No printer? No fax machine? No problem

By
Real Estate Agent with Select Realty Professionals

No need for a printer or fax machine, sign online with just an email addressImage courtesy of Stephen Cummings

I work with a good number of people who are moving to Chattanooga. Usually, after a long day of looking at homes for sale (28 in one day is my personal record!), they'll make a decision and then say - panicking - "but I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning, how are we going to sign the contract?"

And then I get to laugh like an evil genius because I know that if you have an email account, you can sign a contract without any more hassle than it is to delete your cousin Howard's forwarded jokes.

I use a service called EchoSign. It's secure, completely legal and accepted by almost* everyone. It's the easiest thing since sliced bread and it doesn't require a printer, scanner or fax machine.

Clickety-click and you're done. Once everyone has signed, it will automatically send you a copy of the signed contract. There is an audit trail on the back end showing the email address of the person who did the signing so it's just as secure as your email.

But since this is something that is new to most people, I put together a little video to show you how it works before you actually do it.

Please to enjoy!  

 

*HUD, oh HUD, why must you insist on "wet" signatures?

Originally posted at JuliaOdom.com

Posted by

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Julia Odom enjoys long walks on the beach, debating the renovation vs. restoration question and hanging out with home inspectors.

Visit Chattanooga Real Estate News to search homes for sale or view the rest of her blog

Contact Julia Odom Chattanooga Homes for Sale Chattanooga real estate market reports Living in Chattanooga Humor in Real Estate

 

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Comments (7)

David Spencer
Keller Williams Northland - Kansas City, MO
Show Me real estate in Kansas City

My buyer's cousin Vinny may not buy it. But you know in Chicago, we have ways around it.

Feb 28, 2011 11:53 AM
Denise Hamlin, Broker/Owner
Cardinal Realty ~ 319-400-0268 - Iowa City, IA
Helping Happy Clients Make Smart Choices

Hello Stranger, nice to "see" you. I really am behind the curve when it comes to e-signing documents. I really must catch up!

Feb 28, 2011 01:04 PM
Julia Odom
Select Realty Professionals - Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga Homes for Sale

Arggh! I know, I have been a stranger because I've been lazy busy unmotivated to write lately. But I'm getting back in the swing!

And seriously, I wouldn't go back to faxing for anything. If you work with out-of-towners or investors at all it is totally worth the money. I can write up and get a contract signed in less than an hour on average. If the client knows it's coming it's 15 minutes.

Love. It.

Feb 28, 2011 01:35 PM
Ken's Home Team LLC. | 360.609.0226 | Portland, OR & Vancouver, WA Real Estate Team
Ken's Home Team LLC. - Vancouver, WA
- SOLD IS OUR FAVORITE 4 LETTER WORD -

KW has just rolled out a new program to push our paperless initiative.. It is comming and will happen!!!!! I have seen the program and it will be amazing!

Feb 28, 2011 03:34 PM
Barbara Michaluk
Weichert Realtors | Phone Direct 240-506-2434 | 301-681-0550 office - Silver Spring, MD
Leisure World Specialist / Full Service REALTOR

This looks simple enough and appears to be a great tool for situations where the client is out of town and not able to print or fax.  Thanks for sharing.

Feb 28, 2011 11:44 PM
Anonymous
Paul

Do you have to have an Enterprise (Echo Sign) plan to be able to send document with multiple buyers ? 

Mar 04, 2011 01:26 PM
#6
Julia Odom
Select Realty Professionals - Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga Homes for Sale

@Paul: I think they have a totally free product if you only do something in the neighborhood of ~5 sigs/mo. I have the Pro plan which is $15/mo. They also have an Enterprise level - don't know how much it costs but it's way out of the league of what I need. You can do multiple signatories (or buyers in our cases) with the Pro plan - I would assume you could do the same free as long as you didn't go over the magic number. 

Theoretically, if you already had a verbal agreement and were just getting sigs from everyone involved, you could actually cover A-Z (listing agent, seller, buyer's agent, buyer) and have it go to each person in succession. In practice that rarely happens, but I have sold one of my own listings before totally digital.

You can sign up for the service here (affiliate link which I didn't even know they had until just now). It's quite easy on the back end as well, although not nearly as simple as the video shows, since that's for the client. What you have to do is a little more involved but still very intuitive.

Mar 04, 2011 01:53 PM