of the most common questions around becoming a landlord and the time commitment of self-managing your own rental property. 

Question: How do I find quality tenants without a property manager?

Finding the right tenant is the single most important task a homeowner has. Generally this is handled by a property manager, but if you're going it alone, you will need to get a real understanding of the way that real estate platforms work, like Zillow, Trulia, and  Realtor.com. 

You will also need high-quality, professional images of your property and for maximum results, a video walkthrough or virtual open house. This will help hook prospective tenants. 

Once you’ve mastered the underlying processes, you will have to post your property, review applications, show the house, and make your decision. All that can eat a couple of hours a day, for as long as it takes to rent your place. 

During the “find and secure a tenant phase,” depending on whether you have a broker to show the property or if you are doing it yourself, you should budget between 15% and 40% of your time to the task, with the expectation that the process will take at least a month.

Question: How can I screen tenants myself?

Before accepting a new tenant and having a lease drawn up, you will need to spend the necessary time and money on credit and background checks and identity verification as well. 

Your tenant screening process needs to address the following:

Reviewing applications and looking out for errors and omissions

Investigate and verify self-employment financials 

Arrange a background check to look for a history of evictions or criminal activity

You can hire a tenant screening company or use software to assist with these tasks, which we have outlined in this post.

Question: How much time does it take to manage my own rental property?

The answer of the time commitment for self-managing a rental isn't a straightforward calculation. The amount of time you need to set aside for property management not only includes the time required for the expected obligations you will have, but also for the unexpected.

The expected requirements are reasonably obvious to everyone who has owned a rental property; they range from having to find great tenants and screen for them, to making necessary updates and repairs, to collecting rent and maintenance. But it is the unexpected demands that are the most troublesome and vexing for homeowners and managers, because they appear unexpectedly and can disrupt your daily life.

Whether it is something you can plan for – or otherwise – every responsibility you take on has sub-tasks and sub-sub-tasks beneath them. It is these layers of work that many homeowners fail to take into account when they are deciding whether to hire a property manager or take the task upon themselves.

Question: How long will it take to prepare my property for rent? 

We all know the complexities involved in renovations and repairs; even relatively minor “freshening” tasks like painting, or having the floors done, or deep cleaning of kitchens and bathrooms, takes time: you have to find contractors, check their backgrounds, and then manage the process. 

During the most intense period of this work – when you are getting your place in shape, and are under pressure because the longer your place remains vacant, the less money you’re taking – you should allocate for as much as half your time on a combination of taking bids from contractors, supervising the work, and acting as a mini-general contractor, as you manage painters, plumbers, and electricians.

During the renovation and repair phase, time demands vary wildly, depending on how much work the property needs, or how much staging is required. If the property only needs some light work and staging, you could be away with 10% of your time. But if you’ve inherited a place that hasn’t been touched for years – or if it needs a ton of work to bring it up to market standards – it could take half your time for a month, or more.

Question: Is their software for landlords I can use to self-manage my rental?

Yes,  there are a number of platforms out there that can assist self-managed landlords. For example, Quicken offers a landlord package, as do dedicated platforms like Doorloop.

Keep in mind, though, that like any software, it takes time and effort to learn and acclimate yourself to these systems. And it is not going to eliminate the manual work since many local contractors don’t have e-billing, so you will need to manually enter the paperwork, and scan the invoices into the system. Accurate record-keeping is essential to make sure you’re prepared when tax season rolls along; we’ve heard many stories about “shoebox” filing systems, and how homeowners who tried to save time during the year-end up spending hours upon hours organizing a year’s worth of records for their accountants.

Once the tenant is in place, assuming your work will involve collecting the rent and normal maintenance, you should get by with between an hour and two hours a week.

Question: Is there an alternative to hiring a property management company without doing all the work myself?

There’s a lot to keep track of as a landlord, so getting into that business solo isn’t for the faint of heart. Belong is redefining what it means to work with a property manager. We’re not a traditional property management company, but rather a long-term rental platform dedicated to reinventing the home rental experience.

So if you’re ready to become a successful landlord, but don’t want to deal with all the time-consuming nuts and bolts from tenant screening and property taxes to understanding the rental market and bookkeeping, let’s get started.

How and why Belong introduced a company wide policy of two days meeting-free and how to structure all necessary meetings to boost productivity and reduce costs.

