In last Spring's more competitive market, I had some buyers that had reached the height of their motivation and desire to purchase a home right before they were about embark on a 10-day cruise. Following a 0-for-4 viewing Saturday right before their trip, I told them, "As soon as you go away, the right house will come on the market." True to Murphy's Law, the house they wanted came on the market the morning they were set to leave. I barely had a chance to pull it up in my e-mail updates before my buyer called to say they wanted to make an offer. The buyers literally stopped by my office on the way to the cruise to sign an offer and then departed for points tropical.
On the 3rd day of their cruise, the buyers received a counter offer from the seller.
How would I get them to sign this counter offer? I couldn't easily drive it over. There wasn't a fax machine on the boat. I must sound like a commercial, but it was that weekend I became a paying DocuSign customer. Since my buyers did have e-mail access through their smart phone, they could sign documents without printing, scanning, or faxing. If I were to star in a DocuSign commecial, my tag line would be: "DocuSign: Don't Miss the Boat."
It is amazing to me that e-signatures are on the verge of replacing printing/scanning as a main vehicle to obtain signatures from a client. There's obviously a demand for the service since there's a market for multiple e-signature platforms. And although it's a technology tool I use routinely, I wonder how necessary the technology is. While I am a satisfied DocuSign customer, I'm dumbfouned that we've determined that the ability to print, sign, and scan a document--a document a that was possibly created half way around the world--from the comfort of our own home computer is too inconvenient.
I remember sitting at lunch in 8th grade having a conversation about our parents' jobs. When Chris Lynn told me his father sold fax machines I had no idea what he was talking about. As I quizzically gnawed a fruit roll up, I listed to Chris describe this machine that would send papers to another machine across town. In my 13 year old head I pictured a miniature Star Trek Tansporter that somehow converted papers to energy and then beamed that transmission to a remote machine. Heck, I wasn't too far off. The point is that in the past 20 years we've gone from fax to e-mail to e-signature in a blur without perhaps considering all the implications. Perhaps committing to purchase a million dollar home should not be as simple as liking a friend's wedding pictures on facebook.
If you Google "e-signature lawsuits" there are over a million results. In addition, many lenders require actual ink signatures as a lending condition if the original contract was e-signed by either party. So it seems that not everyone is on board with e-signatures. Maybe they shouldn't. If the State of California outlawed e-signatures tomorrow, I wouldn't storm the capital with a pitchfork.
Since I don't own a pitchfork, I'm going to be more judicious about how I use e-signatures in my business. In the following situations I would be unlikely to use e-signatures:
Buyer's first purchase contract - As a buyers agent, one the most valuable services I provide is an explanation of the California purchase contract, which is done in concert with the buyers writing their first offer with me. I feel pretty strongly that this event has to take place in person.
Seller Disclosures - There's something about receiving a package of disclosures that have been e-signed. They just scream out to me, "The seller put no time into this!" In my book, the completing of the sellers disclosures is worthy of a face-to-face conversation.
On other hand I think e-signatures appropriate in these situations:
Counter Offers - The quicker and tighter you make the response loop, the sooner buyer and seller can reach a deal.
Requests or extensions - I just had some clients e-sign a Request for Repairs that followed a home inspection and a meeting where we discussed the results of that inspection.
Technology has afforded us a variety of methods to coummuicate with our clients. Based on the message we want to communicate, we need to pick the appropriate medium for that communication. Would you text your seller on day 17 to inform them the buyer cancelled? I hope not. Similarly, not every signature we ask for will be appropriate for an e-signature. While it's easy to fall in love with with a new technology like e-signatures, it's important to remember no technology is a replacement for face to face client time.
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