EchoSign-for-Real Estate -- E-Signature Blog

I got some great advice from my fellow AR friends about using a contract and quickly pulled one together for my next job. I also found this great service which allows you to send a contract via email, your client signs it and they send it back all done in PDF format. It is very easy to set up and use. You just upload your contract, sign it and then send to your client. When it is returned as an attachment, you can then save a copy to your hard drive or print for your records. And the best part of all - the service is FREE for the first 5 signatures each month! Yeah! I love free. If you needed to use it more the pricing is pretty inexpensive. Hope this helps someone. See link below:

www.echosign.com

With all the great tools available on the net for FREE these days, it seems like there's hardly any room or time to add anything new that will either simplify or complicate and consume our lives any further right?   There are literally hundreds of sites popping up each week that try to compete and offer greater value than the next site.  As I research what's out there, some of my favorite sites to investigate are the ones that might benefit us, our clients or our business.

Have you ever tried to email a file attachment that was too large for your email host, or too big for the recipient?  Many of these email hosts and pop servers put a limit to the file size you can share, send, or receive.  I wanted to share a file with someone the other day, and their email kept rejecting it because the file exceeded their email servers limits.  It was only 3 megabytes.

So looking for a quick and easy solution, I remembered hearing about Box.net  It's a file sharing site that allows you to upload all types of files and give others access to them.  It can be used for public or private sharing depending on how you set it up.  Having a site on the web to store files can also be a huge benefit if you ever need to access them while you're away from your own computer.  Of course having your own server is best, but most don't have that luxury.

Box.net lets you upload almost any file type and allows you store up to 1.0 gigabytes of data FREE!  You can also add additional services to your "BOX" like efax, Outlook, Gmail etc.  You can add your social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Twitter and others.  You can even post files directly to your blog to share information with others all over the world.

Here's a sample of one of my Business Cards I uploaded.  You'll get a kick out of that one! lol~  It's nice that there's no software or hardware required, it's really simple to use and easy to set-up, you'll have user permission controls, and they offer 24x7 phone support.  Here's one of the quotes from their site:

Did you know? Over 50,000 businesses use Box.net to share ideas, create content, and collaborate in an online workspace?  Users can access online file storage from anywhere - even on the iPhone or Blackberry.

Since they've been around awhile, that usually proves their value, stability, and WEB track record.

I think Box.net really simplifies file-sharing and team collaboration.  There's no attachments or FTP uploads, you just send your clients or co-workers a link.  This could be a useful tool to add to the many other tools and resources you'll find in the WEB 2.0 World.  Thinking and working inside the "BOX" may help you or your business be more productive when you're outside the box.  I'm just sayin...  :-)

 

                                                 

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Going Paperless, using electronic signatures with DocuSign and EchoSign - As a Real Estate agent in Decatur GA, it seems that we have more and more documents that need to be signed. By the time a transaction closes, we can easily have 100 pages or more printed and faxed back and forth, from listing agreements to disclosures to purchase and sale agreements to counter offers and amendments. Managing the paper can be a lot to handle and a lot to store. I decided that there had to be a better way and there is. 

I checked out 2 different electronic signature companies, DocuSign and EchoSign. I have now tried them both. Here's my comparison of the 2.

Docusign

• Limit of 40 envelopes per month. An envelope is the same as an email basically.
• No fax option as of yet, that option is said to be coming 9/18/09.
• Easy to use and for clients to use
• Cost $15.95 a month 40 envelopes
• Sign using mobile phone option is coming 9/18/09.
• 30 day free trial

 Echosign

• Option for people to print, sign and then fax it back to keep it in the online folder on Echosign
• Easy to use and for clients to use
• Cost $14.95 a month for unlimited signatures
• No limit on the amount of emails or envelopes
• Sign using your mobile phone.
• Free account that limits you to 5 free documents a month.

 Check out EchoSign  Check out DocuSign

I first tried EchoSign with my client who lives in Washington DC. I manage his property in Tucker, GA. The tenants called and said they wanted to extend their lease. I contacted my client in DC. I sent an extension via email through EchoSign to the tenants, they signed off electronically and it was forwarded to my Client in Washington, DC, he signed off on it and it was automatically forwarded to me. I clicked sign and then a fully executed signed agreement was sent to all the parties involved. It took a total of 30.5 minutes. EchoSign keeps track of the time for you. That was pretty amazing. I didn't have to drive anywhere to get it signed or wait for a fax to come in or keep sending anything to multiple parties.

The next day I tried DocuSign with a Buyer Client. The whole transaction has been done paperless except for the Buyers Broker Agreement that I brought with me when we went to look at the house. My client didn't need to have a scanner or a printer or a fax. All she needed was internet access. It has saved a tremendous amount of time and paper. The contracts are clear and not fuzzy from being faxed back and forth. You put the "signature" boxes where they need to go on the document by dragging and dropping it in place. Your client sees the "sign here" yellow tabs and that's where they know to click.

Last night I sent off a 14 page offer through DocuSign to another Buyer client. He commented that even his mom thought it was cool. Just think if I had to print that document, send it to my client for him to print, then he signs it and faxes it back to me that's already 42 pages! By the time I send it to the listing agent it used up 56 pieces of paper. They send to their client, add 14, their client sends it back add 14 and then the listing agent sends back to me there we are at 84 pages and we have hardly started! Whew! Tired yet??? With an electronic signature, there is nothing to print and everyone gets a clean copy.

I have been using the electronic signatures for about 2 weeks now on 6 different transactions. My clients love that it's easy to use.  (They knew they were my guinea pigs in my test. ) I haven't been able to use it on my short sales yet because the banks I'm dealing with aren't taking documents via email. That's a story for another post.  The other great part about an electronic signature company is that you can access your documents from anywhere you have computer access. Using an electronic signature makes it easy for home sellers, home buyers and real estate agents. It's a beautiful thing!

If you are thinking of buying or selling real estate in or around Decatur, GA contact local expert and Realtor Jen Bowman, Broker Associate & e-PRO with Success Realty at 404-456-5024.

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