Now if I was paperless how could I keep my desk piled up so I can't see the top of the desk.  If my desk was not piled up I would know that I was in the wrong office.

I think we will see finger print reckon devices for the actual signing of contracts or retina snap shots.  Just think having your Grandma stand still for a picture of her eye.

Vicky - That is easy.  Go to the next EXPO event and get a pantload of flyers and brochures.  They often stack better.  Also, in my office, the local printing/flyer delivery company delivers a couple dozen sheets of recycling material each week.  You might actually be able to compost them right there...

Gary - I bet we will see all sorts of stuff.  I think it would be easier to get the fingerprint scan.  But, if I am dealing with people that I think are going to try that hard to get out of contracts, the signature isn't going to be good with ink on paper, either.  

Hi Lane,

Another great tool. I think we need all the tools we can get. Good Luck.

Lane: 

Well...aren't you just Mr. Hi-tech Red neck???? =] 

I hope you find that humorous.  I certainly don't want to tick you off!  Hope I didn't.  You know I'm picking! 

I'm getting rid of my typewriter this year and going to Texas Instruments DOS based system.  =]

Anthony - I am a tool kind of guy.

Jessica - Are you worried that the Jeep guy that finds it entertaining to roll a Jeep off of a rock is going to get offended at being called a redneck?  I love my TRS80 descktop.  It is so much batter than the old Colleco that hooked up to the TV..

Lane:

I have to be careful...I've pushed a few buttons this week with one of my posts.  OMG! My dad had a Colleco "Adam" computer! HA!HA!  I liked donkey kong!

Jessica - You?  Push a few buttons?  Say it isn't so...

Lane,

I hope you love your new toy.

I have written about PDF annotator a few times. I have also shown many agents in SoCal how to do it and still don't get the usefulness of a tablet pc.

You can even do what you want w/o PDF annotator and only use OneNote.  But the PDF annotator solution is easier and has less steps.

I also use it myself for customer receipts/invoices

Loren
www.futureofrealestatetechnology.com

Loren - Toy not new... had it for a couple of years.  I've just been slow to find the solutions I was looking for.  I was looking for fewer steps.  I had found a way to sign and then drop the signature into the right place, but that wasn't a good solution.  it made clients uneasy to see that their signature could be copy/pasted...

I have to agree Real Estate produces paper like it is going out of style (which it is actually) I would love to go paperless.

Todd & Danielle - I had to laugh about that comment.  I've been wanting to go paperless for a while... or at least radically cut down the amount of paper.  It's crazy. 

I know digital signatures are accepted and compliant with the law Clinton passed on digital signatures.  You might look at SureDocs, they have it so you can upload any document to it, email them to be digitally signed and converted to PDF... It is awesome, I used it when I was an LO.  I'm not sure that the software your using would be compliant or not... something to look in to though.

I'm going to make sure that it is acceptable to LOs and Closing Attorneys prior to full implementation. 

I almost hate to say this, but in the interest of entertainment. I'll do it. My previous career was in technology. I was the manager of the computer operations department at a very large retail company. My department used millions of dollars of paper every year, and one of our goals all through the 90's was to eliminate paper cost. We spent a lot of time and money working to achieve that goal. What we found out was that sometimes paper is the cheapest, most reliable form of communication. It's very reliable, and portable, and cheap. I can print 1 page of information for just a few pennies, fold it up, put it in my pocket, take it to anywhere in the world, and read that information. No matter how good your PDA or Laptop may be, it will need electricity, and a network connection, not to mention the space it takes,/ . And when it dies from a disk failure, or cpu failure, you will probably lose some of your data. I back up my systems weekly, but I still keep contractd on paper, as well as pdf. One of my tasks as operations manager was disaster recovery planning and implementation. After 20 years of doing that, I know that it's hard to imagine everything that could happen, but do your best, because Murphy's law is always out there.

Believe it or not, Coffee spills and Lightning are the 2 biggest fears for me. I've spent more time replacing hardware from those than all others combined.

Larry - Never hate to disagree with me... or even appear to disagree.  I respect your opinion, and have NO issues with posts that don't say... "great post, Lane"... in fact, I often prefer them because they challenge my thinking.  

