California HOA operations suite with a free, uncapped operations tier (budgets, meetings, rules, violations, contracts, maintenance) and true operating/reserve fund accounting for $1 per unit per month.

ResLife (reslife.app) is HOA software from San Diego. It splits into two parts: a free “community operations layer” (budgets, board meetings, rules, violations, contracts, maintenance, and portals) and a paid accounting product, ResLife Finances. The Terms and Privacy policy name the operator as Verilyst LLC, a California limited liability company doing business as ResLife.app, at 2828 University Ave, Unit 302, San Diego. The team page names founder and CEO Brian Haghighi and two VPs of client success. Per the launch press release (September 7, 2026), Haghighi joined his own HOA’s board in 2023, took the association self-managed, and built the tools he was missing. The company says it sponsored CAI’s Community NOW 2026 conference and is a member of CAI and CACM.

The site footer says ResLife is available in California. Compliance features cite the Davis-Stirling Act and the California Civil Code.

Who it’s for

ResLife sells to two groups: self-managed boards and management companies, from startup firms to enterprise. Schema audience is both. The self-managed page is aimed at volunteer boards, and you can try it without a board vote because the operations tools cost nothing. The Terms and Privacy policy, however, define the subscriber as a professional management company. Schema unit range is 12 to 40,000. The pricing page says the $1 rate applies “even to a 12-unit community” and is the same for “forty units or forty thousand.”

What it does

Free operations layer (per the pricing page and free HOA software page):

Budgets drafted from your governing documents, with each line’s cost-sharing basis quoted from the CC&Rs and the annual increase cap checked against the statute.
Meetings with notice periods validated before a date is set, agendas, minutes routed for signature, and decisions turned into follow-up tasks.
Rules and violations, with the rule-change comment period enforced as a hard block and violations cited to the governing clause.
Contracts with renewal-notice deadlines, maintenance with multiple bids on one scope, and a cross-association Docket worklist.
Online assessment collection through the association’s own Stripe account, with a per-payment add-on on the free plan (see pricing).

ResLife Finances (paid), per the accounting, reserve and fund accounting, and bank reconciliation pages:

Fund accounting. Operating and reserve are separate funds, each with its own bank accounts and its own ledger balance. Interfund transfers are tied to the expenditure that justified them, reserve contributions come from the adopted budget, and reserve draws are tied to the approved contract. A component register tracks the assets the reserve study covers, and statements report each fund separately.
General ledger and financial statements: a balance sheet that ties at any as-of date, a fiscal-year P&L, and budget vs. actual by category.
Receivables: assessments billed from the budget’s per-unit math. Late fees, interest, and grace periods come from the governing documents, payments apply in statutory order, and payment plans are supported. The board can pass card and ACH fees to owners or absorb them, with a separate switch for each.
Payables: vendor bills posted against the work order or contract that caused them, with the board’s spending limits enforced at approval.
Bank reconciliation: Plaid feeds or CSV/OFX/CAMT statement imports. The vendor cites Odoo’s published figure of roughly 95% automatic matching, and processor payouts are split back to the units that paid.

Per the accounting page FAQ, the engine underneath is a general-purpose accounting platform (the press release calls it an open-source ERP core, and the bank reconciliation page cites Odoo). ResLife adds the HOA chart of accounts, the fund structure, and the governing-document rules. Hosting is on Google Cloud.

Pricing (researched October 23, 2026)

From the pricing page:

Free: $0, permanent, no trial, no card, no unit cap. Includes every operations tool, the management portal, and (for self-managed associations only) the owner portal.
Starter: $1.00 per unit per month for ResLife Finances, with no minimum and no volume brackets. A self-managed association pays the full $1. A management company pays it and by default passes 50 cents per unit to owners as a technology fee, a share the firm sets per association.
Business: $1.00 per unit plus $250/month per firm legal entity for the firm’s own books. The first entity is free through December 31, 2027, with migration included.
Enterprise: $1.00 per unit plus $2,500/month for dedicated infrastructure, white label, a sandbox, and an uptime SLA.
On every plan: support at $125/hour. AI meeting briefs, rule drafting, and paid-plan AI budgeting are billed at the AI provider’s cost after the first free meeting and first rule. The vendor estimates $0.10 to $0.35 per agenda item.
Online payments: Stripe’s rates (card 2.9% + $0.30; ACH 0.8%, capped at $5.00). The free plan adds 0.25% + $0.50 per payment; paid plans add nothing. The vendor’s example is a $400 assessment: $13.40 by card on the free plan vs. $11.90 on a paid plan.
Mailed notices (paid plans): $2.00 First-Class (plus $0.25 per page after the first), $10.00 Certified, $13.00 Certified with electronic return receipt.
The accounting page says you can sign up now and billing starts January 1, 2027.

