Belong is doing away with traditional terms like landlord and tenant. Here are the humane terms we prefer.

Don’t Call Me Landlord: The Belong Glossary

Belong is not a traditional property management company, we think differently. We also use different terminology to reflect this, often doing away with traditional terms like landlord and tenant. This is our very own glossary to show you just what we mean. 

We got the name Belong from our mission: To create authentic belonging experiences for those who own much-loved homes, and those longing for that feeling. The question then becomes, how do you make someone feel like they belong in a home that actually belongs to someone else? How do you give someone a sense of ownership when they aren’t the owners?  

The answer to those questions: shift the paradigm. 

In order to accomplish that Herculean task we had to start talking about the subject of renting differently. How we speak changes how we behave. 

Belong’s founders said it best when they said “Home isn't a place. Home is a feeling. Home is where our heart is.” You can't put a fence around a feeling. Nor can you own a feeling. That’s why the word ‘property’ can never convey the kind of emotion we’re talking about 

On the other hand, you can make a home anywhere, so long as you love where you live and the people who live with you. We are in the home business, not the property business.

Learn more: Long-term renting, made lovable 

Not everyone who has a home on the rental market is a professional investor. Many lived for years in the home they’re putting up for rent. They raised their family there. Celebrated birthdays, graduations, promotions.  They welcomed children into the world there. They’re regular, normal people -- not “landlords.”

Landlords think of the houses they own as fungible assets, not as unique or special or endowed with a personality. 

Belong calls the people on its platform homeowners because they have that kind of emotional connection to their houses. Our homeowners care about who resides in their homes and want someone stable and trustworthy to live there. 

And our mission is to bring them together.

Learn More: Why a Property Manager Who Considers You a Landlord Should Be a Non-Starter

Renters are associated with transience — as are tenants. Here today, gone as soon as the lease ends. 

The word ‘resident’, on the other hand, captures a sense of permanence. A resident loves where they live and plans on staying there for as long as possible. They think of it as a home, and not simply a place where they’re laying their head for a year or two.  

That’s why Belong prefers the word resident to tenant and renter.  They might not end up living in that home forever, but they behave like they want to. It’s that kind of love of home that Belong tries to engender in its users.

Learn More: Why You Should Run the Other Way From a Property Manager who Talks Calls People "Tenants."

We know it, with Marketing Pricing Automation.

Property management companies use guesswork to establish the market pricing for your home. Belong on the other hand uses Market Pricing Automation, our own technology that identifies the sweet spot, the exact amount you should be renting your home for.  Which means your home will be occupied by a new resident sooner rather than later, cutting down on vacancies.

We're launching the world's first residential network.  

Belong is flipping the script on traditional property management services. We have developed the world's first residential network to ditch the outdated ways of 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.

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.

Belong is not a traditional property management company, doing away with traditional terms like landlord and tenant. Here are the humane terms we prefer.

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

Rejecting The Unfriendly Norms of Property Management

You absorb – and become - your influences.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wow, we got goosebumps when we read that.  

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

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

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

When thinking about choosing your post-grad path, here's some advice on why you should consider working for a startup and why it may suit more than you think.

You ARE the startup type: Thoughts about choosing your post-grad path

You ARE the startup type. Here's what you should consider when choosing your post-grad path.

A few weeks ago, I was hosting a Q&A with future entrepreneurs from MIT Sloan, my alma mater. Their last question left me thinking about the limitations that we create for ourselves or allow others to define for us. This is the question that led me to write this article:

“We were told that there are different types of people who join specific types of organizations: those who work at big companies, startup types, and those who go on to create their own enterprise. Can you help us understand what type we are?”

I am a strong believer in the unlimited potential of human beings. Our brains, powerful and underused machines, have infinite potential to translate most of our dreams into reality through hard work, relentless dedication, and a bit of luck.

