Want to use e-Sign on Your iPad?
Doug Rybacki, director of product management for DocuSign, confirmed that DocuSign subscribers can create DocuSign envelopes on the iPad and it works well for templates and sending for eSignature with Freeform signing. Stay tuned for more information about DocuSign’s upcoming DocuSign for iPad app and click the link above to learn how!

Of course, not everyone has an iPad or iPhone – we also offer the ability to use electronic signature on other mobile devices.

Want to use Electronic Signature on Your Mobile Device?
With “Designed for Mobile,” all DocuSign electronic signature service subscribers can access their DocuSign console from their iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, and Google Android devices, which earned us finalist status at the Stevie Awards.

FHA and Lender Acceptance of Electronic Signature
Earlier this spring, the FHA has issued a mortgagee letter, clarifying FHA acceptance of electronic signature. Ken Moyle’s blog post on this topic from 2009 continues to be popular, especially with answers to situations around lender acceptance, such as:

My mortgage broker says the lender won’t accept electronic signatures

A few lenders have some policies in place that restrict electronically signed documents, but not all documents in a mortgage application file are the same. There is a difference between a mortgage closing document (such as an electronic note) and a supporting document (such as a real estate contract, addendum or disclosure). Supporting documents represent contracts between consenting parties that have already been consummated and are not part of the closing process. It is unusual for a lender to interfere with a real estate transaction by asking for it to be re-executed. Ask the broker or lender to clarify their position and to make sure they have all the information they need to make that assertion.

If you are unable to get your lender to accept a DocuSigned contract as part of a mortgage application, please immediately send the lender name and contact info to legal@docusign.com.

Ensuring Your Electronic Signature Stands up in Court
Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Vice President of Legal and Corporate Affairs and Chief Legal Officer, has also shared his thoughts regarding issues your should consider so that your electronic signature will stand up in court.

When you do business electronically, you should anticipate the need to produce evidence that proves a given person signed a given electronic document on a given date. That means you should look at taking such steps as:

• Including authentication procedures to verify the identity of the signatory
• Maintaining evidence of the particular electronic document that was signed electronically
• Maintaining evidence of the electronic process that was followed in obtaining the electronic signature on the electronic document

For more information on any of these topics, click the links to read the complete posts. You can also sign up for a free electronic signature trial!

We’re honored to be named a Top 50 Service Provider by Mortgage Technology magazine. Our inclusion as a Mortgage Technology Top 50 Service Provider was based on four major criteria—customer satisfaction, functionality, market share and viable revenue model. The providers on the list have satisfied users and show the ability to hold them by keeping those customers apace of the technology deployed by competing lenders.

According to Mortgage Technology, this year’s Top 50 Service Providers are mainstays with extensive mortgage experience. Although every year new companies make their way into the mortgage space, lenders continue to look for companies with longevity in mortgage. Additionally, industry consolidation is pushing some newcomers out of the market; therefore, the publication believes it is a good time for an established technology vendor with a proven track record, solid financials and a steady client base.

DocuSign continues to demonstrate leadership and market dominance in the electronic signature market, serving more than 30,000 customers and executing nearly 100 million signature events. As an example of DocuSign’s leadership, earlier this year DocuSign spearheaded an initiative for the FHA to clarify its position on electronic third-party signatures. On April 8, 2010, the FHA issued a mortgagee letter clarifying its policy, which is considered the first in what is expected to be a series of responses to this DocuSign initiative.

In June, DocuSign hosted the 2010 ESIGN Summit in San Francisco with a live keynote address from President Bill Clinton (via satellite). Gary Thomas, first vice president-elect of the National Association of REALTORS® presented, discussing how DocuSign enables REALTORS® and their clients to transact business from any place anytime. Other Industry visionaries and clients from mortgage and real estate sectors to technology and wealth management discussed the boundless opportunities to transact business more efficiently and environmentally friendly with DocuSign. To kick-off the Summit, DocuSign announced that it led a coalition in designating June 30 as National ESIGN Day to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the signing of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN).

