How-To ESIGN: In-Person Signing with DocuSign

Did you know that you can do electronic signature in-person with your DocuSign account? During the past few days, many agents and Realtors have asked how they use DocuSign if they are sitting with their clients.

What you need:

• Laptop (no tablet needed! Any laptop will do.)
• DocuSign Account (Advanced)
• Internet Access (Wire / WiFi / Cellular or Mobile Broadband)

Scenario

Say you need to get your buyers' signatures on an offer, and then you want to get this signed offer to the other agent ASAP. You know your customers will be visiting you in your office or you will be visiting them at their home.

Steps to set-up the In-Person signing ahead of time:

1. Create your documents using your forms software, such as zipForms or WINForms.
2. Print or load your documents into DocuSign.
3. Enter the recipients and select 'In-Person' as the way you want them to sign. Enter YUR email as the host for the signing for your customers then enter in the names of your customers for each. Their email is not required in-person. When you enter the other agent, list them as "Carbon Copy".

L

Here Doreen Smithers will be signing in-person, witnessed by me.
Then once done, it will automatically go to Mike Jones.

4. Place sign-here tabs or use a template to apply all of them at once.
5. Send the envelope. You will notice you have now a new task in your DocuSign in-box. This task is to witness the signing for the customers you just entered.

Witnessing a Signing
Now, when your customers arrive, or you visit them at home, you will be witnessing the e-signing process like you would in any paper signing process.  To have them sign, follow these steps:

1. Log into your DocuSign Account. This validates you as the 'witness' much like in a notary signing.
2. Open the envelope you sent, and it will bring up the first signer to witness.  If that person is present, you continue.
3. Notice the system asks you to collect a driver's license or other credentials from the signers in order to establish some ID. This can be as detailed as required by your business.  In some cases, customers require a driver's license and/or other forms of ID. (What credentials are requested can bet set in your admin console if you are the account admin)  Enter this into the record.

4. Once collected, the system will prompt you to turn the keyboard over to the first signer. They go through the standard DocuSign process where they click to e-sign.
5. Upon completion, you as the witness are required to enter in your password to validate you were there at the end of the signing.
6. Repeat this process for the other signer.

Now, as soon as you complete the process for your in-person signers, the contract will AUTOMATICALLY be sent to the other agent through the carbon copy feature! This saves time and makes sure you have the best chance to get your offer in first. The audit trail will show that you witnessed the signers signing, with the ID information collected during the signing process. This is very similar to what a notary does when they witness a signature.

Finally, the 'mixed mode' is key. You can sign with a few people in-person, then have the transaction move to remote via email notice. This way ALL your files can be DocuSigned so you keep things consistent and in the same place!