Repairs and upgrades are part of owning a self-managed rental property, but they don't have to be expensive. Here's a guide on where to save and when to splurge

Renovating Your Rental Property? Find Out Where to Spend & Save

Renovations and repairs are unavoidable when you own a self-managed rental property. The question becomes, how much do you really need to spend on those repairs and renovations? Here's a guide on where to save and when to splurge.

As anyone who ever invested in a washing machine knows stuff made today is built to break and be replaced. So even if you rent to residents who truly love and respect your home the way you do, wear, tear, and even breakage is inevitable, no matter how careful they are.  

But how much do you really need to spend on those repairs and upgrades? When does the investment make sense in the long-term? We’re so glad you asked. Without further ado, here are the top 3 places where you should spend up, and where you should scrooge out.

On a deep, primitive level we’re naturally drawn to light, open spaces: the brighter the room, the brighter and more optimistic we feel.  Conversely, the more cave-like the room, the moodier we get.  The external affects the internal, in other words: it’s the reason why people care so much about interior design and clothing, and why people like Marie Kondo and concepts like “hygge” — the Danish belief in the power of coziness — are so relevant state-side. 

That’s why investing in good, bright overhead lights is such a worthwhile step. It will not only make it easier to attract renters, but because of the lights, residents will feel happier in your home.  And the happier they are, the more likely they are to stay put long-term. That matters – because as you know, renter turnover is time-consuming and costly.

This is one of those investments where you tend to make up any difference in the upfront cost pretty quickly.  A sophisticated, efficient air conditioner not only keeps your residents cooler (and happier) in the summer, it will cut down on your electric bills over the life-cycle of the unit.  And because the life-cycle of the unit is longer, those savings will accrue over a much greater length of time. 

Better units also need less maintenance — which means you have to spend less on AC repair guys.

The other thing with new AC units is how aesthetically pleasing they can be.  Our favorite — the Midea U-Shaped unit — looks like it was designed by Jony Ive (who is famous for his Apple designs). They also run so quietly you forget that you even have them on.

We aren’t saying that you should install one of those super pricey units that mist the air and have a thousand different settings and replicate the sensation of standing naked in a springtime rain shower in Fiji. But there’s definitely a happy medium between that extreme and the kind of shower units you see in pre-war buildings and prison movies. 

A bright, shiny, new shower system not only looks good, but it signals to potential residents that you care about their well-being.  Which means they’re that much more likely to treat your home with love and respect over the course of the lease.  Not only that, but the newer models are more efficient in terms of water usage without forcing you to sacrifice on the quality of the experience itself. Truly a best of both worlds situation!

A few years ago, we probably would have been singing a different tune in regard to flooring.  But the truth is that these days there are vinyl flooring options that so closely replicate the look and feel of wood, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference. That is, until you spill a glass of water or move your couch: then you’ll notice that vinyl is far more water and scratch-resistant than its organic counterpart. Not only that, but vinyl is easier to clean than wood. Vinyl especially makes sense if you own a family-friendly house with multiple bedrooms, or if you rent to pet owners: not only is it more cost-effective, but it’s better suited to the needs of your residents. 

Sure, a shiny new Sub-Zero or Miele refrigerator looks great, but the price difference between those show-offy brands and a still-great but slightly-more-economical option is so huge that it will take years before the unit starts to pay for itself in terms of energy savings. And by that time, you’ll probably be in the market for a new unit anyway. 

Our thinking here is similar to our perspective regarding flooring: You can get new cabinet veneers that look much more expensive than they are, so you don’t have to sacrifice on aesthetics to get a clean modern look.  What’s more, many of the benefits of fancier cabinets can be replicated through DIY solutions: soft-close cabinets, for example.  So you can either pay a premium for a built-in solution, or you can buy a pack of 50 self-sticking rubber bumpers for seven bucks and deaden the sound that way.  It’s one of those situations where a little creativity goes a long way.

Whatever you choose, Belong can connect you to instant help with our extensive vendor network of over 10,000 professionals. Our concierge service is available 24/7 to all homeowners and residents, so we're ready to talk shop when it suits you. Especially in this day and age, when good contractors are almost impossible to find, it is a major advantage to have Belong watching your back.

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. 

This simple guide details your responsibilities and common landlord obligations (that you won’t need a legal degree to understand). 

6 Key Responsibilities of a Landlord: How to Rent Your Home Like A Pro

Becoming a landlord doesn’t need to be a daunting experience. We’re here to show you how, with this simple guide that details your responsibilities and common landlord obligations (that you won’t need a legal degree to understand). 

Is there anything more grown up than owning real estate? There sure is — it’s the double responsibility of owning a home that someone else will live in. Suddenly you’ve got the obligation of being a property owner, as well as a legal responsibility with its own set of requirements. But becoming a landlord doesn’t need to be a daunting experience. We’re here to show you how, with this simple guide that details your responsibilities and common landlord obligations (that you won’t need a legal degree to understand). 

Providing a safe and habitable home for others to enjoy        

Your basic responsibility as a landlord is to provide a safe and habitable space for someone to enjoy as their home. This is known as a “warranty of habitability” that applies to all leasing on a residential property. This legal standard makes perfect sense and is eminently fair: if you couldn’t live in your rental property, no one else should have to either. Of course, there are specifics and even legal requirements that make up this warranty, so let’s dive into them now. 

