April 22, 2015 By Michael Florio
A site that aims to connect Long Island City residents with one another where they are able to sell goods and inform each other about local events has expanded to cover the entire neighborhood.
Tenant King, a website that launched last year, providing residents with the option to connect exclusively with fellow tenants—or to residents throughout the neighborhood—has expanded to cover the whole of Long Island City.
Michael Noormagi, the CEO, said the site was originally offered to residents living in select buildings in Court Square and Hunters Point.
Noormagi, who said that 1,100 people had registered prior to the expansion, noted that since March the number had grown to 1,300.
“March was one of our best months since launching the site as far as new users go,” Noormagi said.
The site is being used for residents to buy and sell items, and provides them with the ability to submit events on a calendar.
“We are being used as a more trustworthy alternative to Craigslist at this point,” he said. “You will see people selling electronics, furniture and even baby items on our site.”
Users must verify their address–either with a piece of mail, a credit card or by taking a snap shot of their utility bill.
Noormagi said that an app is also in the works.
Noormagi founded the site with two fellow LIC residents Patrik Misko and Michael Rossi. They elected to launch their site in LIC after witnessing firsthand the development of the neighborhood.
“We saw the growing community and recognized the need for this service,” he said. “There have been similar services for one building, but we wanted something to connect the growing neighborhood.”
For the Tenant King website, please click here
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35 Comments
…remember last summer when they had tenant king people in the street. I wonder if they will be back?
Could work if it’s presented nicely and creatively.
Buildinglink has a competitor finally…
Oh, those guys suck… or the business model sucks, not sure.
I had a little problem registering and validating my address, but their support was superb and helped me.
Tenant King is a really good local resource. I just had a baby and had to sell some furniture to make room and the site proved useful!
We have successfully bought & sold items on Tenant King. What makes it unique is that everyone on it is within a few blocks.
Highly recommended!!
Same here!
Too bad I’ve just moved out of LIC, I was always thinking a site like this should exist. FaceBook is for closer friends, not neighbors.
We are currently funded by angel investors and are entirely focused on growth and product development. The hyperlocal nature of our business offers a variety of monetization opportunities in the long run.
Start up speak for: “We aren’t. But we will, by selling access to your info to advertisers/merchants or charging fees to users to post. Have not decided.”
How are they making money?
Verified addresses have to be worth something to someone?
Who cares, they have my name and address and spam mail email account. That’s of negligible value in return for which I get access to a site that’s very useful.
I love it too, I’ve bought and sold a few things on it. Easy!
I love Tenant King!
Thank you LICpost – great info on a great product!
Said I had an invalid address. I’m on 11th Street!
Hi there! Please send us an email with your address to info@tenantking.com and we’ll look into it asap!
Hey Tenant King, are you planning to cover the whole city? Or just focus on lic
There are already independent chapters of Tenant King live in the Financial District, Battery Park City, and Peter Cooper Village & Stuyvesant Town. We are seeing a growing interest in other Manhattan neighborhoods as well and will make expansion decisions accordingly.
Hope we’ll have this in the UWS soon!
What’s the difference between this and Building Link? I mean… I’m not a fan of Building Link at all, but seems like tenants are forced to use that by building managements.
What’s the difference? Well, platforms like Building Link are made for management companies and are maintained by management companies. It’s really not for people living in those buildings. I’m living in Avalon Riverview North and here we had that platform as well, but it was never updated, everything was censored by someone from the management company. They shut down the platform in our building like a year ago… On Tenant King however, we can freely list items for sale or simply discuss stuff, form and act like a community.
Another big difference between this and Building Link is that everyone in LIC can see your posts, as opposed to just those in your building.
True, but I usually prefer using the building “circle” as they call it on Tenant King, I don’t want the whole neighborhood to see my building’s private issues.
You may want just your building when airing grievances amongst residents, but it’s great to have a wider circle when buying and selling stuff. Or expressing thoughts/ideas on community-wide issues.
I really like TenantKing! Not only I bought a lot of great things to my apartment but also made new friends. I wish everybody in New York used TenantKing…
This site is exactly what LIC needs. Keep up the good work!
Just found a babysitter and sold our 1 year old sons clothes!!
I have been on it for awhile
it shows me a good portion of the residents are broke
selling stuff for $5.00?
who has the time
Ha.. I got the exact opposite impression. I’ve seen some pretty expensive stuff listed there. I bet those people offer those things cheaper than in the store, but still… and I’ve seen some move out sales too, it sounds much easier to pick up a piece of furniture from my neighbor than from ikea…
I’m just happy to have a local site where I can sell, or even give away stuff, instead of throwing it out.
Yeah well there are cheap or free stuff sometimes but you can find nice and quality stuff for half price and within walking distance.
I’ve just got in to the site, finally people from smaller buildings can register too.