Great write-up. You know your stuff!  There are a few other differences to point out between DocuSign and the Adobe signing process. I know because I tried it.

• Adobe Acrobat Pro (Needed to create documents you can sign) costs more than DocuSign does for a whole year!  Not only is that expensive for you, your customers are never going to go for it.
  
• DocuSign provides these other benefits that Adobe Acrobat signatures do not:
  

1. Control, with DocuSign, you are always in control, and you can see where things are 100% of the time, it automatically reminds, and if you sent the wrong file you can pull it back. With acrobat you email the file off, and hope they can figure out how to sign.  You have no idea if they got it, opened it, etc.  Want to know, call them and ask? Send the wrong file, tough!  Need to remind them - your time is taken for all that.  

2. Multiple signers - if you need both buyers to sign, and then perhaps both sellers to sign, you can do this all on the same document, with DocuSign managing the signature collection process.  With Acrobat, YOU need to be the traffic cop - first send it to buyer 1, then send to buyer 2, then once that is done, send to sellers agent/sellers - ALL MANUAL ON YOUR PART. This not only is a hassle for you, it is a major time-waster compared to DocuSign

3. Fast and Easy to sign - with DocuSign your signers just validate by email, or by access code (which I use sometimes), then click to sign, initial, or fill out info I need. As soon as one signs, it instantly goes to the next. No software to install, nothing to learn, nothing for them to buy.  With Acrobat, they will be calling me to ask how to buy Acrobat, or how to make a digital certificate. It is expensive, confusing, and just distracts from the task - getting a signature.

4. Authentication - DocuSign provides a full audit trail document for each and every signer - showing important audit trail info like IP address used, email used, signature adopted, when they got it, when they signed it, what authentication they went through, etc. If you ever get asked for proof, you have it. With Acrobat you have none of this.

5. Mistake-proof signing - With DocuSign the signer MUST sign each place you ask, initial each place you ask, and they can't sign in the wrong place, or miss a page.  With Acrobat they have to figure it out on their own. And easily can miss, so you have to send it again.  Even better, DocuSign templates can apply ALL OF THE TABS AT ONCE, making the process of applying the digital 'sign here' tabs automatic, mistake proof, and fast.

6. The Standard - DocuSign has been adopted as the standard in Real Estate, and integrated into most of the mainstream Real Estate forms platforms making it even easier to send, and everyone trusts the system.  Using something besides DocuSign is like driving on the wrong side of the road.

So, if you have a customer-centric way of working, and value your time, DocuSign is hands-down a better way to go! ESPECIALLY for Real Estate!

TJ

Regina, thank you so much for discussing DocuSign - we greatly appreciate it! :) 

TedJ, thank you for outlining the major differences between DocuSign and Adobe, demonstrating the power behind DocuSign's electronic signature and electronic contract execution service. 

DocuSign also has a strong commitment to the real estate community - we've sponsored several Real Estate Bar Camps (LA, Phoenix, and Denver) and constantly seek feedback and feature suggestions in DocuSign Forums so we can build a better product for our customers. 

We offer real-estate specific products and integration with a whole host of real estate partners (IRES, Realfast, Ziplogix, Reveal Systems/TrueForms, and many others) to streamline the document creation process for our users. 

Also, your customers (signers) don't have to be DocuSign customers - they just have to have a valid email address that you can send to. They can sign these papers wherever they happen to be, as long as they have access to email and a browser. This means they can sign while waiting in line to pay for groceries. They can sign while waiting for the kids.

With Adobe, they can only sign from a computer with Adobe installed. A delay of a few hours to a day can mean losing the deal - another offer came in while your client was getting to the computer with Adobe. Or they had to print out the documents, sign, and then fax back, which leads to more delays and more wasted time when you have to call to confirm that all the papers got through and your client does the same on return. 

I'm more than happy to answer any additional questions about DocuSign and how it helps real estate agents. Or you can take a look at other real estate agents' experiences: Dean Ouellette, Luba Muzichenko, Derec Shuler, to name a few.

Regina, TedJ, thanks so much for starting this conversation about the various technology offerings for electronic signature and online contract execution  

Apologies to Luba - I borked the link to her blog post about her DocuSign experience. The correct link takes you to a post that explains how DocuSign enabled her to go on vacation AND take care of her clients!