Paperless Transactions Without A Tablet PC

December 1, 2007

James Hsu’s recent Bloodhound article on (nearly) paperless transactions using a Tablet PC, PDF Annotator, and Microsoft OneNote showed an ingenious self-cobbled-together solution to a vexing problem in real estate: how to stop killing so many damn trees every time we sell a home! Purchase contracts and disclosure documents get longer each year, usually driven by the industry’s need to protect itself from lawsuits from people seemingly too stupid to be buying homes in the first place (”Mr. Jones, did you not notice that the new home you were buying was on a golf course? Why then were you surprised when a golf ball came sailing through your window?” Voila — the new Errant Golf Ball disclosure.)

James’ solution, and others involving Tablet PC’s — such as Vreo’s Dashboard — have the virtue of simplicity and ease-of-understanding: signing your name on a Tablet PC precisely mimics the act of signing your name on a piece of paper. No real learning curve, no complicated explanation of what it is you’re doing. This solution is perfect if two things are true: 1) You have a Tablet PC; 2) You do most of your deal paperwork in the same room as your clients.

Requirement 1) is becoming easier as Tablet PC’s drop in price. Requirement 2 is necessary because it’s unlikely that your clients have a Tablet PC of their own.

What if your clients are like mine — busy executives constantly traveling? More often than not, one of the parties needing to sign a document is out of town, and even if everybody is in town, it’s usually pretty inconvenient for me to drive to wherever they might be just to get a signature. In that scenario, a fax machine still beats a Tablet PC hands-down. Vreo’s Tei Baishiki and I discussed precisely that at the last Inman.

Enter Docusign, a Seattle company with a neat e-signature solution. (Full disclosure: I don’t work for Docusign. I’m not on their payroll. I don’t earn a nickel for any referrals I send their way. I simply love their product and am very loyal to my vendors. The only “compensation” I’ve ever received is that they’ve sent some reporters my way and I’ve gotten some free publicity for my business.)

Though requiring some re-assurance about the method and legal validity, Docusign’s product has been my lifesaver over the last three years. The first time my clients touch a piece of paper in a real estate transaction is at the closing table, and that’s because I have no control over the workflow processes of the title company and the mortgage company. All of the documents coming from me — contracts, disclosures, and all — are 100% electronic.

Need to write up a contract at midnight for presentation at 8am, though signer A is in New York, and Signer B is in Germany? Piece of cake. Need to submit a counter-offer in 10 minutes? Again, no worries.

Questions about its legal validity? I can’t answer that, but I can point to two facts:

  1. Winforms, officially sanctioned by CAR itself, has a handy little “Electronic Signature” button on the toolbar. This button automatically sends the documents into the Docusign signature system.2007-12-01_14-10-27-265.png
  2. CAR’s legal services department created a document on December 7, 2004, entitled, Electronic Signatures and Records in Real Estate Transactions. Said document clearly indicates — at least to my interpretation — that the large majority of real estate-related transactions can be legally consummated electronically. (Exceptions include things like evictions, utility disconnections, and seller financing disclosures.) In fact, both E-Sign and UETA — California and Federal government acts, respectively — state no signature, contract, or record relating to a transaction can be denied legal validity or enforceability solely because it is [in] an electronic format, or solely because an electronic signature or electronic record was used in its formation.

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Written by Kevin · Filed Under Docusign, Electronic signatures, Industry, Vreo 

Comments

11 Responses to “Paperless Transactions Without A Tablet PC”

  1. Ok, So Here’s Something You Can Do With A Tablet PC But Not With Docusign! | 3 Oceans Real Estate, A Boutique Real Estate Brokerage Serving the San Francisco Bay Area on December 2nd, 2007 11:03 am

    [...] ← Paperless Transactions Without A Tablet PC [...]

  2. How Silly Real Estate Disclosures Get Created | 3 Oceans Real Estate, A Boutique Real Estate Brokerage Serving the San Francisco Bay Area on December 4th, 2007 7:01 am

    [...] a sad world we live in. We kill several trees per real estate transaction, largely due to the increasing number of should-be…. At every real estate legal update (including the last one I attended before leaving Alain Pinel [...]

  3. GREEN Real Estate: Electronic Signature Services | Green Mortgage Group on December 4th, 2007 7:03 pm

    [...] was a good reminder reading a fellow Real Estate Professional’s, and owner of a Boutique Real Estate Company, 3 Oceans Real Estate web article highlighting the use of electronic signatures services. It [...]

  4. Realtors’ Down Market Warning #1-Thomas Musil Posits: “Will Real Estate Agents Be Replaced With Virtual Deals?” « DeansGuide on December 5th, 2007 5:07 pm

    [...] real estate in the virtual world as is possible. Online signatures, a specialty of super agent Kevin Boer of 3Oceansrealestate.com, is just one example of the virtual world’s new role in the [...]

  5. Daniel Escapa's OneNote Blog : Blog Roundup for Dec 2007 on January 3rd, 2008 8:23 pm

    [...] · OneNote showed an ingenious self-cobbled-together solution to a vexing problem in real estate: how t… [...]

  6. Blog Roundup for Dec 2007 - Noticias externas on January 3rd, 2008 8:45 pm

    [...] · OneNote showed an ingenious self-cobbled-together solution to a vexing problem in real estate: how t… [...]

  7. MSDN Blog Postings » Blog Roundup for Dec 2007 on January 3rd, 2008 9:37 pm

    [...] · OneNote showed an ingenious self-cobbled-together solution to a vexing problem in real estate: how t… [...]

  8. Cheryl Bower on February 23rd, 2008 6:56 pm

    Hi Kevin,

    A great post! Docusign is a wonderful tool and less expensive than a tablet (although, depending on the plan, it can be expensive with large packets, such as HOA docs, depending on the plan that one is signed up for).

    My clients love Docusign since it’s so much more convenient for them, especially if they have hectic work/travel schedules. It also eliminates the issues associated with poor quality faxes.

    Stewart Title Co. seems to be progressing towards the paperless transaction.

    There is great technology out there which our industry is a bit slow to adapt.

    There is also Efax!! Which I love and it’s only $10/mo.

    Cheryl A. Bower
    Realtor
    Cashin Company Realtors
    Cell 415.999.3450
    EFax: 866.273.5249
    cbower@cashin.com
    http://www.cbower.com
    Blog: http://lifeineabu.blogspot.com/

  9. GREEN Real Estate: Electronic Signature Services | Green Mortgage Group on September 25th, 2008 9:40 am

    [...] was a good reminder reading a fellow Real Estate Professional’s, and owner of a Boutique Real Estate Company3 Oceans Real Estate web article highlighting the use of electronic signatures services. It [...]

  10. Chabrell Igan on April 11th, 2009 2:36 pm

    God dag! Kan jag ladda ner en bild fran din blogg. Av sak med hanvisning till din webbplats!

  11. Louis on May 6th, 2009 5:19 pm

    ok so there is a solution out there that is combining electronic signature (real wet signatures) using a tablet pc… and i here it will have a docusign like element in its next version at a much lower cost than docusign. i am an agent using it right now and it rocks… check out gopaperless.com

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