Have Questions About DocuSign's Electronic Signature Services? We Have Answers!

What a great start to my week - a blogger posted his thoughts about eSignature from DocuSign which resulted in more than 100 comments! Wow! I wanted to address the major themes and questions from the comments, as everyone brought up some great points!

Reasons To Choose DocuSign
Among the top reasons to choose DocuSign for your Real Estate ESIGN provider is that NAR has named DocuSign the official and exclusive provider of eSign services through the NAR Member Benefits® Program!  This recognizes DocuSign as the best service for the complexities of Real Estate transactions.  What's more, if you sign up for the DocuSign REALTOR® Edition, you'll get the option to adopt an exclusive REALTOR® branded e-Signature, an intuitive, secure REALTOR® branded dashboard, with real-time document status updates, REALTOR® branded email communications templates, and a 20% savings over standard DocuSign rates on both editions - DocuSign REALTOR® Basic and DocuSign REALTOR® Standard.

In addition to DocuSign's relationship with NAR, we also enable you to get your life back - you'll no longer have to chase faxes, missed initials or signatures!

Personal Touch
Electronic signature from DocuSign doesn't mean that you're giving up the personal touch.  For busy buyers and sellers, using DocuSign's electronic signature services demonstrates that you're sensitive to their schedules. DocuSign also has an in-person signing feature, so that you can meet up with your clients, get their signatures and keep it in the DocuSign system. This eliminates the need to scan and upload!

DocuSign lets you focus on your most important value to your clients - the expert in Real Estate. Your knowledge of your area, the tools for the job, and the personal attention you provide are FAR MORE IMPORTANT than your role as a paper clerk!  Cut out the paper and focus on what you do best - you as the expert.

DocuSign Brings eSignature to your Mobile
DocuSign has “Designed for Mobile” functionality to allow anyone to sign on their phone in an interface specifically designed for smaller screens. There is no app to download, it runs in your mobile browser, and it works with Apple iPhone, Windows Mobile, Google Android and RIM Blackberry. It also enables your signers to eSign from the kids' soccer game, in line at the grocery store, while pumping gas... anywhere they have access to their mobile email!

For those who DO have an iPhone, there is a really nifty application out there that allows you to do even more - review status, and even send from templates.  Yup, there's an app for that.

DocuSign vs Tablet Screen
DocuSign can work on a PC, laptop or Tablet PC on both Windows and Mac. Did you know that if you want your handwritten signature to be your DocuSign signature, you can upload your custom signature?

With DocuSign, you don't have to be face to face as you would need to be when capturing a digital signature via a tablet screen. This feature is very convenient when your signers are busy, traveling, or simply across town from each other!

Scan and Email vs DocuSign
It is possible to scan and email a document, but this process lacks the audit trail, encryption, and ESIGN compliant features that keeps your transactions safe and secure. Scanning a signature and emailing it takes more time and technology (scanners, etc) and has less legal evidence of who signed, etc.

With DocuSign, you'll get an eSignature service that is ESIGN compliant as well as a Certificate of Completion and complete audit trail for each document, ESIGN Consumer Consent Manager, and integrated signer authentication. DocuSign is browser-based for Mac, PC & mobile devices and the only requirement is Internet connectivity.

DocuSign also provides reporting, custom storage folder structures, search and sort envelopes, and automated reminders/expirations, providing you with the utmost visibility into your transactions and saving you time from not having to print and scan!

Signer's Learning Curve
DocuSign is incredibly easy for signers. All they have to do is log into their email, read the message, and click the link. Once they're in the system, they simply have to check the ESIGN Consumer Consent, adopt a signature, and click the yellow stick-e-tabs to eSign or initial, placing their signature and initials wherever you instruct them in the document.

Once all the stick-e-tabs are clicked, they simply have to click the complete signing button.

