Why is Door Term free?

I managed properties. The communication became the job.

I did not start Door Term because landlords needed one more dashboard. I started it because I knew what it felt like to have every late payment, repair question, exception request, and difficult conversation arrive directly on my phone.

When the relationship is informal, a reasonable exception can become the expectation. A missed deadline becomes a personal negotiation. Saying “no” feels harsher than applying the same written rule consistently, so it becomes easy to delay a difficult message or make one more exception that costs real money.

Door Term is designed to create professional distance without taking authority away from the person who owns or operates the property.

The resident gets a clear channel. The software can use the lease and approved property protocols. Routine answers and follow-up stay inside that channel. When an exception, negotiation, legal question, or ownership decision appears, it comes back to the authorized operator.

What stays free—and why.

The resident portal, private resident accounts, two-way in-app messaging, organized records, and your first five rental units are free. Capacity for 6–20 units is $10/month total, and portfolios above 20 use custom pricing. You can answer messages yourself. If you already know how to use an OpenAI or Anthropic API key, you can connect your own supported provider and let that account supply the model.

We do not need to charge you for an AI cost you already carry. Your provider bills its own usage; Door Term supplies the lease context, communication guardrails, records, and escalation workflow.

• First five configured rental units free
• Capacity for 6–20 units for $10/month total
• Private email-and-password resident accounts
• Two-way portal messaging and conversation history
• Manual replies or a supported customer-provided AI key
• Investor Calculators included inside the account
• No card and no telephone number required to begin

Reaching your unit capacity does not turn off an important conversation. The limit only controls adding another unit; it does not erase or disable an existing resident thread.

So, how does Door Term make money?

We earn revenue where Door Term takes on a cost, a regulated delivery channel, or human work for you. The core communication workspace can stay accessible while convenience services fund the business.

There is no automatic paid activation today. Portfolio capacity, managed AI, texting, and live support begin through a guided request so scope, registration, capacity, and price can be confirmed before anything is enabled.

How can a live team member answer for a landlord?

They do not need permission to invent an answer. They need a reliable place to find the approved answer—and a clear rule for when to stop and escalate.

A Live Team Member works from the lease, property protocols, account history, approved maintenance steps, and operator instructions. They can gather details, explain an existing written responsibility, ask for availability, and communicate an already-approved next step.

They do not independently negotiate a lease, waive money, choose to evict, approve a legal notice, authorize unapproved spending, or provide legal advice. Those decisions stay with the authorized property operator.

The promise is simple.

You should be able to create a professional communication boundary before you are ready to hire a property management company. If you are comfortable answering messages or bringing your own AI, your first five units stay free and 6–20 units cost $10/month total. If you want Door Term to supply the model, the telephone channel, or the people, those are separate services that help pay our bills.

That gives us a healthy incentive: keep making the starting product useful, then earn your money only when more capacity or more help is genuinely valuable.

You keep the property decisions. Door Term gives the conversation somewhere professional to go.