Are You Still Printing Contracts?

Electronic signatures, like someone else said, is a LAWSUIT waiting to happen!

The signature is not the signers's own, but a computer generated one. IT WILL NOT HOLD UP IN A COURT! I asked our own legal hotline, and two other contract attorneys!

You can be lazy and save a little bit of time, but wait until the first signer will claim it's not their signature! And you can't prove otherwise, and you can't claim "but they received the email and electronically signed it!". Try to use that as defense in a court! The plaintiffs attorney will make minced meat out of you!

 Also, in many states like NY, every contract must have a wet signature: no faxes, no electronic signatures.

 

I have been scanning, saving as a PDF, and emailing to my clients for lots of years now, so e-signatures would be an improvement, but they may not be worth the added costs and the hassles for when they are not acceptable.  But, if I did not have the email options, I would do it for sure rather then fax or always meet in person.

I love DocuSign.  I use it for everything.

I'm starting to see Docusign signatures occasionally now and think it's about time to start using it myself. I currently use Adobe Acrobat Professional and Efax to transmit documents for signatures. I agree with the other posters about an initial face-to-face discussion of contracts.

I haven't used it yet, but you have some great endorsements here at AR.

Can you explain EXACTLY how Docusigns works?

What a great start to my week – this amazing blog post with over 100 comments! Wow! I wanted to address the major themes and questions from the comments, as everyone brought up some great points!

 

Reasons To Choose DocuSign

Among the top reasons to choose DocuSign for your Real Estate ESIGN provider is that NAR has named DocuSign  the official and exclusive provider of eSign services through the NAR Member Benefits® Program!  This recognizes DocuSign as the best service for the complexities of Real Estate transactions.  What’s more, if you sign up for the DocuSign REALTOR® Edition, you’ll get the option to adopt an exclusive REALTOR® branded e-Signature, an intuitive, secure REALTOR® branded dashboard, with real-time document status updates, REALTOR® branded email communications templates, and a 20% savings over standard DocuSign rates on both editions – DocuSign REALTOR® Basic and DocuSign REALTOR® Standard.

 

In addition to DocuSign’s relationship with NAR, we also enable you to get your life back – you’ll no longer have to chase faxes, missed initials or signatures!

 

Personal Touch

Electronic signature from DocuSign doesn’t mean that you’re giving up the personal touch.  For busy buyers and sellers, using DocuSign’s electronic signature services demonstrates that you’re sensitive to their schedules. DocuSign also has an in-person signing feature, so that you can meet up with your clients, get their signatures and keep it in the DocuSign system. This eliminates the need to scan and upload!

 

DocuSign lets you focus on your most important value to your clients – the expert in Real Estate. Your knowledge of your area, the tools for the job, and the personal attention you provide are FAR MORE IMPORTANT than your role as a paper clerk!  Cut out the paper and focus on what you do best – you as the expert.

 

DocuSign Brings eSignature to your Mobile

DocuSign has “Designed for Mobile” functionality to allow anyone to sign on their phone in an interface specifically designed for smaller screens. There is no app to download, it runs in your mobile browser, and it works with Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile, Google Android and RIM Blackberry. It also enables your signers to eSign from the kids’ soccer game, in line at the grocery store, while pumping gas… anywhere they have access to their mobile email!

 

For those who DO have an iPhone, there is a really nifty application out there that allows you to do even more – review status, and even send from templates.  Yup, there’s an app for that.

 

 

 

DocuSign vs Tablet Screen

DocuSign can work on a PC, laptop or Tablet PC on both Windows and Mac. Did you know that if you want your handwritten signature to be your DocuSign signature, you can upload your custom signature?

 

With DocuSign, you don’t have to be face to face as you would need to be when capturing a digital signature via a tablet screen. This feature is very convenient when your signers are busy, traveling, or simply across town from each other!

 

Scan and Email vs DocuSign

It is possible to scan and email a document, but this process lacks the audit trail, encryption, and ESIGN compliant features that keeps your transactions safe and secure. Scanning a signature and emailing it takes more time and technology (scanners, etc) and has less legal evidence of who signed, etc.

 

With DocuSign, you’ll get an eSignature service that is ESIGN compliant as well as a Certificate of Completion and complete audit trail for each document, ESIGN Consumer Consent Manager, and integrated signer authentication. DocuSign is browser-based for Mac, PC & mobile devices and the only requirement is Internet connectivity.

 

DocuSign also provides reporting, custom storage folder structures, search and sort envelopes, and automated reminders/expirations, providing you with the utmost visibility into your transactions and saving you time from not having to print and scan!

 

 

Signer’s Learning Curve

DocuSign is incredibly easy for signers. All they have to do is log into their email, read the message, and click the link. Once they’re in the system, they simply have to check the ESIGN Consumer Consent, adopt a signature, and click the yellow stick-e-tabs to eSign or initial, placing their signature and initials wherever you instruct them in the document.

 

Once all the stick-e-tabs are clicked, they simply have to click the complete signing button.

 

Templates

Templates are available to new and recent subscribers with DocuSign Standard. You also have access to templates if you’re on the older DocuSign Professional Advanced plan. If you’re using DocuSign Basic or DocuSign Professional, you can always upgrade to DocuSign Standard if you want template functionality.