Templates
Templates are available to new and recent subscribers with DocuSign Standard. You also have access to templates if you're on the older DocuSign Professional Advanced plan. If you're using DocuSign Basic or DocuSign Professional, you can always upgrade to DocuSign Standard if you want template functionality.

Templates allow you to place ALL the signature, initials, and other tabs for ALL your signers with ONLY ONE CLICK!  Yes, once you use templates you will never go back!  DocuSign is the ONLY service available that can automatically place tabs on all your documents automatically, no matter what documents you load.  (Probably one of the reasons NAR chose this service as the standard)

Banks, FHA and DocuSign

DocuSign has been working with the banks and FHA to get written documentation in place to enable the acceptance of electronic signature in real estate transactions.

Ken Moyle, DocuSign's Chief Legal Officer, has written a blog post about the FHA and Electronic Signature Acceptance - the bottom line is that FHA does accept eSignature!

Identity theft, Security
How do you know who signed?  DocuSign provides a robust system with several tiers of security.  First, our data centers are hardened and comply with the strictest standards.  We actually run two separate data centers - one in Seattle and one in Chicago, hosted by Savvis, a worldwide infrastructure provider. In terms of signer authentication, DocuSign supports the following authentication methods:

1. Email - validate and record the signer had access to a known email address
2. Access code - A PIN or Password that is provided to each signer to access the document in order to sign
3. ID Check - a Knowledge Based Authentication (KBA) process provided through DocuSign from RSA.  This presents a set of questions only the signer could know.

In addition, we offer many other tools - OFAC, Age Verification, and STAN PIN for student lenders.   It is not required that you add additional layers of signer authentication to your process, but if you need it, it is there.

Each document deposited into the DocuSign system is individually encrypted with government standard encryption algorithms (AES 256 bit), and a digital fingerprint is created.   Every time the document is accessed, it is analyzed to be certain it has not been tampered or modified.  We also capture all aspects of signing in the audit trail, including email, IP address used, and exact time of signing. Any authentication methods requested are also captured.

All of this goes on behind the scenes, so you get the benefit of the most secure processing and handling, with the easiest and most familiar signing interface available. You get nothing like this from any other service or process on the market.

Other Questions about Using DocuSign's eSignature Services
Can the other agent's clients also sign or is just on your side?  If not, how does the other party sign and return?
This is a great question, and it has a few answers, all in the positive.  Yes, both sides can sign using DocuSign.  It depends on the situation:

A)   The other agent has DocuSign, and you don't know the other agent's signers.  - Simply tag up the document for your signers, add the other agent as a 'CC', and they will get a copy as soon as your signers complete signing.  The other agent can then also use the 'Forward' tool, and place tabs for their signers, and complete the transaction, adding you as the final 'CC'.

B)   The other agent has DocuSign and you DO know the other agent's signers - Simply tag up the document for all signers.  Put the other agent in sequenced AFTER your signers, and BEFORE the other signers so they can review it. Everyone gets a copy when the transaction is complete.

C)   The other agent does not use DocuSign - Simply tag up the document, get your signers to sign, and when done email (or forward) the signed document to the other agent. They can print it out and sign on paper.  Combined ESIGN and hand signed documents are fine.

I'm assuming the buyers/sellers sign then fax it to the system which puts it into the system in the sky making it available for you to obtain then resend via email?
No faxes required. Save your time and save a tree with DocuSign. Once you've set up a document for signature in the DocuSign system, DocuSign will send an email notification to your buyer / seller, notifying them that you have requested their signature via DocuSign.

They click the link which pops open a secure browser. They click on a consent notification, agreeing to do business electronically as well as adopt an electronic signature. Once they've signed and initialed where you've indicated with DocuSign's stick-e-tabs and clicked the complete signing button, DocuSign will notify you that your signer has completed the signing process.

You can log into DocuSign and download a copy for your records. If you have DocuSign standard, you can set up DocuSign to automatically forward completed documents to the other agent on the transaction!

Thanks again for the questions and comments - if you have any further questions, please let me know!