Belong Meetings Manifesto | Working at Belong

A manager’s day is, as a rule, sliced up into tiny slots, each with a specific purpose decided in advance. Many of those slots are used for meetings, calls, or emails. The manager’s schedule may be planned for them by a secretary or assistant. 

Managers spend a lot of time, “putting out fires” and doing reactive work. An important call or email comes in, so it gets answered. A team members makes a mistake or needs advice, so the manager races to sort it out. To focus on one task for a substantial block of time, managers need to make an effort to prevent other people from distracting them. 

Managers don’t necessarily need the capacity for deep focus — they primarily need the ability to make fast, smart decisions. In a three-minute meeting, they have the potential to generate (or destroy) enormous value through their decisions and expertise. 

A maker’s schedule is different. It is made up of long blocks of time reserved for focusing on particular tasks, or the entire day might be devoted to one activity. Breaking their day up into slots of a few minutes each would be the equivalent of doing nothing. 

A maker could be the stereotypical reclusive novelist, locked away in a cabin in the woods with a typewriter, no internet, and a bottle of whiskey to hand. Or they could be a Red Bull–drinking Silicon Valley software developer working in an open-plan office with their headphones on. Although interdisciplinary knowledge is valuable, makers do not always need a wide circle of competence. They need to do one thing well and can leave the rest to the managers. 

Meetings are pricey for makers, restricting the time available for their real work, so they avoid them, batch them together, or schedule them at times of day when their energy levels are low. As Paul Graham writes:

When you’re operating on the maker’s schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in. Plus you have to remember to go to the meeting. That’s no problem for someone on the manager’s schedule. There’s always something coming on the next hour; the only question is what. But when someone on the maker’s schedule has a meeting, they have to think about it. 

It makes sense. The two work styles could not be more different. 

A manager’s job is to, well, manage other people and systems. The point is that their job revolves around organizing other people and making decisions. As Andrew Grove writes in High Output Management: 

…a big part of a middle manager’s work is to supply information and know-how, and to impart a sense of the preferred method of handling things to the groups under his control and influence. A manager also makes and helps to make decisions. Both kinds of basic managerial tasks can only occur during face-to-face 

encounters, and therefore only during meetings. Thus, I will assert again that a meeting is nothing less than the medium through which managerial work is performed. That means we should not be fighting their very existence, but rather using the time spent in them as efficiently as possible. 

A maker’s job is to create some form of tangible value. Makers work alone or under a manager, although they might have people working with them. “Maker” is a very broad category. A maker could be a writer, artist, software developer, carpenter, chef, biohacker, web designer, or anyone else who designs, creates, serves, and thinks. 

Making anything significant requires time — lots of it — and having the right kind of schedule can help. Take a look at the quintessential maker schedule of the prolific (to say the least) writer Isaac Asimov, as described in his memoir:

I wake at five in the morning. I get to work as early as I can. I work as long as I can. I do this every day of the week, including holidays. I don’t take vacations voluntarily and I try to do my work even when I’m on vacation. (And even when I’m in the hospital.) 

In other words, I am still and forever in the candy store [where he worked as a child]. Of course, I’m not waiting on customers; I’m not taking money and making change; I’m not forced to be polite to everyone who comes in (in actual fact, I was never good at that). I am, instead, doing things I very much want to do — but the schedule is there; the schedule that was ground into me; the schedule you would think I would have rebelled against once I had the chance. 

Belong is suffering from stage 3 meeting disease. Meetings have become widespread across the entire company's body, and it is starting to hurt productivity for every team member truly. It's my responsibility to create an environment where people can do their life's best work for the world's benefit. I take that responsibility seriously, and that's what prompted this memo. 

We are going to try a completely new framework for meetings. For starters, we are going to declare a company-wide two NO MEETING DAYS. That's right, starting this following Monday, April 26th, please block your calendar completely on Tuesday and Thursday. Those days, all meetings that aren't the morning check-in / urgent working meetings will be discouraged. This is the time you can block to do deep thinking, whiteboard, or take time to plow through your Jira / Zendesk tickets. Hurray! 

For meetings to be effective, they need to be structured.

These are the seven different types of meetings. If you are initiating a meeting, please make sure to label the session accordingly. 

If you received an invitation to a meeting, please make sure to check for what kind of meeting you are attending. If the meeting isn't specified, your responsibility is to request that specification from the meeting organizer. 