DocuSign provides the largest and fastest growing electronic signature platform available and enables mortgage professionals, small businesses and enterprise organizations to operate with greater agility, more efficiently, while enhancing profitability and compliance. DocuSign is the only award-winning electronic signature platform to securely manage and control the complete document signing process offering unlimited mobility and convenience.

Click for the full list of Mortgage Technology Top 50 Service Providers. Doug Wheeler, vice president of marketing for DocuSign, shares:

We are pleased to be recognized as a Top 50 Service Provider by Mortgage Technology. The DocuSign electronic signature service offers mortgage and real estate professionals a competitive advantage in a challenging market by providing the right tools at the right time to complete deals faster—from anywhere, anytime. We’re proud to be among this prestigious group of providers.

FHA and Electronic Signature

In April 2010, Ken Moyle shared his thoughts immediately after the FHA clarified its acceptance of electronic signature, clarified in the Mortgagee Letter 2010-14. The last time Federal Housing Administration released any formal guidance on electronic signatures was way back in 1996. Since 2008, DocuSign’s real estate and mortgage origination customers have made it clear that FHA urgently needed to update and clarify its position on electronic signatures. And we heard you.

E-signed third-party documents, including real estate contracts, are now being accepted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Utah Supreme Court Provides Narrow Interpretation to Government Agency’s Right to Reject Electronically Signed Documents

After the FHA affirmed its acceptance of electronic signature, the Utah Supreme Court, issued a 15-page, unanimous ruling [Anderson v. Bell, No. 20100237 (Utah June 22, 2010)], as voters went to the polls for primary elections. Justices stated:

A signature under (Utah law) does not require a signor to physically handle a piece of paper and sign her name with a pen. An electronic signature is sufficient to satisfy the election code.

Ken provided perspective regarding the way the court eloquently and brutally exposed the weakness of the common argument about fraud and electronic signature use, noting that it reads well into the interpretation of UETA in 46 other states:

The Lt. Governor … contends that electronic signatures attached to a certificate of nomination lack ‘apparent authority’ as genuine signatures. This position is based on a theory that a holographic signature is self-authenticating because the reviewing party may merely look at the signature and see that someone put pen to paper to sign their name. In contrast, an electronic signature lacks apparent authority, because it appears as a typed list of names…. We are unpersuaded that an electronic signature presents special concerns regarding candidate fraud; a candidate could as easily handwrite or type fraudulent names onto a certificate of nomination.

Moreover, electronic signatures may be a better deterrent to candidate fraud because an electronic signature incorporates readily verifiable personal, but non-public, information. For instance, the signors of Mr. Anderson’s petition apparently had to enter a security code that corresponds to the last four digits of their drivers license number before their signature would be counted.

Congress Passes Resolution Declaring June 30th National ESIGN Day
U.S. House and Senate Acknowledge the Importance of eSignatures in Today’s Dynamic Business World on the 10th Anniversary of Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN)

In support of the measure, McDermott stated,

ESIGN has greatly improved the ability of companies in my district to be more effective and competitive in the global marketplace. I would especially like to acknowledge Seattle-based electronic signature platform provider, DocuSign, for being a leader in the electronic signatures and records industry, and for helping spearhead the coalition to recognize June 30 as National ESIGN Day. DocuSign recognizes that the benefits of e-commerce extend beyond the dollar values that are placed on business activity; with over 30,000 current customers, and having served over 4.5 million people to date, DocuSign provides its customers with confidence in the integrity and credibility of emerging electronic capabilities. They have been a leader in removing obstacles and barriers to business transactions online, allowing their customers to work faster, more reliably, and more securely.

In honor of the 10th Anniversary of ESIGN, we hosted the 2010 ESIGN Summit in San Francisco on June 30, 2010, with a live keynote address by President Bill Clinton (via satellite) and presentations from industry visionaries from salesforce.com, the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR), Box.net and DocuSign.

