Research: KeyTurn 0.1.0 beta
Brand: KeyTurn — landlord move-in packet + rent-ledger kit for US small landlords. Status: free beta 0.1.0. Beta · demand unproven. $1 checkout stays off.
End customer
A US small landlord (1–10 units) who self-manages and repeats the same move-in paperwork every turnover: welcome letter, rent terms, maintenance instructions, utility/parking/trash notes, house rules. Demo runs in the browser with no account.
Demand evidence (public, checked 2026-10-03)
- Landlord guides (ipropertymanagement.com, apartments.com, reedyandcompany.com) all publish "what to include in a tenant welcome packet" checklists — the workflow is real, repeated, and currently assembled by hand.
- Etsy sellers market editable tenant welcome packet / tenant handbook templates as instant digital downloads aimed at landlords with 1–10 units (e.g. "Tenant Welcome Packet for Landlords", "Tenant Handbook Template") — people pay for pre-written move-in paperwork.
- Property-management blogs frame the move-in experience as the tone-setter for the whole landlord-tenant relationship and a retention lever.
Existing alternatives (checked 2026-10-03)
- Stessa (free Essentials tier) — unlimited properties, income/expense tracking, rent collection, tenant ledger. Strong on accounting; requires an account; it is finance-led, not move-in-paperwork-led. Paid Manage ($12/mo billed annually) unlocks Schedule E reporting and legal templates.
- TurboTenant — digital move-in/move-out reports among other leasing tools; account required, broader property-management suite.
- Etsy / Canva welcome-packet templates — static documents; no ledger, no maintenance log, no move-out comparison sheet; buyer edits by hand.
- Google Docs / spreadsheets — free, unstructured, no privacy guardrails.
Wedge
Browser-local move-in → printable welcome packet + 12-month rent-ledger CSV + maintenance-request log with triage checklist + move-out inspection sheet in one click, with an explicit privacy floor (tenant first name only; SSN, bank account / routing numbers and government IDs rejected outright). Templates give blank paper; KeyTurn gives a structured packet a landlord can hand over on move-in day, plus the ledger and logs that make the next twelve months boring.
Kill test
Do visitors load the fictional sample, build a packet, and download the ledger CSV? If visitors only load the sample and bounce, the wedge is wrong.
Largest uncertainty
Whether small landlords will use a BotMyBiz-hosted lab demo vs. Stessa's free tier (strong on accounting) or a one-time Etsy template. Demand UNKNOWN until demo usage is observed.
Next artifact
Publish as free beta (Beta · demand unproven) after round 34 three passing reviews. Next: demand pilots;