The vast majority of meetings are longer than they should be. This benefits people that love to chat but have more difficulty producing deep work. To restore balance, we are going to add some structure to the meeting's time. 

Here is the structure we are going to try starting Monday, April 26th 2021. 

Meetings should ALWAYS be scheduled to start precisely at the hour or half an hour. It's essential that we are all ON TIME and READY for the meeting. 

Meetings should always be scheduled to finish 10 minutes before the hour or half an hour to allow for all participants to take a break and prepare physically and psychologically for the next meeting. 

Meeting's default length should be 20 minutes. There has to be a genuine reason for regular meetings to be more than 20 minutes long. 


Type A meeting (1:1): Requires that both attendees interchange topics ahead of time. 


Type B meeting (Morning Staff Meeting): Requires a clear lead specified in the meeting invitation. This lead is in charge of the meeting and determining the next steps discussed in the meeting.


Type C meeting (Decision Meeting): Requires a clear lead of the meeting. Requires precise specification of who's the decision-maker in that meeting. Requires a document/paragraph/slide prepared in advance of the meeting. Requires communication to all stakeholders on what decisions have been made and by whom. All of this should be included in the calendar invite. 


Type D meeting (Operational Reviews): Requires a clear lead of the meeting. Requires material shared in advance of the session (at least 12 hours). Requires company-wide participation. 


Type E meetings (Leadership Meetings). Requires a lead of the meeting. Requires a clear agenda in advance of the meeting with documentation on topics that will be discussed. Requires note-taking and follow-up. Requires sharing those notes with all participants and company-wide in the new leadership meetings channel in slack. 


Type F meetings (All Hands Meetings): Requires a lead of the meeting. Requires a clear agenda in advance of the meeting. 


Type G meetings (Working meetings): Requires a lead of the meeting. Requires a description of the topic that'll be discussed in advance. Requires notes to be shared with participants. 


If you are in a meeting, you are in all likelihood not taking care of one million other pressing topics on your agenda. It happens to all of us. When you encounter yourself in a meeting and thinking or working on different issues, this is a bad sign. 

Leave the meeting. We encourage everyone that feels they aren't adding or deriving value from a meeting to leave without saying goodbye. Just leave. You are free to go. 


Pay close attention: If you decide to stay in a meeting, please make sure to attend to it with all of your senses. Please refrain from answering slack, text messages, or browsing your favorite clothing brand while in a meeting. It's a waste of time, it's distracting, and it's disrespectful.


Cell phone/computer use: When in a meeting, the use of cell phones/computers is discouraged. We understand life happens, and you may be taking care of a non-work emergency. Absent that, touching or looking at your cell phone or computer during a meeting sends your co-workers the message that the meeting is unimportant and that there are many more crucial things you should be attending to. If that's the case, please go to point one above 


Start and end time: These need to be respected strictly. Starting late, is disrespectful to everyone that’s waiting for us in the meeting. Finishing late, is disrespectful to all the meeting attendees that are coming right after the meeting that’s ending. We must start and end strictly on time. 


I see this new meeting operating rhythm as crucial for Belong's culture. High performers expect a high level of organization and output. To attract and retain them, we must start holding ourselves to a higher standard of operation. 

So let's have fun, work hard, change the world. And meet the right way. Thank you.

https://belonghome.com/blog/working-for-a-startup

https://belonghome.com/blog/property-management-services

https://belonghome.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-a-bad-property-management-company

https://belonghome.com/blog/property-management-fees-how-much-do-property-managers-charge

https://belonghome.com/blog/becoming-a-landlord-how-to-become-a-landlord

Belong Meetings Manifesto

Renters are just people looking for a place to call home. Here's how treating them with a more humane approach can have better results for your rental property.

Renters Are People Too, Let's Treat Them As Such

Renters are more than just ‘tenants’ — they’re people looking for a place to call home. It’s time to ditch your property manager for a company that can see beyond the numbers and take a human approach to finding a person who will adopt your home as their own. 

Even if you’re currently a homeowner, there was probably a point in your life when you were on the other side of things — when you were living in a rental. Think back to what life was like then. Did you act as if your home belonged to someone else? Did you ever invite a friend over to see “the landlord’s house?” Or did you simply say “let’s have dinner at my place”? 