At $1 per unit, a 150-unit self-managed association would pay $150/month for the books, and a 300-unit association $300/month (our arithmetic on the published rate).

Caveats to read before you buy

California only. The footer says “Available in California.” The statute logic is built around California law. Boards in other states should confirm availability first.
New accounting product. The operations layer launched September 7, 2026, and Finances billing does not start until January 1, 2027. No association has run a full fiscal year on ResLife Finances in public.
Terms aimed at management firms. The Terms license the platform for managing communities “on behalf of the Subscriber’s clients,” and the Privacy policy says the direct relationship is with management companies. Self-managed boards should ask for an order form that names the association. Fees are non-refundable unless the vendor materially breaches, subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled 30 days before the term ends, and disputes go to JAMS arbitration in San Diego.
Conflicting legal page. The canonical Terms are at /terms-and-conditions (Verilyst LLC, California law, last updated October 3, 2026). A separate /terms page still shows unedited Odoo sample “terms of sale” naming Turkish law. Rely on the dated Terms and ask the vendor to remove the template page.
Owner portal wording. The site menu says owner self-service is “on the paid plan,” but the plan comparison lists the owner portal as free for self-managed associations only. Management-company clients need Finances for owner self-service.
Usage-based extras. Support is billed hourly on every plan, and AI work is metered at cost with rates that can change monthly without the 60-day notice that applies to other price changes.
Not a reserve study. The site says ResLife is not a reserve study provider. It tracks reserve balances against your study but does not produce one.

Honest assessment

For the accounting/reserves niche, ResLife is the most complete new entrant we’ve reviewed this fall. It does true operating/reserve fund accounting, AP tied to the work that caused it, automatic bank matching, and statements by fund, all at a published $1 per unit with no minimum. At 100 to 500 units, compare it with management-company fund-accounting tools such as Buildium and AppFolio, and with board-focused fund-accounting options like CommunityPay, VLGE HOA, and ManageCasa. The free operations tier is a low-risk way to try the budget and meeting tools before moving the books.

The limits are geography and maturity. It is California-only, the accounting product starts billing in January 2027, the Terms are written for management firms, and support costs $125/hour. Outside California, or if your board wants a lighter, all-inclusive price, look at HavenHOA (double-entry ledger, per-home pricing) or PayHOA. California boards of 100+ units should run the free budget and meeting tools for a cycle, then ask for a reference association and a signed order form in the association’s name before moving reserves.

No independent reviews were found on Reddit, X, G2, or Capterra as of October 23, 2026. We have not rated it.

Sources

Best for

California HOAs and condo associations, self-managed boards of 100+ units or management firms, that want real operating/reserve fund accounting at a published $1 per unit and are willing to start with the free operations tools before moving the books.

Pricing notes

Official pricing, product, Terms, and Privacy pages researched October 23, 2026 (America/Chicago). Free plan, permanent, no trial, no card, no unit cap: Docket, Meetings, Budgets, Rules, Violations, Contracts, Maintenance, Compliance, and the management portal (owner portal free for self-managed associations only). Online assessment collection on the free plan adds 0.25% + $0.50 per payment on top of Stripe's rates (card 2.9% + $0.30; ACH 0.8% capped at $5.00). ResLife Finances (fund accounting, AR, AP, bank reconciliation, financial statements, owner self-service) is $1.00 per unit per month on every paid plan, with no minimum and no volume brackets, and removes the processing add-on. A self-managed association pays the $1 itself; a management company pays it and by default passes 50 cents per unit to owners as a technology fee. Business adds $250/month per firm legal entity for the firm's own books (first entity free through December 31, 2027); Enterprise adds $2,500/month for dedicated infrastructure. Support is $125/hour on every plan. AI meeting briefs and rule drafting are billed at the AI provider's cost after the first free meeting and rule. Mailed notices on paid plans: $2.00 First-Class (plus $0.25 per extra page), $10.00 Certified, $13.00 Certified with electronic return receipt. The accounting product page says Finances billing starts January 1, 2027.