 

Templates allow you to place ALL the signature, initials, and other tabs for ALL your signers with ONLY ONE CLICK!  Yes, once you use templates you will never go back!  DocuSign is the ONLY service available that can automatically place tabs on all your documents automatically, no matter what documents you load.  (Probably one of the reasons NAR chose this eSign service as the standard)

 

Banks, FHA and DocuSign

DocuSign has been working with the banks and FHA to get written documentation in place to enable the acceptance of electronic signature in real estate transactions.

 

Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer, has written a blog post about the FHA and Electronic Signature Acceptance – the bottom line is that FHA does accept eSignature!

 

Identity theft, Security

How do you know who signed?  DocuSign provides a robust system with several tiers of security.  First, our data centers are hardened and comply with the strictest standards.  We actually run two separate data centers – one in Seattle and one in Chicago, hosted by Savvis, a worldwide infrastructure provider. In terms of signer authentication, DocuSign supports the following authentication methods:

 

1. Email – validate and record the signer had access to a known email address
2. Access code – A PIN or Password that is provided to each signer to access the document in order to sign
3. ID Check – a Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) process provided through DocuSign from RSA.  This presents a set of questions only the signer could know.

 

 

 

 

In addition, we offer many other tools - OFAC, Age Verification, and STAN PIN for student lenders.   It is not required that you add additional layers of signer authentication to your process, but if you need it, it is there.

 

Each document deposited into the DocuSign system is individually encrypted with government standard encryption algorithms (AES 256 bit), and a digital fingerprint is created.   Every time the document is accessed, it is analyzed to be certain it has not been tampered or modified.  We also capture all aspects of signing in the audit trail, including email, IP address used, and exact time of signing. Any authentication methods requested are also captured.

 

All of this goes on behind the scenes, so you get the benefit of the most secure processing and handling, with the easiest and most familiar signing interface available. You get nothing like this from any other service or process on the market.

 

 

Other Questions about Using DocuSign’s eSignature Services

Can the other agent's clients also sign or is just on your side?  If not, how does the other party sign and return?

 

This is a great question, and it has a few answers, all in the positive.  Yes, both sides can sign using DocuSign.  It depends on the situation:

 

• The other agent has DocuSign, and you don’t know the other agent’s signers – Simply tag up the document for your signers, add the other agent as a ‘CC’, and they will get a copy as soon as your signers complete signing.  The other agent can then also use the ‘Forward’ tool, and place tabs for their signers, and complete the transaction, adding you as the final ‘CC’.
• The other agent has DocuSign and you DO know the other agent’s signers – Simply tag up the document for all signers.  Put the other agent in sequenced AFTER your signers, and BEFORE the other signers so they can review it. Everyone gets a copy when the transaction is complete.
• The other agent does not use DocuSign – Simply tag up the document, get your signers to sign, and when done email (or forward) the signed document to the other agent. They can print it out and sign on paper.  Combined ESIGN and hand signed documents are fine.

 

 

 

I'm assuming the buyers/sellers sign then fax it to the system which puts it into the system in the sky making it available for you to obtain then resend via email?

 

No faxes required. Save your time and save a tree with DocuSign. Once you’ve set up a document for signature in the DocuSign system, DocuSign will send an email notification to your buyer / seller, notifying them that you have requested their signature via DocuSign.

 

They click the link which pops open a secure browser. They click on a consent notification, agreeing to do business electronically as well as adopt an electronic signature. Once they’ve signed and initialed where you’ve indicated with DocuSign’s stick-e-tabs and clicked the complete signing button, DocuSign will notify you that your signer has completed the signing process.

 

You can log into DocuSign and download a copy for your records. If you have DocuSign standard, you can set up DocuSign to automatically forward completed documents to the other agent on the transaction!

 

Thanks again for the questions and comments – if you have any further questions, please let me know or take a look at the DocuSign Electronic Signature Blog!

 

Jeremy, Thanks, I'll check it out and perhaps give it trial run.

Ty

NICE!

Invite someone in right from Docusign!

Nice touch...

That's engaging.

Once you try DocuSign, you'll never leave.

I do use them for the initial offer, and once my clients use it, they don't want to do anything different.

Even though I'm in Washington, DC, I still find agents who don't like it, and of course, short sale lenders and reo sellers insist on "written" signatures. In those cases, I will have the client "sign" with pen/paper next to the DocuSign, and fax back.

Two best advantages are the time saved from not driving to meet to get "signature" and the clarity of a contract when it hasn't been through 12 fax iterations.  I'd still think that less than 5% of realtors are using this system.

I had a short sale negotiator refuse to take the docu sign signature and demanded the buyer sign personally instead, on our last short sale that closed last week.

If you 'go over the price and terms' of a Colorado contract, that covers about a tenth of what they're signing. Are you really representing them if that's all you do?

I am giving this a lot of thought and think it's time to do it.  I've heard a lot of good things and have actually seen it in action.  It would be perfect for working when traveling.

I love Docusign and in general so do my clients.  It helps everyone and saves a lot of time.

I agree that this is a great program & I wish I could use it for real estate purposes. However, in NY State, electronic signatures are not allowed.  If they were, I would definitely use it!

I've been thinking about maybe using docusign for a couple of months now but I've been waiting to see if anyone else was using it and see what their experience was. Maybe I'll look more into it now.

This is not used much around here, yet. The comments gave me some ideas. Thanks.

Just checked out the docusign demo video and was impressed.  I plan on signing up soon.  BTW-they should be paying you for this blog post...