Email templates

Who this is for

Landlords and property managers who want some emails in their own words. Anyone on your team can see the list, preview an email and send themselves a test; only an Owner on your team can customize, edit or go back to the eSamaHomes email.

Before you start

• The card is Email Templates on Settings, the Templates tab. Lease documents are on the same tab, in their own card. See Lease templates.
• Each email goes out once, as the eSamaHomes email or as your text. The card has one row per email, and each row says which goes out: eSamaHomes email, or Your text with the day you last changed it.
• The eSamaHomes email is eSamaHomes's own design, with its Pay Now button where it has one. Your text replaces the email's subject and text. It is plain text: a blank line starts a new paragraph, and eSamaHomes's own buttons, such as Pay Now, are not added.
• These are the eight emails on the card:

• Application denied works a little differently. You write the opening and the closing, such as a greeting, a thank-you and how to reach you. The decision itself is locked: `{{decision}}` becomes "After review, your application did not meet the rental qualification criteria." Your text must have `{{decision}}` exactly once, on a line of its own, and you can move it up or down. The editor shows the locked words in a grey box under Body. The subject can't be changed. There is no placeholder for the reason you typed when you denied the application, and the renter never sees it.
• Never write a reason in the denial email. A reason that mentions children, family, religion, race, disability, age, marriage or how someone pays rent can break fair housing law, which you are responsible for. When your text has a word like that, the editor warns you under the grey box. It is only a warning: you can still save, because a word like "children's playground" may be fine.

Steps

1. Open Settings, then the Templates tab.
2. To see what an email looks like today, click Preview on its row (on a phone, under ⋯). Under Preview with, keep Sample data or choose A tenant's record, and click Preview. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent.
3. To write your own text for an email that sends the eSamaHomes email, click Customize on its row (on a phone, under ⋯). The editor opens with eSamaHomes's wording filled in, ready to change, and it sends the eSamaHomes email until you change something. Where it names the property it says `{{propertyName}}{{unitLabel}}`: `{{unitLabel}}` fills in ", Unit B" after the property's name, or nothing when the unit is the Main unit or the property's name already says it. `{{unitNumber}}` is the unit's number alone, and text you saved with it keeps working as before. On Invoice posted and Invoice overdue that wording ends with "Pay now: `{{payNowUrl}}`", so your text keeps the tenant's link to pay. For an email that already sends your text, click Edit.
4. Change the Subject Line and Body. Under Body, Placeholders for this email lists what the email fills and what each one means. Type one, such as `{{tenantName}}`, where its value should go.
5. To see the email before you save, keep Sample data under Preview with, or choose A tenant's record. Type the tenant's name or email under Search a tenant by name or email, click them, then choose one of their records of the kind the email is about: invoices, payments, refunds or leases with an end date. Each invoice is named by its charge, such as Rent, Deposit or Late fee, and ends in "Void" or "Written off" when it is one. When the tenant has only one, it is chosen for you; Change picks another tenant. For Lead received, choose A lead and type the lead's name or property under Search leads by name or property, then click it. Click Preview. For Application denied, choose An application and type the renter's name or the property under Search applications by name or property, then click it. The subject and the email show below, filled in, exactly as the tenant would get them. The heading over them says eSamaHomes' designed email or Your text, for the email that would go out.
6. To get the email in your own inbox, click Send me a test under the preview. It goes only to the address you sign in with, with "[Test]" in front of the subject, and "Test sent to" your address shows.
7. Click Save my text. "Your text is saved" shows, and the row says Your text.
8. To stop sending your text, click Go back on its row (on a phone, under ⋯). It asks "Tenants will get the eSamaHomes email again. Your text is deleted." (For Application denied it says "The renter will get…", and for Lead received "You will get…".) Click Go back to delete your text, or Keep my text to leave it. The row says eSamaHomes email again.

Example

Ana Rivera clicks Customize on Payment received. She sets the Subject Line to `Thanks, {{tenantName}}` and the Body to `We received {{amount}} on {{paidDate}}. Rivera Rentals`, and clicks Save my text. When her tenant Sam Cole pays $1,450.00 online on October 3, he gets "Thanks, Sam Cole" and "We received 1450 on October 3, 2026. Rivera Rentals". Amounts are filled in as plain numbers, so she clicks Edit and types the dollar sign herself: `${{amount}}`.

What happens next

• The daily rent invoices and lease end reminders are notices inside eSamaHomes, not emails, so no template changes them. See Automation schedule.
• The rent reminder email 3 days before a due date and the screening email aren't on the card: they always go out as eSamaHomes wrote them.
• For Payment received, other tenants on the lease get your text only if it uses `{{payerName}}`; otherwise they get eSamaHomes's own wording, which names who paid.
• With Test mode on, these emails go to your reply-to address like every other email, a test from Send me a test included. See Email settings.

If something looks wrong

• "Fill in the subject line and the body." Your text needs both.
• "Put {{decision}} in the email once, on a line of its own." This shows when you save Application denied without `{{decision}}`, with it twice, or with other words on its line. Put it back on a line of its own and save again. Until it is right, the preview shows the eSamaHomes email.
• A yellow warning names a word in your denial email. The word may read as a reason for the decision. Take it out unless you meant something else; you can still save.
• "isn't a placeholder for this email" shows after Preview. The email doesn't fill that name, so it would go out as typed. Where one is close, it asks "Did you mean …?" with the right spelling; placeholders are case sensitive. You can still save.
• The preview says it is eSamaHomes' default. You are previewing the eSamaHomes email, or your text is exactly eSamaHomes's wording, so tenants get eSamaHomes' own designed email (the renter, for Application denied; you, for Lead received), which is what the preview shows.
• An email still says "Unit Main" or "Unit" twice. Your saved text uses `Unit {{unitNumber}}`. Click Edit and change it to `{{propertyName}}{{unitLabel}}`, which leaves the unit out when the property's name already says it.
• You saved and the row still says eSamaHomes email. Your text was exactly eSamaHomes's wording, so there was nothing of yours to keep, and "The eSamaHomes email goes out again" shows. Change the text and save again.
• "… has no invoices this email is sent for." That tenant has no record of that kind, or none that email is sent for. Click Change to pick another tenant, or use Sample data.
• Preview is greyed out. With A tenant's record or A lead chosen, pick the record first, or go back to Sample data.
• "No leads yet. Use sample data." You have no leads yet. Use Sample data.
• You don't see Customize, Edit or Go back. Only an Owner on your team can change these emails. Everyone else can preview and send themselves a test.