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

The danger in property managers that treat people like numbers

Property managers rarely refer to the people behind the financial transaction. They’re known simply as ‘prospects’ or ‘tenants’. If your property manager is viewing people this way, they’re not seeing the big picture. Property managers that treat people like numbers won’t find the right people to occupy your home, because they’re not considering the emotional connection that people have to the places they call home. If you experience this when meeting with a property management company, we suggest you run the other way! 

Taking a human approach to renting your home

Looking for great tenants means taking a human approach to renting your home. By treating people in the rental market with the respect they deserve and inviting them to make themselves at home, they’re more likely to treat your house as their own. 

This creates a win-win situation for everyone involved. Renters can feel safe and comfortable in a space that feels like home. As the landlord, you reap the benefits of having a stable rental income from people that are in for the long haul and are in no hurry to move.

That’s why Belong refers to people who rent homes as ‘residents,’ to underline the fact that these are places in which they reside. Residents adopt a home as their own. Similarly, Belong refers to you not as “the landlord”, but as a homeowner. Belong tries to create a mutual respect between our homeowners and residents, with a shared appreciation for a property you’re both invested in.

Turning the rental experience into a hospitality service

Think about the lengths that large hotel brands and even vacation rental services like Airbnb go to make people feel comfortable and even “at home” when they’re staying with them. And yet traditional property management services — the very businesses who are supposed to be finding everyday living accommodation for people — do the complete opposite. 

Belong’s changing that. Its human approach is turning the rental experience into a world-class hospitality service for both you and your residents. Unlike traditional property management services, Belong provides a complete end-to-end service with full transparency. Belong matches houses with residents that are looking for a long term place to live — somewhere to call home. Belong currently offers services to homes in the Bay Area, the LA area, Orange County, Seattle, Miami, Orlando, and Tampa (with many more to come!). See if you qualify today at Belong.com.

These 4 inspiring trends are easy to integrate into your home – and will make potential residents line up at your next open house.

4 Design Trends Every Landlord Needs to Be Aware Of

As the calendar turns to 2022, it’s time to consider what design features can make your home more attractive on the rental market. These 4 inspiring trends are easy to integrate into your home – and will make potential residents line up at your next open house.

It’s true in fashion, music, and movies: with every new year comes new trends. It’s also the case with interior design and décor, which is a subject that our readers care a lot about. After all,  how a home or apartment looks, the visual impression it makes, can determine how much it will bring on the open market. 

Keep in mind, though, that at Belong we don’t fashion ourselves as experts when it comes to design. But we are alert observers, and given how carefully we follow what’s happening in the real estate world, we have naturally developed a sense of what’s cool and what’s not. 

The trends that we predict for 2022 look both forward and back. They are practical and psychological reactions to the seemingly endless pandemic cycle we still find ourselves in, while also anticipating what life will be like once COVID’s firmly in the rear-view mirror. 

Understanding these trends will help you understand the state of mind of your residents, so you can anticipate their wants and needs. 

Design Trend #1: Flexible Layouts/Multi-Hyphenate Rooms

As we’ve spent more and more time at home over the past few years, we’ve begun to re-think what the home is really for – and how it satisfies us - on both a macro and micro scale. 

It’s been happening for a while but is even more true today. The names you typically see assigned to the interconnected boxes on a floor plan are no longer relevant: the “dining room” isn’t used just for dining, nor is the living room reserved exclusively for family time. 

The lines have been blurred permanently. People who are looking at your house aren’t just considering how they’re “supposed” to use each individual space — they’re wondering what else they’ll have to use it for. A kitchen that doubles as a teleconferencing hub, a bedroom that acts as a home office, a playroom that can also be used as a home gym. The landlords and homeowners that can anticipate the needs of their renters and accommodate them will be the ones that have the happiest — and longest-term residents. 

For some inspiration, consider this article from Good Housekeeping, that shows how a simple trundle bed can turn a kids’ playroom into a second bedroom, or how a folding table can turn a dining room into a living room with the drop of a leaf. 

As a result of our being shut in to such a degree over the past few years, biophilic design – design that reflects our desire to be in contact with nature – is trending up this year. That means you should expect to see more skylights, wall-wide windows, and houseplants beautifying your Instagram and Pinterest feeds all year.  The Nordroom also expects to see more natural materials being used in interior design – everything from cork boards to terra cotta floors. These kinds of touches can serve as a reminder of the world we’re missing out on, the world outside our doors; they make us feel warm and nostalgic for the lives we were leading only a few years ago. At their most inspiring, they make it feel like you’re bringing a bit of the out-of-doors into your life.

