Bradley Inman, Paperless Now & Echo Friendly Realty

 If you don’t know Bradley Inman, chances are that you’re not involved in any industry relating to Real Estate, Title Insurance, Escrow, or Mortgage banking.  And, that’s just fine – he’ll continue his crusade to reduce paper waste just the same.  It seems to have gotten under his skin.

Bradley is a fairly influential guy.  Among his interests, he happens to publish Inman News – one of the primary sources of information on the real estate industry.  Let’s just say he’s got juice. 

Recently, he’s been blogging through his experience as a California home buyer.  It’s worth a read for insights into the ever-changing world of real esate, alone.  Last month, all this reflection brought up a clear disappointment.  In his blog, Brad describes staring at a 6.4 inch, 3.1 pound pile of papers – containing exactly 100 initials or signatures.

As the founder of the “Paperless Now” initiative – specifically targeted at enlightenment within real estate and mortgage – Bradley was hinting at feelings of defeat.

If one of the biggest influencers in the real estate industry can’t move the needle, then who can?

Rewind to last fall.  Some of you may have heard of Al Gore’s documentary “An inconvenient truth.”  I caught a similar sense of defeat in a comment made by yet another influencer of public opinion.  In the film, Gore says, (pardon me, I’m paraphrasing) “I’ve delivered this set of slides over a thousand times, across the globe.  And, I keep getting the impression that people hear me, they believe that global warming is a real peril.  Yet, I keep feeling that people aren’t empowered to make a difference on their own.”

Given the success of that film, it seems proposterous that Al Gore expresses failure because things aren’t changing.

So, if a world leader can’t change public opinion – and, therefore individual action – who can?

I only had to wait a few days for my answer… to BOTH questions.

As he was passing through Seattle, I invited real estate industry thought leader, Kevin Boer to stop by the DocuSign office for coffee and a chat.  Thoughts turned to how our little DocuSign service left him feeling… what??? “Empowered as an individual to make an impact.”

And, suddenly, the pieces came together.  Here’s Kevin reducing his reliance on paper (he shared a relevant DocuSign Moment about avoiding faxing a 250pp document – which would have doubled to 500 pieces of paper when it emerged from a hotel fax machine when it arrived), taking fewer cross-town drives (on California’s Hwy 101, no less), all the while improving his client experience.

By the way, we were so impressed with Kevin’s insights, that we actually recorded some of his comments and made a nice and tidy podcast that you really need to listen to.  I especially appreciate Kevin’s realization that he improved his business and client experience by setting his mind to reduce the clutter of paperwork.

Here we are 32 years since Business Week announced the “office of the future” and coined the term paperless office.  And, who would have guessed that it would be led by the individual? Admittedly, it’s taken a convergence of technologies to make it happen.  But, we don’t even have to wait for those big corporations to lead the way!

Don’t get me wrong… grass roots efforts are only a beginning.  I work directly with people in multiple industries, and I’m well aware of efforts underway to streamline what used to be paper-based processes.  And, yes… this even includes real estate.

So, I contend – Al, Bradley… you’re being heard.  And, people ARE finding clever ways to play along.  Business has awakened to the fact that wasteful processes are… well, in a word, wasteful. We’re looking at a powerful combination when individuals desire to make a change (in America??); and businesses recognize that the economics are in their favor when they do.

Perhaps some bad news for those of you that read to the end.  It turns out that the paperless revolution is on your shoulders. And, if Brad Inman is an indicator – they’re expecting you to come to task.  Those huge, interconnected business processes like Mortgage are simply going to have to catch up!

Give it some thought. Ask some questions.  Find a way to take action.  Whatever you do… don’t print out this article.  Nobody wants to see Brad Inman cry.