There are days when most of us would like to chuck all of our electronic devices out the window. We dream of days without a peep, ring or whir. The reports of the latest computer virus or anticipating the blue screen of death sends shivers down our spines.
But would we go back to pink phone slips for messages, contracts in triplicate or multiple listing books only available in the office? I doubt you could get a very many Realtors® to say yes. Fortunately technology has become more reliable and some of the things we most feared a few years ago rarely happen to us today.
Over the years what's in my real estate toolkit has evolved but without a doubt the tool that today I couldn't live without is DocuSign. Over the last two years a large percentage of my sellers have been military and a number of them have been deployed or in the process of moving. Getting to a computer wasn't difficult for most of them where a fax machine might have been impossible.
A contract ready to sign electronically isn't constrained by time or location. There isn't any wondering if the faxed pages were right side up or whether there was paper in the machine at the other end. Instead a notice arrives in there email with instructions on how to adopt a signature and Docusign walks them through the process. When I work with agents who are sending me handwritten faxed contracts part of me cringes.
Recently an agent representing a buyer on one of my listings who's clients were not in the area kept asking me for more time to get the documents to me. The buyer's had to print them, sign them and then go to a business center to fax them back. Finally I said do you mind if I just send them the documents electronically for them to sign. They were shocked at how simple it was and they ordered Docusign the next day.
Though I'd still like to have a day without the phone ringing, I don't want to handle my real estate business without DocuSign.
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