Landlord responsibility #1: A home that is sound and secure

It’s common sense that any property you want people to live in must be structurally sound and capable of providing basic shelter. But beyond that, it’s also your responsibility to ensure that the building complies with all state and local building codes. 

Before listing your home on the rental market, you need to ensure that everything is in good working order. When we work with homeowners, the first thing we do is prepare their homes for future residents — which includes having our own professionals come in to complete any property maintenance and repairs so you don’t have to worry about nasty surprises for your new tenant. 

Landlord responsibility #2: A home that has access to life’s necessities 

A house should be in good repair, but it also needs to be a livable space. As a landlord, it’s your responsibility to ensure that the home offers:

Shelter and protection from the weather with functioning roof, exterior walls, windows and doors

A supply of hot water and cold running water

Working lights and safe electrical system

Safe and maintained floors and where applicable, stairways and railing that meet the local building codes, including handicapped access

At Belong, we connect people with houses worthy of love. That’s a high standard, but it’s core to our community. We ask our homeowners not to turn a blind eye to things that you feel like tenants may put up with. If you would fix it in your own residence, fix it in your rental home. 

Landlord responsibility #3: A home that is free of hazards

Your home should do no harm to the people that live there. That means it's your responsibility to ensure that there are no hazards and that safety measures such as smoke detectors are installed and working. 

Some states, including California, also recognize that the presence of toxic mold in a home can lead to severe health problems. As a result, in such jurisdictions, it’s a landlord’s legal responsibility to provide written disclosure if you become aware of mold in a home you are renting out. This applies when there is a significant amount of mold in a home (visible or hidden) that exceeds safe exposure limits and is therefore a threat to health. 

Since it is often difficult to assess the level of mold presence, you might need a contractor who specializes in this work. When a house is listed with Belong, we take on that responsibility. 

Landlord responsibility #4: A home that is pest-free

US Tenant laws stipulate that it’s a landlord’s responsibility to provide a clean premises, free of rubbish and vermin infestation. Different jurisdictions have their own definition of what constitutes vermin, but it’s safe to say that if it’s creepy and crawly — it shouldn’t be in your rental home.

One offender that causes landlords headaches is bed bugs. Despite its reputation, NYC isn’t the place most prone to bed bugs — it can and does happen all over the US. Particularly if you’re renting out a furnished house, it could be the landlord’s responsibility to ensure that it’s free of bed bugs for incoming renters.

This is one of the many reasons why we recommend that homes be rented unfurnished — furnished homes open you up to more chances of damage and pest problems. If you’re looking to attract long-term residents, let them bring their own stuff to make it feel like their own. 

Landlord responsibility #5: A home that can be enjoyed in peace 

A tenant's right to “quiet enjoyment” is a common phrase used in landlord-tenant law. This doesn’t mean getting SFO or LAX to re-route their planes from over your home, but it does mean that you need to be aware of those things you CAN control.

First, as a landlord, you may only enter your rented home during occupancy in the following scenarios:

To make needed repairs or assess the need for repairs (applicable to some states)

To show the property to prospective new renters or owners, dependent on the language in your lease agreement

Most states require you to provide 24-48 hours’ notice (written notice, that is) to residents before you enter a tenanted rental property. You can’t show up whenever you want to check how things are going. Nor can you use the property for your own storage, unless that is a lease stipulation.

What about responsibility to the neighbors?

Did you know that as a landlord you can be found liable to your neighbors if your residents interfere with their own ‘quiet enjoyment’? While it might be hard to imagine being held accountable for the actions of other people, it is your responsibility to ensure that the residents of your home are being respectful. This means making sure that the people living in your home aren’t throwing lots of loud parties, or that they aren’t involved in any criminal activity.

In some cities, a landlord can be held accountable and fined for a range of infractions, so it’s worth keeping note of your local quiet hours and making them clear to tenants. Your rental agreement should include provisions for tenants to respect the rights of residents of nearby properties or face eviction. If complaints are made, take them seriously and address them before the authorities get involved.

Landlord responsibility #6: A home that is well maintained

Maintenance is key to keeping any property in habitable condition. If your lease agreement doesn’t specify who will mow the lawn and remove the snow, it could be your responsibility.

If any necessary repairs are ignored and turn into a safety hazard, there can be consequences. Depending on local or state laws, your resident could withhold rent if you did not respond to a maintenance request in a timely manner. They could also hire an expensive third-party contractor to make the repairs and leave you footing the bill. 

If your home is looked after with Belong, you will never have to worry about repairs or chasing contractors. With an extensive vendor network of over 10,000 professionals, we put help at your fingertips. To really make maintenance a 'set and forget' experience, we can also arrange regular services on monthly subscription so they take place like clockwork. 

If you are a homeowner looking to make sure your home is right for tenants (and stays that way), we invite you to join Belong. Belong goes behind property management to create a rental experience that is tech-enabled, with a human heart. 

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.

6 Key Responsibilities of a Landlord: How To Rent Your Home Like a Pro

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.

Welcome To The Playroom