One of our customers, Greg Swann of the BloodhoundBlog, recently blogged about his short sales experience, in which the bank asked for two URGENT documents that reiterated the terms his buyers have already agreed to.

With Mom at home, Dad at work and Greg 35 miles from both of them, how was he going to get the documents the bank wanted ASAP?

By trading faxes with barely legible originals? NO.

Instead, Greg used DocuSign to set up a workflow in which he signs, Mom signs and Dad signs before the lister receives the completed document package.

Once Greg set up the documents in the DocuSign system and put his electronic signature where it was needed, the workflow means that he can move on to other priorities. There’s no fax to baby-sit and no worries about missing signatures or initials.

How long did it take for the documents to get through the workflow and back to the lister? Greg got confirmation that the lister has the documents in 22 minutes. That’s less time than it takes to watch a TV show.

If you don’t have DocuSign Electronic Signature, get it. Your time is your money, and, in consequence, this is some of the best money you will ever spend. — Greg Swann

You can catch up on the action at CAR EXPO and Tech Tuesday until Twitter clears its index.

Some key points from the DocuSign twitter stream from Ken Moyle’s discussion about the “Legality of Electronic Signatures and Real Estate”

• E-signature is fully supported in CA and there is no California case law that questions the legality of electronic records or signature.
• Fannie and Freddie do not have problems with electronic signature.
• DocuSign is set up for real estate transactions
• Ken discussed value and features for electronic signature and electronic evidence – DocuSign does have these electronic evidence features.
• DocuSign’s optional initial feature came up, which allows signers to pick and choose which provisions they agree to – our users love this and leverage it for optional clauses like liquidated damages and others.
• Ken showed a demo video of the DocuSign electronic signature signing experience, to demonstrate its look and feel. The signing experience includes adoption of a signature, consumer disclosures which enable DocuSign electronic signature to be ESIGN compliant.
• Fraud mitigation was a topic of discussion – DocuSign provides access codes and ID check functionality and lots of tools in place to mitigate fraud.
• Ken Moyle called us all super, super heroes, but we can’t prevent all crime. However, it is hard for people to use DocuSign for fraud and not get caught.
• Lots of great questions were asked about electronic signature, including where tablet PCs fit into electronic signature or digital signature space.

Not only did we have a lawyer in attendance, we also had Ken Moyle’s Mom really come to his session! Interested in making your voice heard regarding FHA and ESignature? It’s not too late to reach out to ESRA on this issue!

Once I get a copy of Ken’s deck from today’s presentation, I’ll post it online – keep an eye out for it.

Bottom line? Electronic Signature IS enforceable.

Please note: These takeaways are provided in accordance with DocuSign’s blog disclaimer policy.

Why is DocuSign a great fit for real estate?

Real estate agents are busy professionals – landing listings, showing homes, helping buyers find the right home, helping sellers sell their homes, preparing documents for their clients to sign… I could go on. In addition to DocuSign’s integration with transaction management solutions specifically for real estate, the DocuSign system provides other advantages as well.

DocuSign’s electronic signature and online contract execution service provides:

Time Savings: DocuSign’s integration with the major real estate forms providers (ZipLogix, RealFast, DocCentral, Reveal, IRES…) means that you can use the technology you already have to create your documents.Templates from DocuSign Professional Advance enable you to save even more time if you repeatedly send many standard documents. Just create the document once, save it as a template, and use the template moving forward. This saves you even more time.

DocuSign also automates reminders, so you don’t have to remember to call or email to follow up every few days. DocuSign automatically reminds your signers that they have documents awaiting their signatures!

Increased client satisfaction: DocuSign’s senders report that signers also appreciate the convenience and ease of electronic signature and online contract execution. Imagine this: your client is suddenly called away on business and things start moving. Do you really want to ask your client to print out copies of the papers for signature, sign, and then fax back? It’s one more thing for your client to do when he or she is very busy.

Instead, you can send your client an email with a link that takes him or her to a secure site. Your client can log in, adopt his or her signature, apply it where indicated by the yellow stick-e-tabs. Once your client has finished the process, you receive an email notification that the signing process is complete. No more hunting for a fax machine, no more phone tag to confirm that the fax arrived to the right hands, and best of all, no more putting life on hold because you have to get papers signed.

Clear, completed documents, every time: The yellow stick-e-tabs make sure that senders get the signatures and initials they need. This means that you don’t have to fax and re-fax documents because page 21 is missing some initials. Faxes also aren’t as clear – the document quality gets more and more degraded as papers are faxed back and forth. With DocuSign, senders can see what documents are still in process and which ones are completed, all from one dashboard.

What other reasons have you experienced that show the fit between real estate and electronic signature / electronic contract execution?

Recently, DocuSign joined ActiveRain. Why? With so many Realtors and real estate agents as customers, we want to understand the challenges they face so we can provide better service and create useful features. By following the vibrant discussions on ActiveRain, we hope to provide useful insight to help the real estate community where we can, especially regarding electronic signatures and online contract execution.

DocuSign continually innovates our electronic signatures and online contract execution service for real estate and has established real estate specific partnerships with many of the major forms providers such as IRES, Realfast, Reveal Systems (TrueForms), Ziplogix (Zipforms) and Fidelity National Real Estate Solutions. One of the many useful features DocuSign provides includes signing by multiple people with only one email address, as is the case when a husband and wife share an email address. DocuSign also works with ESRA, the Electronic Signature and Records Association, to establish clarity in policies regarding the use of electronic signature and electronic contract execution.