Interesting Facts About DocuSign and Electronic Signature

• Surpassed 4 million electronic signature users and exceeded 78 million eSignature events to date.
• Supports more than 30,000 customers from large enterprise organizations to individual professionals by consistently delivering 99.993% uptime.
• Recognizes and serves specialized customer needs with exclusive tailored editions—DocuSign REALTOR® Edition and DocuSign for Salesforce, DocuSign for Salesforce Real-Time Quotes and DocuSign for Salesforce Chatter Enabled.
• Dominates the SaaS-based eSignature market with an estimated 70 percent market share.
• 66% of U.S. adults wish they could complete and e-sign certain forms and business agreements online

To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the ESIGN Act and National ESIGN Day, we’ve set a goal of collecting 1,000,000 electronic signatures – we need your help to reach this goal.

Click to eSign the “ESIGN Support Pledge.” You’ll be able to download the document after signing to share via scribd or slideshare – be a part of this historical event and ESIGN today!

Did you know that our award-winning electronic signature service has created a more eco-friendly environment by reducing the consumption of paper by 837 tons of paper? This translates to nearly 14,230 trees as well as millions of greenbacks. To provide this environmental and business impact, we’ve released powerful features and functionality designed to support workflow and productivity. This includes automation of form fields and other workflow enhancements to simplify the user experience. Our customers now do more than ever with DocuSign, including handling new kinds of transactions and signing on even more devices.

Organizations of all sizes are deploying affordable, on-demand solutions like DocuSign to automate core business functions, reduce costs and increase employee productivity. Whether it’s a simple NDA or a complex global sales agreement requiring multi-party signatures, DocuSign helps companies operate greener, faster and more profitably by removing the hurdles associated with the signing process and by offering more ways for users to access and complete their transactions online.

Automatic Conversion of Adobe® PDF Form Fields. Now, when uploading Adobe PDF forms into the DocuSign system, the service automatically recognizes and converts all PDF form fields—including text boxes, radio button groups, drop downs and check boxes—along with their attributes, directly into secure DocuSign fields that can be assigned to specific recipients. These fields can be manipulated without any additional software, and the forms can be saved as templates in the DocuSign online forms library and shared with all account users.

DocuSign for Salesforce New Enhancements. Salesforce users now have access to all functionality DocuSign offers from inside Salesforce. Salesforce users can use DocuSign to send any document for signature as easily as sending email from Salesforce. Unique to DocuSign is the ability to drag and drop form fields associated with Salesforce data directly into documents, enabling these documents to collect data during the signing process and automatically update Salesforce in real time. This new capability eliminates rekeying of information and dramatically streamlines the sales process.
In addition, users can set up DocuSign for Salesforce accounts and manage users within the Salesforce application through the new DocuSign Admin Tab. Users can be up and running in a matter of minutes with no new user interface to learn. These new capabilities are expected to be released through the Salesforce Spring Update on March 6, 2010. DocuSign for Salesforce customers include Acteva, Community Energy, Drawloop, EDGAR® Online, LinkedIn, Yamaha and others.

Mobile Signing – “Designed for Mobile.” Rather than just ‘enable’ our existing web signing experience to work on a handheld device, we thought we’d do one better. Because our customers said it was so important, we designed a completely new signing process that is DESIGNED for Mobile. This new signing process:

• Uses smaller pages so they load faster
• Works with a wide range of mobile browsers, including iPhone, Blackberry, Windows Mobile, Google Android as well as iPad!

Sign on Paper – allow signers to print, sign, and return to the envelope. While we don’t want you to create paper, we understand that you may need hard copy documents. At least we can help you so you don’t have to MOVE it! If you need sign on paper, you can now elect to print out the documents, sign, and either upload or fax them back in. Perhaps you need a document notarized. Now you can handle that kind of transaction.

Request documents – request signers provide additional documentation. Sometimes you need a signature AND you need some other documentation. With DocuSign’s ‘Signer Attachments’, you can request your signer upload or fax in additional documentation to complete your transaction. Store everything securely in the same envelope, so it is easy to find. DocuSign is the only place you get electronic signature tools like this!

Advanced Correct – fix on the fly. Have you ever sent something out only to realize it was not addressed correctly or the document was missing something? You’ve got that “stuck” feeling, huh? Not if you use DocuSign! Now you can correct your documents after they have been sent! What can you “fix on the fly”?