I understand, and agree that paper is cheaper.  I can print a page for just a few cents.  I think when I ran the numbers for my multi-function printer, I was around 1.9 cents a page.  So, the average contract was about 19 cents.  Even if I had it 5 times, that was only $1.  I don't do a lot of volume, so that $60 software investment and extra $600 or so on the tablet would take decades to pay back from paper cost savings.  

I also mostly agree with you regarding reliability.  After the page is printed, it stays printed... unless it is lost, destroyed or thrown away unintentionally.  That is part of it.  I'm not a filer.  I'm much more efficient at tracking files on my computer than I am at tracking them around the office (spelled H-O-U-S-E).  Also, as an agent, not a broker, I don't have a legal obligation to maintain the files after closing.  So, while I do keep files of final contracts for all of my closings, I won't be in trouble if they are lost... not advocating lost, just looking at worst case. 

Finally, I am in no way even thinking I will be paper-free.  I just want to be at a reasonable and manageable level.  I will still print listing sheets for my buyer, if not for me as well.  I will still have other information on paper as well.  I'm just tired of dealing with so much intermediate paper that is printed to be shredded.  

Thanks again, Larry.  You're going to keep me thinking... 

Hey Lane good points. I also have the opportunities associated with working from home, and I agree with you. I just wanted to share my experience with the frustration of trying to go paperless, and the rest of the world didn't want to participate.  Keep up the good work.

Lane, I think that is an brilliant idea. I love the idea of having a signed pdf. With all different types of digital archiving available, I dont think you can go wrong. I would like to see what you learn about the legality of it.  - Julianna

Larry - I understand.  I don't like to be too far in front of the curve, but I think that this is a reasonable step that we can take to be more ecologically friendly, as well as more organized.

Julianna - I will update the post as I get deeper in to this, as well as as I find more info.  

Hi all.  I just wanted to toss out the first of the updates for anyone following this conversation.  I ran across a post on BloodhoundBlog today that hits this EXACTLY.  The poster is using a convertible tablet, PDF Annotator, and OneNote... just with Vista.  So, here is a link to that post. 

I just started on the quest of the paperless transaction and also have struggles with the how to write on the screen and make is easy enough for the clients to use that they don;'t feel like an experiment that is still in the beta stage. I currently am trying to use windows journal. Move all the forms to journal and you can initial, add to the forms and sign with little problems. Currently the issue I have is converting the journal files to one that will be accepted by the clients. If you convert to a PDF it does not work but I am still on the mission and also am looking for the paperless transaction. Thanks for your comments and If I find the solution I'll comment back.

Terry - PDF Annotator seems to be the solution to filling out the contracts on the computer.  One can type in to the type spaces, as well as sign the signature lines and then "melt" the added info into the PDF and it is part of it. 

Lane,

Great post. I picked up a Lenovo X-61 Tablet for my wife "Realtor" about 3 months ago. So far so good. Signing contracts on the screen and emailing it to all parties works great!!! Clients love the technology being used too - looks very professional. I use MyFAX too and have become much less of a tree killer - great post!!

Mike Lewis

Mike - I have a mail out to one of my closing attorneys... we'll see the response.  What I have seen so far is that this technology is widely, but not universally accepted. 

BTW, here is another post that has popped up in the last couple of days about this very subject.  I had trouble wit hthe video, but listened last night.  As usual, there were a number of great points that were brought up. 

I tried that first and like what the journal did but looks like I have to go back to using The pdf Annotator. Thanks for the comments. Terry

Terry - I need to see what I can do that will allow me to type in the typable fields, and then run it through PDF Annotator to do the signatures. 

I have run across another possibility for on-screen signatures.  It is called Bluebeam PDF Revu.  It comes from the drafting world, but they figured out that others had similar needs.  It is $150, but also authors PDFs, as well as allowing a few other things.  One can re-arrange pages in the PDF, or re-arrange info in the PDF without converting and reconverting.  It offers the same abilities to ink on the document and then "melt" it in.  

It is a bit more like the Adobe PDF creator, with ink annotation added in... and priced accordingly.