Why Your Clients Will Love Digital Signing

In Part Two of this two-part series that looks at how electronic signatures work inside a transaction management solution, Tricia Stamper of Florida Realtors shows what the signature experience looks like from a home buyer or seller's point-of-view.

One of the most powerful ways to quickly engage a new client is to show them something that will "wow" them. Digital signing can have that "wow" factor, particularly with home buyers and sellers who are used to signing paper real estate documents. The fact is, the more experienced your client is with a standard, paper-filled real estate transaction, the more they are going to appreciate – and be delighted with – the digital signing process.

And that's a big misnomer in real estate: that somehow, your clients have to be tech-savvy to want to sign documents digitally. The only real impediment is not technology. The real barrier is the resistance we all have to doing something that we have never done before: the fear of the unknown. But if you show your clients what the digital signing process is like, and explain the incredible benefits it provides for them, you will find that every one of your customers, no matter what age or level of experience with new technology, will be delighted. In fact, digital signing is no longer considered a nice feature to offer. It has become so pervasive that buyers and sellers are expecting their agents to make it available to them, and not just Millennials.

Let's look at how digital signing works for the consumer using Form Simplicity, a leading transaction management program that is Realtor-created and supported. The move towards a paperless transaction with Form Simplicity helps unlock the chains that keep agents tied to their desktop computers by giving agents access to all their documents from anywhere with Internet connection, anytime. With eSign built-in, Form Simplicity demonstrably improves the customer signing experience. Digital signing reduces both the time to sign and the number of errors. It eliminates the 11th hour scramble to get a missing signature, an unpleasant experience that can frustrate you and your customer, and be incredibly stressful.

Here's how easy and fast it is for a client to use eSign technology, as shown inside Form Simplicity:

Step One:

First, a client receives a "Welcome" email, customized by the agent who sent the invitation. The email contains a link to the page where the clients goes to get started.  On the page that the link opens, the client is invited to pick a signature style, or they can draw their own with their finger if they are using a tablet. The signature and initials selected are stored so the client only has to do this once.

Step Two:

Next, the client is guided through each page of the document, automatically bringing the client to where a digital signature, initials, date or selections are required before they can move on to the next page. With a simple click or tap, the client can populate the fields that the agent added before the document was delivered to the client (covered in Part One here). No more signing papers, no more filling out dates. Just click or tap to populate.

Step Three:

The client proceeds through the entire document by simply clicking or tapping through each field in each page. The customer experience, when compared with how paper documents are signed manually, is vastly improved. But the real magic is this final screen: The verification that all fields have been properly signed and completed. This is real estate's newest and most powerful time saver. Any agent, buyer or seller that has dealt with a missing signature when there is a fast-approaching deadline at stake knows what a terrible experience that can be. Blame gets passed around and shared, and none of that ever has to happen again when you use a powerful tool like eSign.

The Bottom Line

The best part of digital signing today is the remarkable affordability. When you think about the time digital signing will save your clients, it really is a no-brainer when you realize that an entire year of eSign is as little as $59/year (just 16 cents a day!) to $99/year, depending on your association or MLS. Believe it or not, that price includes unlimited eSign and document storage for ALL of your clients' transactions. Most importantly, your clients will love the time you are saving them.