“Part memoir, part workshop, part sermon on grit; Property Therapy shows how fixing broken buildings can help repair a life.”
A love letter to working with your hands
“Property Therapy gives a name and a roadmap to something many of us feel but never articulate: when you take care of property, it reshapes you in return. Shaffield’s stories of burned-out triplexes, rental cars, and musical instruments are funny, raw, and strangely uplifting.”
Turns disaster stories into a theology of stewardship
“Adam Shaffield has done something rare: he’s turned busted pipes, burned roofs, and dangerous-building liens into a philosophy of life. It will especially resonate with landlords, tradespeople, small business owners, and anyone who has ever looked at a broken place and thought, ‘I can bring this back.’”
For anyone who has ever felt a building’s pain.’
“Property Therapy is the book I wish someone had handed me the day I bought my first rough, half-condemned property.
Shaffield introduces ‘property therapy’ as more than a catchy phrase; it’s an entire way of seeing the world: you take care of property, and it takes care of you.
What surprised me most is that the book is unabashedly spiritual, bluntly honest about addiction, family, and church trauma, and at the same time full of gallows humor and wild stories—man-lifts, raccoons in the attic, tenants from heaven and from hell. It never feels like a sterile ‘how-to’ manual; it’s more like riding along with a seasoned gray-collar guide who has the scars, the stories, and the gratitude to prove that the work is worth it.
If you own anything—from a duplex to a violin—you’ll see it differently after reading Property Therapy.”
The gray-collar manifesto I didn’t know I needed
“Every once in a while, a book comes along that doesn’t just give you information; it hands you a new pair of glasses. I’ll be recommending this book to every landlord, tradesperson, and young adult I know who’s trying to find purpose in real work.”
Personal, thoughtful, and seriously meaningful
“Reading Property Therapy felt like having a seasoned landlord, musician, and lawyer take me behind the scenes of his life and show how every busted pipe, burned roof, and repaired instrument became a classroom for the soul. I finished the last page wanting to pick up a tool, call a tenant, and treat every property I touch with a lot more respect.”
Part law school, part jobsite, part revival meeting
