Why We Built an AI Chatbot for HOA Communities
After watching volunteer board members drown in repetitive questions, we knew there had to be a better way. Here's the story of how HeyNeighbor.AI came to be.
It Started with a Board Meeting
Picture this: It's 9 PM on a Tuesday. You've just finished a three-hour HOA board meeting after a full day of work. Your inbox has 47 unread emails, and at least 30 of them are questions you've answered before.
"When is trash pickup?" "Can I paint my door?" "Where do I find the pool rules?" "How do I submit an architectural request?"
The answers exist—buried in CC&Rs, meeting minutes, and community guidelines. But residents can't find them, and board members don't have time to answer the same questions for the hundredth time.
"I didn't volunteer to serve on the board so I could spend my evenings copying and pasting the same answers over and over."
— Every board member, eventually
The Burnout Nobody Talks About
Here's the uncomfortable truth about HOA management: the people running your community are volunteers with day jobs, families, and their own lives. They stepped up because they care about their neighborhood, not because they wanted a part-time unpaid customer service job.
of board questions are repetitive
average board member tenure before burnout
when residents expect answers
We watched good people—people who genuinely cared about their communities—quit because the workload was unsustainable. And when experienced board members leave, institutional knowledge walks out the door with them.
The "Why Isn't This Already Solved?" Moment
We looked at what was available. Property management portals. Document repositories. FAQ pages. All helpful, but all requiring residents to know exactly where to look and what to search for.
Meanwhile, AI was transforming every other industry. Banks had chatbots. Airlines had chatbots. Even pizza delivery had chatbots. But the 75 million Americans living in HOA communities? They were still waiting for email replies.
The Opportunity We Saw
What if residents could just ask a question—in plain English—and get an accurate answer instantly? What if that answer was based on their specific community's rules, not generic advice? What if board members could finally focus on the work that actually requires human judgment?
What Makes HeyNeighbor Different
We didn't just build a chatbot. We built a community knowledge system that actually understands your HOA.
AI That Actually Understands Context
Not keyword matching. Not search results. Genuine understanding of your question and your community's specific rules. Ask "Can I have a trampoline?" and get an answer based on YOUR CC&Rs, not a generic response.
Available When Residents Need It
Questions don't wait for business hours. Neither does HeyNeighbor. At 2 AM when someone's worried about a rule before hosting a party tomorrow? Instant, accurate answers.
Trained on YOUR Community
Upload your CC&Rs, bylaws, rules, and meeting minutes. HeyNeighbor learns your community's specific policies, history, and context. No two communities are the same, and neither are their AI assistants.
Frees Board Members for Real Work
When AI handles the routine questions, volunteer board members can focus on what actually requires human judgment: community improvements, dispute resolution, and strategic planning.
Our Mission: Stronger Communities, Less Burnout
We built HeyNeighbor because we believe community management shouldn't be a burden. Volunteers shouldn't have to choose between serving their neighborhood and preserving their sanity. Residents shouldn't have to wait days for answers to simple questions.
Technology should make communities stronger, not just more efficient. When routine questions are handled instantly, board members have time to actually connect with residents. When information is accessible, trust increases and conflicts decrease.
Our Team
We're a team that combines deep HOA experience with cutting-edge AI expertise. Some of us served on boards and felt the burnout firsthand. Others built AI systems at scale. Together, we're creating tools that actually solve the problems we've lived through.
Ready to Give Your Community a Smarter Way to Communicate?
See how HeyNeighbor can help your board focus on what matters—building a better community, not answering the same questions over and over.