• Missing or misplaced signature blocks
• Recipients’ name(s) spelled wrong

Of course you can’t change history, but you can adjust anything that needs adjusting before a signer signs. This just plain saves you the hassle of having to resend your documents.

Resizable Electronic Signatures. Sounds funny, but people really do want you to sign ‘inside the lines’ on some documents. Now with DocuSign’s signature resizer, you can make the signatures you collect from your signers small enough to fit in those tiny forms. This just keeps things neat and proper.

We’ve also worked with the FHA in releasing the mortgagee letter that states their acceptance of electronic signature on real estate documents.

Did you know you can vote for your favorite new products from now through June 4th? To vote for DocuSign, please enter the short code R864P on the Stevie Award’s Web site!

Thank you for your ongoing support and feedback!

Tom Gonser on Real Estate Today

This weekend’s theme on Real Estate Today Radio, “From Contract to Closing” includes a discussion about eSignature, the perfect tool for getting your offer on the table as quickly as possible.

Real Estate Today’s Gil Gross sat down with our very own Tom Gonser, vice president of product strategy and founder of DocuSign, to talk about the fastest way to seal the deal using electronic signature.

DocuSign eSignature Delivers Green by Saving Businesses 837 Tons of Paper and Millions in Greenbacks

Electronic Signature Service Creates a Leaner, Greener and More Profitable Business Environment

Happy Earth Day! We’re celebrating Earth Day by sharing some fun eSignature and paperless business facts with you! Did you know that our award-winning eSignature service has created a more eco-friendly environment by reducing consumption of approximately 837 tons of paper or nearly 14,230 trees? DocuSign’s electronic signature service has significantly reduced businesses reliance on traditional, more antiquated methods of communication by revolutionizing the way documents are shared, signed and stored. DocuSign eSignature service eliminates the need to print, fax, scan, mail and store paper documents by providing a fast, green easy to use electronic document signing process.

Launching New App on Salesforce.com’s ChatterExchange, Accelerating the Market Shift to Cloud 2, the Next Cloud Computing Paradigm

DocuSign for Salesforce Among the First Social Enterprise Apps Available on the ChatterExchange, Now Live on AppExchange 2

We’ve launched our new eSignature app on salesforce.com’s ChatterExchange, helping to accelerate the market shift to Cloud 2, the next cloud computing paradigm. DocuSign for Salesforce, among the first apps to leverage the social components of Chatter, is now available in the Force.com platform. You can find these new apps on the ChatterExchange, a brand new category for social enterprise apps that is now part of AppExchange 2.

Federal Housing Administration to Accept eSignature for Real Estate Contracts

This is a great day for eCommerce.

As the chief legal officer at DocuSign, I’d like to share my thoughts, as we applaud FHA’s action today. Their decision to clarify their position on electronic signatures will help streamline the sale and financing of homes across the country. Buyers, sellers and agents can use DocuSign’s online process to eliminate the time, expense and environmental impact of printing, delivering and signing large stacks of paper documents, and mortgage lenders can take comfort in knowing that DocuSign’s e-signature process is designed to be legally compliant in all 50 states and is fully evidenced by a comprehensive audit trail.

The last time Federal Housing Administration released any formal guidance on electronic signatures was way back in 1996. Over the past 18 months, DocuSign’s real estate and mortgage origination customers have made it clear that FHA urgently needed to update and clarify its position on electronic signatures. And we heard you.

It’s now OFFICIAL: E-signed third-party documents, including real estate contracts, are now being accepted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

Want to Use eSign from DocuSign on Your Apple iPad?

Today brought several questions about using DocuSign’s electronic signature services on the Apple iPad. Doug Rybacki, director of product management for DocuSign, confirmed that DocuSign subscribers can create DocuSign envelopes on the iPad and it works well for templates and sending for eSignature with Freeform signing.