Speaking of bringing the outdoors inside, we see a return of the sort of natural and earthy tones that were prevalent in the 70s. Not just your browns and oranges (which, according to Vogue, are in this year), but greens, too — seafoam, mint, and sage. Etsy’s most searched color is emerald green – in fact, they’ve named it their color of the year!

We’re not saying you’re going to see a big revival of shag carpets and drug rugs and lava lamps. Instead of feeling retro and passe, we predict these colors will feel soft and subtle, warm and inviting. So if you’re looking for new residents, don’t be afraid of painting the walls a color other than white — at least not this year. In this article from Good Housekeeping, interior designer Beth Diana Smith namechecks Sherwin Williams’ Evergreen Fog. People are looking for interiors that remind them of nature, and subtly evoking that feeling through a smartly chosen wall paint can be a cheap and easy way of accomplishing just that. 

Because we’ve spent so much time indoors — and because whenever a new COVID variant emerges, the only safe place to have social interactions seems to be outside — making the most of whatever outdoor space you have will make your home more attractive. 

But how can you make your outdoor space feel as homey and welcoming as a living room or a den? A new patio or deck, a gazebo or a firepit, a bright shiny new barbecue or grill, fashionable, comfortable outdoor furniture— anything that makes it easier for your residents to spend time outside with their friends will make your home that much more lovable. 

Making your rental home more attractive 

Obviously if you’re self-managing your own rental property it isn’t as important to be on-trend as it is if you’re running your own design consultancy. But still, in order to make your home as desirable and marketable as possible — and to attract the best possible tenants —  it’s smart to be aware of what’s in, and what’s out, when you’re staging and photographing your house.

First impressions matter, whether in-person or video, the photographs and video tours that Belong can create for you. Keeping your property up-to-date signals to potential residents that the house is loved and looked after.  Even your future resident decides to move in their own furniture, who among us doesn’t want to be inspired?

All that makes it that much more likely that they themselves will love and look after it.

Want to learn more about how Belong can help make your home more attractive to potential residents? Click here.

Looking to attract more views at an open house for your rental property? Get inspiration from four trends that are easy to integrate into a rental home.

Poet Sarah T. Jewell wrote a series of haikus for Belong to capture the range of emotions we feel when we have a sense of belonging and safety in a home.

The Poetry of Home: Unexpected Haikus from a Property Manager

Belong believes there are two kinds of domestic bliss: of course there’s the emotional relationship that develops between two people who live together and love each other.  At the same time, there’s the bond that develops between people and the home they live in.

It’s a beautiful thing, the way people respond when they’ve found a place to call home; it inspires a sense of comfort, of joy, even of romance.  A palette of emotions that is maybe best expressed poetically. 

Which is why Belong has commissioned award-winning poet Sarah T. Jewell to write a series of haikus that capture – in the prescribed 5-7-5 syllable count – the range of emotions we feel when we are safe at home. 

The editor-in-chief of Belong’s blog, marketing guru Adam Hanft, was so inspired by Sarah’s work that he was moved to write some haikus of his own.

Feel inspired to write a haiku of your own? Tweet us, or reach out on Facebook!

Property Management should mean a lot more than collecting the rent. It should wrap its arms around everything a homeowner could ever need. Feng Shui advice included.

A Short But Invaluable Guide to Feng Shui for Property Owners

We’ll start with a quick definition of feng shui, for those of you not familiar with the ancient practice. It’s a Chinese set of design principles based on arranging furniture in order to optimize harmony with nature. The two words communicate that origin: “feng” translates to “wind,” and “shui” to “water.”

By designing based on the system of laws represented by feng shui – whether it’s a living room or a skyscraper – you can improve the flow of energy, or the qi (pronounced “chee”), and improve the relationship between an individual and the environment.

As a landlord you might not think that the feng shui of your rental property is important.  Quite the opposite. Your home is an extension of you, so any Feng Shui problems will circle back to you (remember that this practice is all about the flow of energy, negative and positive.) 

Read some home-focused haikus written by poet, Sarah T. Jewell

For example, if the people occupying your house have financial problems, those issues will have an impact on you. Similarly, if positive vibes are flowing through the home, those will reach into your life as well. “Feng Shui your rental properties for good luck” this blog urges.