For these reasons, limiting one’s opportunity to just one path seems unfair and unrealistic, though more manageable for the brain to understand, rationalize and grapple with. The tiny genie in our head, most likely motivated by fear or a distorted sense of self, tells us what we can and cannot do. When the genie is lost or overwhelmed, we go and look for other people’s opinions because it is easier to believe that others have all the answers. We hope they do. We  pray they will tell us exactly what to do. Believe me, I have been there many days of my life! 

While I am a big advocate for seeking people’s advice and perspective to understand better something I don’t know, the path for us to take is not created by what others tell us or what they believe is right or wrong for us. The journey is created and defined by us based on where we are in life and what is important to us.

I run my life with one primary mission: understanding myself. Sounds easy, right? Nope. 

Understanding and accepting one's self is a lifelong journey - one which I am still grappling with today. This is what has worked for me.

This is the question that I use to start my inner dialogue: “What challenge am I ready to face?”

To help me with this answer, I ask myself hard questions on where I am in life, what matters to me the most in the moment, what I am willing to invest in, and what I am ready to give up. Here is an example of how I started my career in the People/HR/Talent space right after MIT Sloan:

At that time, I didn’t even know what working at a Silicon Valley startup was like. The more I researched, the more I realized that I probably needed to build some further expertise to join at such an early stage.

Was it the time in my life to join a large company? 

No. After graduation, I needed to become a generalist - someone who understood the People function broadly and could operate autonomously - as quickly as possible. I also wanted to accelerate my learnings and be exposed to as many parts of the HR function as possible. At a large company, I would have learned the ropes and acquired one specific expertise, which would not have led me to be a generalist. A fancy brand on my resume sounded great, but it was not what I needed.

I had started a non-profit in the past and wasn't ready to go back in it again. I also wanted more operational exposure before becoming a founder again.

I needed to join a company that was past the stress of the early stage, with a team of amazing people onboard who would teach me the craft while leveraging my previous experience not directly in HR. This is the short story of how I met Melissa Yeh, who changed my career – I’ll leave that for another time. 

I believe that we are each in charge of our destiny and meant to do more than one thing. You are not “meant to” start a company, join a startup, or go to a large company, but you also might do all those things or just one and in no particular order. One option doesn’t exclude the other, and, based on where you are in life, one might even lead to the next.

The best advice I have for any of you who are about to graduate is to ask yourself the right, hard questions about where you are in life, the support system you have in place, and what you want to achieve at this stage of your career. Then follow your gut, because if you have a good understanding of your own self, it will not lead you astray. After all, even if you want to be a founder, the timing might not be right. As Wharton’s Daniel Kim’s research has shown, the most successful entrepreneurs’ average age is somewhere in their 40s.

At Belong, we surround ourselves with hungry, entrepreneurial, and kind people who will go above and beyond to fulfill our important mission to create authentic belonging experiences. It’s a place where you will learn and grow at a very fast pace, and be tremendously challenged every day. It will be exhausting and frustrating at times, but quickly, you will look back at all that we have built together, the lives you impacted along the way, and feel proud.

At Belong, you’ll learn to be a true operator and if that’s what you are looking for, shoot me a  note or reach out to our incredible Talent Team today.

I’ll leave you with this: regardless of whatever your life looked like before today, know that others should not define what you are or are not capable of achieving. Their advice is just a singular data point in your discovery path. Be honest with yourself. Don’t sell yourself short. And trust your instinct. Do not be afraid of making the wrong decision - you’ve got this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why Is It So Hard to Find Contractors in 2025?

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

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

What’s causing the contractor shortage in 2025?

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

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

1. Why are new housing and renovations outpacing supply?

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

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

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

2. Why do older rental homes need more attention?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How Belong Solves the Contractor Crunch for Homeowners

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

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

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

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


Faster response times than trying to book contractors independently.


Transparent pricing and optional financing to protect your cash flow.


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


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

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


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

2. How does this shortage affect landlords?


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


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

4. How can Belong help me with contractor access?


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

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

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