How-To Use Embedded Tagging in DocuSign for Salesforce, Salesforce AppExchange of the Week

Did you know you can collect electronic signatures and data without ever leaving Salesforce? With DocuSign for Salesforce, this week’s AppExchange App of the Week, you can track your documents and get real-time status and dashboards. When your deals are signed, they’re automatically updated in Salesforce!

Stay tuned to see what we have coming up for you in May! As the official and exclusive provider of electronic signature services through the NAR Member Benefits® program, we’ll be at the 2010 Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C. We’ll share news, product announcements and more – subscribe to our eSign RSS feed to stay in the know!

Companies that blogged about the FHA’s acceptance of DocuSign include Broker IPtv, PowerSites by AgencyLogic, and Real-A-Save.

• FHA to Accept DocuSign for Real Estate Contracts
• Federal Housing Administration to Accept DocuSign for Real Estate Contracts Nationwide
• HUD to Permit eDocs in Transactions, REALTORS® are Ready
• Digital Signatures on FHA Contracts

Real estate agencies, brokerages and realtors have also spread the word, since FHA acceptance of eSignature, such as DocuSign, will enable them to adopt electronic signature to help their clients get offers on the table more quickly and with less headache than the old print-scan-fax process.

• Federal Housing Administration to Accept DocuSign for Real Estate Contracts Nationwide
• HUD to Allow Electronic Signatures on Third Party Documents for FHA Mortgage Insurance
• Top 10 Real Estate Posts of the Day for 4/12/2010
• Federal Housing Administration to Accept DocuSign for Real Estate Contracts Nationwide
• HUD to Permit eDocs in Transactions
• The FHA Approves Using DocuSign
• Working with FHA Programs Just Got Easier
• Electronic Signatures and FHA
• FHA Moves into the 21st Century!

They also spread the word on the ActiveRain, Trulia and Facebook social networks:

• Digital Signatures: Gary McNinch Team Uses DocuSign, Do You?
• The FHA Approves Using DocuSign
• FHA Will Now be Accepting Electronic Signatures, This Should Save a Ton of Wasted Paper Every Year
• FHA Accepts DocuSign
• Federal Housing Administration to Accept DocuSign for Real Estate Contracts Nationwide

Facebook Pages that have spread the news include Wolkia, IRES LLC, Metropolitan Mortgage Group, Star Real Estate, Birmingham Association of Realtors, Keller Williams Realty Cary, Vid Lopez Realty at HS Realty, Inc. and Taos New Mexico Green Homes.

With the REALTOR® Association of Greater Miami and the Beaches spreading the word as well as Mortgage Technology Magazine and National Mortgage Professional Magazine, we hope that everyone knows that the FHA does accept DocuSign! For more information, take a look at the Mortgagee Letter and read the thoughts of DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer, Ken Moyle, regarding the acceptance of eSignature by the FHA.

This is a great day for eCommerce.

As the chief legal officer at DocuSign, I’d like to share my thoughts, as we applaud FHA’s action today. Their decision to clarify their position on electronic signatures will help streamline the sale and financing of homes across the country. Buyers, sellers and agents can use DocuSign’s online process to eliminate the time, expense and environmental impact of printing, delivering and signing large stacks of paper documents, and mortgage lenders can take comfort in knowing that DocuSign’s e-signature process is designed to be legally compliant in all 50 states and is fully evidenced by a comprehensive audit trail.

The last time Federal Housing Administration released any formal guidance on electronic signatures was way back in 1996.  Over the past 18 months, DocuSign’s real estate and mortgage origination customers have made it clear that FHA urgently needed to update and clarify its position on electronic signatures.  And we heard you.

It’s now OFFICIAL: E-signed third-party documents, including real estate contracts, are now being accepted by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

FHA’s lack of guidance was not at the forefront of anyone’s mind a couple of years ago when the agency was only involved in two percent of home loans.  But the collapse of financial markets in late 2008 catapulted FHA into the mortgage spotlight almost overnight.   As the new #1 source of funding for nearly half of first time home buyers in 2009, FHA’s inability to articulate a clear process for accepting electronically processed documents became a very real problem for those who depended on the agency as a downstream partner.   In fact, in early 2009 we saw some major FHA lenders retreat from their progressive policies toward e-commerce, as they waited for a signal from FHA.