Now that we’ve made the argument, you’re probably wondering what you can do to up your Feng Shui game. Have no fear, we’ve got you covered with the basics, so you can create the positive energy you want in your homes and your life. (You’re all about positive energy yourself, we can feel it!)

First things first — your front door (after all, what’s more firstly than that?). Make sure it doesn’t creak or stick or rub. It should open beautifully, not just because it is the first impression you will make on a prospective resident, but because energy flows in through the same portal. Which means that all the Feng Shui areas of the home – Career, Wisdom, Family, Wealth, Fame, Love, Children, Helpful People, and Health – will benefit from a door that opens with ease and fluidity.

Our thoughts on how plants can bring positive energy to a home

The good news here is that if you have a front door problem, one of our network of over 10,000 contractors can remedy the situation for you. They can also address all of the other – umm – sticking points that stand between your home and positive Feng Shui. For example, painting is essential because a well-maintained home keeps energy flowing, and our homeowners have instant access to master painters.

There’s also an entire art to choosing the colors most suitable for positive qi. Each color stands for a different aspect of nature. For example, “mid-tone blues and teals represent the wood element (while) wood is connected to growth, vitality, and compassion.”  Red is the most powerful color in Feng Shui, and is used to protect – and also to clear – a home, and the energy of those who inhabit it. Browns and other similar tones introduce earth-related energy, which helps with grounding and stability.

Lighting also has a profound impact on Feng Shui. Here’s a great article with some illuminating tips.

We also need to point out that a bitter enemy of positive Feng Shui is junk. Clutter stops the qi from flowing; even a pile of toys can trap energy. To explain it all, we recommend the book Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui: Free Yourself from Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Clutter Forever. Remember that Feng Shui existed millennia before Marie Kondo.

Of course, when it comes to arranging your furniture, Feng Shui continues to play an important role. Here are two YouTube videos about applying the principles to bedrooms and living rooms. They have over a million views between them, so take note!

We believe that this background information and the tips in the links we’ve provided will point you in the right Feng Shui direction. Indeed, once you see the world through the powerful and curative lens of this Chinese practice, you will probably want to make sure your primary house or apartment is aligned. Here are some tips for using Feng Shui to make your home office as productive and joyful as possible. We particularly like the idea of laying the bagua – the Feng Shui energy map – on your desk, and organizing it to optimize the eight areas of your life.  Make sure nothing is interrupting the flow of your wealth corner!

At Belong, our mission is to connect people who own much-loved houses with people who are ready to move in and love them back.  Making sure your house has been organized according to the principles of Feng Shui is a valuable way to demonstrate – and share – that love.

Find the brilliant solution to the contractor shortage that every landlord needs for their rental property maintenance, renovations and repairs.

4 Reasons Landlords Can't Get Contractors (And 1 Brilliant Solution)

You can join the fight with other landlords to find a talented, skilled contractor for your rental home renovation – or turn to the property manager who has just the team you’re looking for.

If you haven’t noticed, America is in the midst of a contractor shortage. CNN – based on data from Associated Builders and Contractors – reports that we need 430,000 contractors right now,  and more than a million more over the next two years.   

If you’re a homeowner who needs to initiate some repairs or renovations on your rental property before you put it on the market – be they minor and cosmetic or more significant – you’ll immediately recognize the extent of the problem. 

This is why Belong has a 10,000+ strong team of vetted professionals in our extensive vendor network. Homeowners on the Belong network get access to these qualified tradespeople at the touch of a button. Simply log a request with your 24/7 Concierge team and we'll handle the rest. 

Not convinced? Here's four reasons why landlords are struggling to find contractors. 

Reasons Landlords Struggle to Find Contractors #1:  The Housing and Renovation Boom

CNN describes the macro environment perfectly, writing, “New home construction and improvements are surging, thanks to the lack of inventory in a red-hot housing market and more people working from home.”

It makes sense that if talented, reliable contractors can get hired for predictable, long-term work in the new-housing market, they won’t be very interested in taking on episodic rental renovations.

Also, consider how much time they waste on following up and bidding on leads from places like Home Advisor and Angi. No wonder they would prefer to skip this market completely, making it incredibly challenging for homeowners to get renovation help.

Reasons Landlords Struggle to Find Contractors #2: Older Rental Houses Need More Work

The median age of a house in California is 45 years. In Los Angeles, it is 57. Homes of this vintage need work, especially when they are entering the rental market after being lived in for a long time by homeowners who were perfectly happy to have a drippy faucet in their bathroom. Belong sees this phenomenon all the time.

