Help Center
How to use eSamaHomes: setting up, rent and bank payments, reconciliation, leases, owners, and the tenant, owner and vendor portals.
Getting started
- Add properties and unitsAdd a house or a building, give it its units, and answer the USPS address check so its listing can be published.
- Connect Stripe so tenants can pay onlineConnect your own Stripe account as your deposit account, finish Stripe's setup, and turn on ACH Direct Debit so tenants can pay rent from their bank.
- Invite tenants, owners, vendors and your teamSend a portal invite so a tenant, owner or vendor can sign in, and invite team members from Settings.
- MessagesWrite to a tenant or an owner inside eSamaHomes, read their replies, and know what they see on their side.
- Move your current tenants into eSamaHomesAdd a lease for a tenant who already lives in the unit, so eSamaHomes bills from the right month and never bills the move-in rent or the deposit again.
- Opening balances and your cutover dateTell eSamaHomes what is in each bank account on the day it starts keeping your books, then confirm it with your first reconciliation.
- Property and unit statusesWhat Vacant, Occupied, Maintenance, Active, Inactive and Listed mean for a house, a building and a unit, what changes them, and what the chips on a property card say.
- Set up your accountSign up, pick Landlord or Property Manager, fill in your company details, and work through the setup checklist on your dashboard.
Money
- AutomationsSee the jobs that bill rent and send notices on your schedule, when they last ran, and run one by hand for a single lease or invoice.
- Bank payments, processing, failed and returnedA tenant's bank payment takes a few business days to clear. A failed one is never recorded; a returned one is taken back out when Stripe withdraws the money.
- Cash flow (landlords)See money in minus money out for each property, by the month it reached your bank. Security deposits are left out.
- Checks, cash and bank depositsA check, cash, money order, or a Cash App, Venmo or Apple Cash payment waits in Undeposited funds until you record the day it reached your bank.
- Diagnostics, what each check meansDiagnostics lists what needs fixing in your books right now, and how to fix each item.
- Disputes and chargebacksWhen a tenant's bank takes back an online payment, eSamaHomes lists the dispute and takes the money back out of your books when Stripe withdraws it.
- How rent billing workseSamaHomes creates each rent invoice a few days before it is due, reminds the tenant by email 3 days before, and tracks it until it is paid.
- Late fees and late noticesWhen rent is still unpaid after the lease's grace period, eSamaHomes adds the lease's late fee once and sends up to three late notices on your schedule.
- Money in and out (landlords)Record every bill you pay from your rental account, money you take out, and money you put in, so your books match the bank.
- Read the ledgerSee everything that moved money in your accounts, one row per thing that happened, and open any row to see the entries behind it.
- Reconcile your bank accountOnce a month, check that eSamaHomes's ledger and your bank statement agree to the cent, and confirm your opening balance the first time.
- Record a payment you receivedRecord rent a tenant paid outside eSamaHomes, such as a check, cash, Zelle, Venmo, a money order or a bank transfer, and apply it to their invoices.
- Refund a paymentGive a tenant money back from a payment, whether they paid online or you recorded it yourself, and what to do when an online refund fails.
- Rent status, who has paidSee who owes rent, who is late and who has paid, read what each status means, and keep a note on a tenant who is behind.
- ReportsGenerate a report for a period, such as a rent roll, a vacancy report or a property income statement, then view it, download it as a PDF or send it to an owner.
- Security depositsKeep tenants' deposits in a deposit account, or with rent under a surety bond, and see how eSamaHomes keeps deposit money apart from rent.
- Write off rent a former tenant won't payStop counting on rent a tenant who moved out still owes. Nothing is posted to your books, the tenant still owes it, and money that comes in later is recorded as usual.
- Year-end tax reportsSee your year by Schedule E line for your tax professional, see what you paid each vendor and the rent you collected for each owner, and download a PDF, an Excel file or a CSV for your 1099 service.
- Your bank accountsAdd an account in eSamaHomes for each bank account you keep for your rentals, operating, security deposit or reserve, so the ledger can match each bank.
