Why we built neighbors.fyi.
A residents-first community portal, made by HOA residents who wanted their community to feel like one again.
I live in an 1,800-home HOA. A handful of residents managed a neighbor WhatsApp group that a few hundred neighbors were in, and it’s how we used to communicate with each other. But the same questions kept coming up over and over: contractor recommendations, management email addresses, amenity hours. It was clear we needed something better. So I built it.
A community-first platform, for the way neighborhoods used to feel.
Communities used to know each other. You knew the family next door. You borrowed sugar. You watched each other’s kids. Somewhere along the way, the place we live in became a billing address, and the HOA became a black box that sends fee notices.
The tools didn’t help. The portal your HOA uses today was sold to a board, not chosen by neighbors. It’s built to send invoices, not to help you find someone with a 25-foot ladder. Of course no one opens it.
So we’re building the one we wanted. A platform that puts neighbors first: chat, events, a marketplace, projects, and the genuinely useful stuff at the front. The HOA back office is there when the board is ready, and not a moment before.
Where neighborhoods become communities.