DocuSign’s commitment to providing an electronic signature and online contract execution tool that helps real estate agents save time, money and do more deals has brought us to ActiveRain. Please do stop by, say hello and let us know how we can help you.

For clarification, we asked PAR to share their thoughts on electronic signatures, and Hank Lerner, Director of Member and Legal Services responded promptly (from his email):

The federal E-SIGN statute and PA Electronic Transactions Act (http://www.parealtor.org/content/Laws_Regulations.htm ) both state that electronic signatures are acceptable in transactions as long as they are done in compliance with the requirements of the laws. PAR’s “position,” as it were, is simply that if an electronic signature is done in compliance with the law, then it is legally binding. We have not ever suggested that our members cannot or should utilize e-signatures in their business; a decision to do so or to not do so is up to the individual brokers or agents. (emphasis ours)

PAR also stated that it does license the content of its statewide standard forms to four electronic forms vendors, all of which have relationships with DocuSign, to provide e-signature capabilities directly from the applications.

Ken Moyle, DocuSign’s Chief Legal Officer and the rest of the management team designed DocuSign so that the DocuSign system is in compliance with the law. DocuSign’s security measures ensure that your records and data are fully secure. As of this date, in every case that a DocuSign electronic signature or contract has been challenged, the evidence and digital trail created by the DocuSign system has resulted in party backing down from their attempted repudiation.

So Pennsylvania brokers and agents, you can decide to use electronic signatures from DocuSign and electronic forms to save you time in your real estate business. Any stories of how DocuSign has saved you time and money in your business? Let us know – we’d love to share it!

1. “Make it easy and familiar for my signer – I am trying to close a deal, not train them on technology or law.” – DocuSign is the only system that uses the familiar yellow ‘sign here’ and ‘initial here’ tabs. As part of our patented process, these signature indicators are really familiar and our ‘one-click’ signing makes it both legally binding and simple to use. (Some ESIGN tools have some really odd ways they want you to sign[2]).
2. “Give me downstream reliability” – It is important that the solution not make ‘stray marks’ in improper places. My signatures, initials, and data need to be exactly placed, without odd ‘borders’ or ‘seals’ appearing in strange places. Downstream these will always get kicked back.
3. “Help me handle complex transactions” – Often the Real Estate transaction has a number of forms to fill out, initial and sign. DocuSign’s system can automatically recognize your documents and apply templates so you get the benefit of exact signature placement without having to do all the work!
4. “Integrate into my forms software” – By integrating directly into the software Realtors use to create and manage forms, DocuSign makes sending for signature a ‘one click process’. Talk about saving time!
5. “Allow me to sequence my documents to specific roles” – such as buyer & seller, and allow me to easily follow the industry standard practice.

So, these key points make DocuSign the clear leader for the Real Estate market. These and many other reasons explain why so many Realtors blog about DocuSign, tell their customers about DocuSign, and why the word ‘DocuSign’ is being used as a verb for electronic signature and online contract execution! You’ve probably heard it at conferences – you know “Hold on, I need to get my buyer to DocuSign it so I can close this deal”. [1] The same ‘wire’ – the INTERNET, silly! [2] Like ‘mouse cursive’ – ever try signing your name with a mouse? It is just silly. Nobody can – everyone hates it. Amazing waste of time that shows lack of understanding of what signing really is.

I believe this is a great tool for REVA’s to get their agents to use. It installs a ‘printer’ on your computer, and when you ‘print’ to it, documents are pulled into it. Just set up the buyers or sellers to use it, then you drag ’sign here’ flags (just like the post-it ones) to where they sign. Choose your recipients, and send it out to be signed.

April’s ability to leverage technology tools allow her to be more effective as a VA. As the leading innovator of software services for electronic signature and electronic contract execution (ECE), DocuSign helps thousands of Real Estate customers like April and her agents, in their businesses by reducing their operating costs and accelerating their business processes. DocuSign for Real Estate To make it easier for real estate agents to find information about DocuSign’s electronic signature and online contract execution processes, we’ve shared some case studies from REMAX, Allied Home Mortgage, Real-a-Save, and Crosstown Mortgage.

Why Is DocuSign so Great for Real Estate?

DocuSign successfully serves real estate professionals for several reasons:

1. DocuSign’s electronic contract execution process provides the strong legal framework, important when your transactions are worth millions of dollars! 
2. Our yellow “Sign Here” tabs make the signing process so simple, anyone can sign from any browser, and ensures signatures and initials are not forgotten – no more rework!
3. With sequencing capabilities, our online contract execution process can ensure the right people sign in the right order, keeping you in control.
4. It is LIGHTNING FAST and your customers will love you for it!  No more driving across town, or making your customers find a fax machine. (less than 10% of home buyers have fax, while over 95% of home buyers have email.)

Additionally, DocuSign has partnered with nearly ALL of the leading software tools used by realtors, such as Zipform, WinForm, TrueForm, and Realfast. In addition, we have a partnership with a multiple listing service (MLS) in Colorado, IRES, and with a leader in the mortgage broker/title space, Fidelity National Financial. 

You can also find out how to use DocuSign with your existing real estate document software to extend your capabilities. As we continue to focus on helping our customers, we’ll keep blogging more to share useful or interesting information discussing various electronic signature and online contract execution questions in our forums, and keeping you in the loop about what we’re doing at DocuSign to help you cut costs and speed up your business processes.

Finally, let us know if you think we should integrate into other applications you use!

Photo courtesy of flickr user TheTruthAbout…, used under Creative Commons.