To their credit, staff at the FHA have been pushing for progress for over two years.  It took some early encouragement and help from many concerned parties to help them get this done.  DocuSign began direct conversations with FHA on this issue back in October of 2008, and we shared this blog post about FHA and Lender Acceptance of electronic signature back in July of last year.

DocuSign spearheaded an industry-wide effort to move the FHA to formally recognize e-signed third-party documents, and the April 8, 2010 dated FHA mortgagee letter is the first in what is expected to be a series of responses to this initiative. With this policy statement from the nation’s largest mortgage insurer, real estate professionals can use DocuSign to get real estate contracts, addenda and other documents signed electronically, and their buyers can apply for FHA insurance with confidence. The FHA mortgagee letter can be found at http://nhl.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/letters/mortgagee/files/10-14ml.pdf.

Thank you to everyone who participated by calling DocuSign and emailing the FHA, NAR or ESRA over the past several months – the FHA mortgagee letter is a result of your support throughout this effort!

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!

We at DocuSign listen to our customers when they talk about their electronic signature needs. This weekend, we stumbled across some comments about DocuSign and our free eSignature customer support. They were just too good not to share! Without further ado:

DocuSign’s Electronic Signature Customers Comment on Customer Support

The first story shares the experience of signing up for DocuSign’s eSignature service:

The reason I joined DocuSign was because of their AMAZING customer support. I joined on a Saturday night around 6pm and by 9pm I was having issues and needed to get a contract done that night. I asked if anyone knew the answer on twitter and within 5 minutes I had both their twitter account and the owner of the company talking to me on twitter and walking me through it. Then An, who is behind the twitter account, called me to make sure everything was ok. THAT IS SERVICE.

OK so they don’t offer free phone support. I have NEVER had a problem getting an immediate answer with them on chat or twitter. The support is some of the best I have ever seen. If you had a problem with any product in the world and put something out there on Twitter what do you think the chances of anyone, never mind the Founder and Vice President of Product Strategy of the company, offering help at 9pm on a Saturday night?

You have free email support and also free support via chat, the product is amazing, the support is amazing.

- Dean Ouellette, Tempe Real Estate

The second story details the robust support options DocuSign offers to its eSign customers:

I’ve used DocuSign for over two years and never needed to call them. Not once. Twice I had a question about how to do something (that if I’d taken a few minutes on my own to find the answer, I could have. It was on their site) and was immediately answered via email and Twitter. I also have agents that have been using DocuSign for two years — never needed to make a phone call for support for two reasons: 1) The product is robust and easy to use; and 2) there are many other ways to get support beside the telephone.

Lots of companies charge for extended (read phone) customer support. DocuSign isn’t the only one, not by a long shot. I’d rather them charge for extended support than raise my rates so they can handle all the “I forgot my password” and “It’s broken” (when it’s not) phone calls.

Have you tried the [free] chat, email, twitter, forums, webinars, blog, and/or FAQs for support? They work, and work well.

- Jay Thompson, Phoenix Real Estate Broker

The third comment explains a customer’s experience with how easy and intuitive DocuSign’s electronic signature service is for his clients:

I have used the DocuSign service hundreds of times over the past couple of years and I love it. More importantly, my clients LOVE it. The recent enhancements to their system helped an already great product become even more beneficial to my business.

My experience has been that anyone that can log on to the internet and do even the most basic of tasks have great success with the DocuSign service. From young to old, computer savvy to “old school,” I have never had a complaint.

- Nick Bastian, Tempe Real Estate Agent

The fourth comment discusses how one DocuSign user has worked with DocuSign on eSign policy issues and product feedback while turning to online help and web content:

I’ve been a Docusign user for several years now and have been really pleased with the technology. I enjoy being able to sign ANYTHING. I’m pretty technically inclined and have only had to contact customer service a couple times with help on policy issues, like FHA not recognizing e-signatures.

