Lease templates
For landlords, property managers · Last updated
Who this is for
Landlords and property managers who want eSamaHomes to fill in their own lease. eSamaHomes doesn't write leases and never adds or changes lease text: it fills in your placeholders and adds a signature page at the end. Your template is yours, and you are responsible for what it says. Any team member can upload and manage templates.
Before you start
- Have your lease as a Word file (.docx), 5 MB or smaller. A PDF or an old .doc file won't work: save it from Word as .docx.
- In Word, type a placeholder in double braces wherever eSamaHomes should fill in a value, for example {{rentAmount}}. Spaces inside the braces are fine; capital letters must match.
| Placeholder | What it prints |
|---|---|
| {{tenantNames}} | Every tenant on the lease, primary first |
| {{primaryTenantName}} | The primary tenant |
| {{occupantNames}} | Occupants who don't sign, or "None" |
| {{propertyAddress}} | The property's address |
| {{unitLabel}} | The unit, e.g. "Unit 4B"; empty for a house |
| {{landlordName}} | Landlord: your company's name. Property manager: the property's owner(s) |
| {{managerName}} | Property manager: your company's name. Landlord: empty |
| {{companyAddress}} | Your company address (Settings) |
| {{rentAmount}} | Monthly rent, e.g. "$1,550.00" |
| {{depositAmount}} | Security deposit, or "$0.00" |
| {{dueDay}} | The day rent is due, e.g. "1st" |
| {{lateFee}} | The late fee, e.g. "$75.00" |
| {{gracePeriodDays}} | Days of grace before the late fee, e.g. "5" |
| {{startDate}} | Start date, e.g. "October 1, 2026" |
| {{endDate}} | End date, or "Month-to-month" |
| {{termType}} | "Fixed term", "Fixed term, then month-to-month" or "Month-to-month" |
| {{todayDate}} | The day the document is made |
Steps
- In the menu, open Setup → Settings and click the Templates tab. Scroll to Lease Templates.
- Type a name, for example "Florida house".
- Click Choose .docx file, pick your file, and click Upload template. eSamaHomes checks the placeholders and shows "Template saved", or "Template saved, with warnings to check".
- Read any warning in the yellow box under the template. Fix it in Word, then click Replace file on the template and upload the fixed file.
- To fill the template for a lease, open the lease and, under Create lease document, pick the template and click Create lease document. Click Open on the link that appears to check the PDF.
Example
Your "Florida house" template says: "The tenants, {{tenantNames}}, agree to pay {{rentAmount}} on the {{dueDay}} of each month."
For a lease with tenants Ana Ruiz and Ben Cole, rent of $1,550 due on the 1st, the PDF reads: "The tenants, Ana Ruiz and Ben Cole, agree to pay $1,550.00 on the 1st of each month."
The signature page at the end has a block for each signer: the landlord (or, for a property manager, the manager and any owner who signs leases), then each tenant, with a printed name, a signature line and a date line.
What happens next
- The PDF is saved on the lease as Lease draft - Florida house.pdf. Only your team sees it; tenants and owners never do. Creating it again replaces it.
- To have everyone sign it online, see Sign a lease online.
- Archive hides a template from the list and the pickers. Leases already made from it keep their files. An archived template can't be brought back yet; upload it again as a new template.
If something looks wrong
- "{{…}} is not a placeholder eSamaHomes knows. It will print as a blank line." Check the spelling and capitals against the table above.
- "… has no closing }}." A placeholder is missing its closing braces. Fix it in Word and replace the file.
- A value prints as ________. eSamaHomes has no value for it on this lease, for example no late fee. Fill it in on the lease, or in Settings for your company address, and create the document again.
- "eSamaHomes can't fill this template." The file uses Word codes eSamaHomes doesn't fill, such as {{#…}} or {{/…}}. Remove them in Word and replace the file.
- "eSamaHomes couldn't make the PDF just now. Try again in a minute." The PDF service was busy or down. Try again shortly.
- "This lease is out for signing. Cancel the signing before making a new document." Cancel the signing on the lease first.
- "That file is over 5 MB." Remove large images from the Word file and upload it again.
Still stuck? See every help article.