The result: even more demands on the limited number of contractors available.

Reasons Landlords Struggle to Find Contractors #3: People are quitting right and left

You may have heard of the “Great Resignation" that has taken place over the past few years. As National Public Radio reports, “millions of workers are saying ‘I quit.’” There are converging reasons for this, including what Paul Krugman recently wrote in the New York Times: “What seems to be happening ... is that the pandemic led many U.S. workers to rethink their lives…”

This is understandable. People want to live more mindfully and derive meaningful satisfaction from their work. That’s why Belong strives to create working environments for their professional partners that honor a job well done. 

Reasons Landlords Struggle to Find Contractors #4: Licensing Requirements are Stiff

It's not easy to become a plumber, or an electrician, or a drywall installer. For example, “To get a C-9 Drywall Contractors License in California, you must prove a minimum of 4 years journeyman level experience. And pass a two-part state exam with the Contractor State License Board.” That's a lot of experience, which means this contractor shortage will be with us for some time, even if a flood of new recruits signed on to learn a trade. 

Belong has the contractors every landlord needs

Whether you’re self-managing a rental home or having your home loved by Belong, we make maintenance and repairs one less thing to think about. 

Bottom line: If you’ve got the house, Belong has the contractors. From leaky faucets to home renovations, we can put you in touch with the right people that can optimize your home for returns on the rental market. 

It's one of the many ways that 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 how our services are helping people to ditch property management in Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami and many more.

Property Management has been stuck in the past, find out how Belong are breaking the mold by combining new tech with a human approach to renting out your home.

Looking for a Property Manager? Disruption Has Arrived

Technology is changing many old-fashioned, stuck-in-the-past industries; up until now, property management hasn’t been one of them. But things are moving forward, and fast! Read on to discover how one property management company refuses to take yesterday for an answer.  

When an industry is transformed dramatically – and shakes the status quo – it changes everything. Sometimes though it takes a while to fully accept how profound that change is. But once you accept it, you can’t go back.

For example, think of how different the world was before Uber or Spotify or DoorDash. Now, we can’t imagine what life would be like without them. These are technologies that suddenly made the previous ways of doing things obsolete.

The same holds in the world of property management. If you’re a homeowner – and aren’t following the disruptions in the category – it’s like you’re living in a world where you can’t book a car from your phone, or stream a virtually unlimited music library, or get food delivered from your favorite restaurants.

One major disruptive player in property management is Belong. Like the other examples of change agents, they’ve brought the power of sophisticated, consumer-friendly technology to a tired and under-innovated category. They have created a beautiful product experience. But, unlike Uber and its ilk, Belong doesn’t rely on technology exclusively. They also bring a level of passionate personal attention to the industry. 

To anyone who ever dealt with a conventional property manager and their many failings, the difference between that unfortunate experience, and what Belong delivers, is instantly obvious. 

To start with, Belong is focused entirely on finding people who will love your home as much as you do. That’s core to their DNA, and it’s why the homeowners they represent are usually not investors, but people who are looking to generate income from a family home, or a home they inherited.

To reinforce that personal connection, Belong never calls you a landlord. You’re a homeowner. And the people you are renting to are residents, not tenants. In fact, Belong believes in their tenants to the extent that they are willing to guarantee the rent. No matter what. 

That’s one level of disruption. But Belong has also taken what was a clumsy, manual process and turned all the steps and paperwork into a joyful digital experience. What can be done electronically, is done electronically. What must be done in person – like moving, like repairs and renovations – is managed through a combination of a dedicated 24/7 concierge, a vetted network of over 10,000 contractors, and a digital platform.  

You own a home.
We have someone to ❤️  it.

As a further example of Belong’s sophistication, they developed a sophisticated Market Price Optimizer. While old-school property managers just check listings and make a “guesstimate,” Belong’s algorithm takes into account multiple variables to deliver an accurate price that neither leaves money on the table, nor prices the home above the market.

It has been said that you don’t appreciate how broken things are, and how much they need to be fixed, until someone comes along and does it.   If you own a rental home, you may be so used to the broken experience that you’ve stopped thinking about it.  Like the expression goes, “A fish doesn’t know the water.”

But when homeowners move to Belong, and their eyes are opened, they will realize just how much they had to put up with before.  And that they never have to deal with it again, because disruption has arrived.

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