I’ve spoken with their Chief Legal Counsel and they’re now working with FHA and lenders to gainer wider acceptance of electronic signatures. I consider that responsive.

When I call in about product limitations or ideas, my requests are acknowledged and supposedly added to the feature request for future releases. I hope they don’t charge for these types of call. [ed. note: We don't charge for feedback-type calls, but as a best practice, email or chat works better discuss product limitations or ideas - we can log and track these communications and share them more effectively with the Product team!]

On the other hand, their online help has always been responsive and there’s a lot of material published on the website that’s gotten me through most issues.

- Derec Shuler, Denver Real Estate Broker

Do you have a story similar to Dean, Jay, Nick, or Derec’s? Do you have your own story about how DocuSign’s eSign service you want to share? Leave a comment to share your thoughts – we welcome them!

Today we hear from Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer and noted electronic signature law expert. In addition to serving as the Public Policy Chair of the Electronic Signature and Records Association (ESRA), Ken also often teaches continuing legal education classes and seminars regarding esignature and ESIGN.

Often, Ken is asked questions about when electronic signatures can be used to create a binding agreement. We all want to know how and when we can use eSignatures to create a binding agreement, so without further ado, Ken’s thoughts:

Consent to do Business With eSignature
Like most popular phenomena, the electronic signature movement is sometimes susceptible to rumor and misinformation. For example, there are still a few folks in the real estate and mortgage industries who insist that a real estate transaction cannot executed electronically unless there is a paper-and-ink contract confirming the parties’ agreement to go paperless.

This myth has been making the rounds for years in the Pacific Northwest and in some other small pockets of the country. I did a lot asking around to find out where this came from. The main source appears to be from an early Multiple Listing Service interpretation of the federal ESIGN Act, which provided an instant 50-state baseline for enforceability of electronic contracts (Washington is one of three states that have not adopted some form of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act, the state precursor to ESIGN).

The confusion seems to come from this statement, which was forwarded to me recently by a real estate agent in Oregon who received it from a representative of her MLS:

“Electronic signatures can be used to create a binding real property purchase agreement, but only if the parties have a signed, written agreement to that effect in place before they use the electronic signatures.”

On its face, this statement is not inconsistent with the federal ESIGN Act or the state UETAs, since under these laws a “writing” is given the same effect regardless of whether it is on paper or electronic. But in the above case the statement was invoked to convince the agent that the “signed, written agreement” must be on paper.

The federal ESIGN Act requires that parties consent to do business electronically, but there is no requirement that a separate paper contract be in place in order to manifest such consent. In the case of a consumer transaction (such as a residential real estate sale) where a party is required by law to provide information that is otherwise required to be provided in writing and on paper, certain disclosures about engaging in business electronically must be provided to the consumer before the consumer consents to do business electronically. See ESIGN 101(c)(1). In addition, the consumer must “affirmatively” consent, but there is no requirement that the consent be documented in a [separate] “signed, written agreement.” ). In fact, section101(c)(1)(C)(ii) of the federal law requires that the consent be given electronically and not on paper, in order to demonstrate the consumer’s technical capacity to engage in business electronically. In business to business transactions and in transactions where a signature is the only legal requirement (even if a consumer is involved), the consent does not have to be explicit at all. It may be found based on the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction, and in most cases the fact that both parties used electronic means to execute the contract in the first place is more than enough to demonstrate that the parties consented to engage in business electronically as well as consented to the terms of the agreement.

But what if ESIGN doesn’t apply? Isn’t the state’s law going to vary these requirements? In order to promote e-commerce nationwide, the ESIGN Act takes full advantage of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution in order to preempt state laws that would threaten the 50-state baseline. Any state electronic signature law that would impose burdens or increased costs on the use of electronic records could cause the state law to be preempted by ESIGN. To the extent that a state law requires a paper agreement to get consent to business electronically, such requirement would presumably be preempted.

Fortunately, an association or MLS has no authority to determine the enforceability of a real estate contract. If two parties, after agreeing to transact business electronically, enter into a real estate contract by electronic means, the electronically signed contract will be valid, effective and enforceable.