Property managers
- Management feesSet a property's management fee as a percent of rent, a flat monthly fee, a monthly minimum or a mix, give an owner their own rate, and charge one-time fees.
- Owner approvals for repairs and new tenantsHave owners approve repairs above a dollar amount, and approve the applicant you recommend before you approve an application.
- Owner payoutsPay an owner from their available balance, by hand or from the monthly payouts eSamaHomes prepares for your approval, print the check if you pay by check, then mark it complete, failed or canceled.
- Owner reservesSet aside part of each rent payment for an owner until their reserve reaches a cap, and release reserve money back to the owner when it's needed.
- Owner statementsGenerate an owner statement for a period, check it, and send it to the owner, who reads it in the owner portal.
- Owners and who owns each propertyAdd the owners you manage for, give each property its owners and their ownership percent, and record how you pay each owner and where their checks go.
- Send owners their yearly statementMake each owner a statement of their year by Schedule E line, send it to their portal for their tax professional, and see your own management fees for the year.
Leasing
- Create a leaseCreate a lease for one or more tenants, start it now or send it for signing, and edit, renew or end it later.
- Eviction cases through Evictions APIConnect your own Evictions API account, send a case from a lease, follow each step, and what happens to rent payments while a case is open. eSamaHomes is not a law firm.
- Leads and rental applicationsTurn a lead into an application, record the application fee, approve or deny, and turn the approved renter into a tenant with a lease.
- Lease templatesUpload your own lease as a Word file with placeholders, and eSamaHomes fills it in for each lease and adds a signature page.
- List a unit for rentWrite a listing, add photos, publish it to its own public page, and send it to Dwellsy (free) or Apartments.com (needs your own paid package).
- Maintenance requests, vendors and repairsTake a repair request, get quotes from vendors, assign a work order, record what it cost, and track what you paid the vendor.
- Move out and archive a propertyEnd a lease when the tenant moves out, settle the money they owe, mark the unit vacant, and archive a property you no longer rent without losing its history.
- Post a listing on FacebookCopy a published listing to Facebook Marketplace or your Facebook Page, record the post, and see which renters came from it.
- Several tenants and occupantsPut up to four tenants on one lease, choose the primary, list the other people who live there, and see who pays and who is told.
- Sign a lease onlineSend a lease for online signing, follow who has signed, and send it again when the lease changes. The lease starts when the last person signs.
- TenantsAdd a tenant, find one in the list, read what each status means, and use a tenant's page to see their leases, notices and failed bank payments.
For tenants
- Pay rent automatically with auto-payTurn on auto-pay so your rent is paid from your bank account on its due date, and how auto-pay works on a lease you share.
- Pay your rent from your bank accountPay an open invoice from your bank account in the tenant portal, and what "Processing" and a failed payment mean.
- Sign your lease onlineWhat the signing email asks you to do, the order people sign in, and where your signed lease is kept.
- Your documents, repair requests and messagesDownload your lease and other documents, ask for a repair, and message your property manager from the tenant portal.
Owners and vendors
Your account
- Add your teamInvite people to work in your eSamaHomes account, choose Owner or Member, and remove someone who leaves.
- Automation scheduleSet how far ahead rent is billed, when late notices start and repeat, and when lease end reminders are posted, on the Settings Notifications tab.
- Cancel your account and get your dataCancel your subscription, undo a cancel, and keep copies of your records before you leave.
- Company details and listing contactSet your company name, business address, phone and license number, and the lead email, website and logo shown on your listings.
- Email settingsChoose where tenants' and owners' replies land, and use test mode to send every email to yourself instead of to real people.
- Email templatesSend some of eSamaHomes's emails in your own words, preview them with a real record or sample data, and send yourself a test.
- Plans, the free trial and billingPick a plan, start or change your subscription, update your card, and get back in when a trial or subscription lapses.
- Sign-in and securityYou sign in to eSamaHomes with Google. There are no passwords; two-step verification is set in your Google account, and sessions end after 30 days.
- Your account settingsSee your name, sign-in email, role and account mode on the Settings Account tab, and choose how you keep security deposits.