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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Efax offers signature services as well if your documents have to be faxed.
Jen,
Excellent post. Very useful information, and I sure will chck the links. Those faxes back a forth become not legible just after 2 three transmissions
Independent, do you use Efax signature services? If so, please let us know the scoop. Do you like it? What's the cost, etc?
Olga, I'm glad it was useful. When I started researching, I couldn't find info comparing the 2 so I figured it might be a good idea to share what I found out.
Jen,
I have used DocuSign but not EchoSign so I will be interested to learn which of the two you decided to use for your transactions.
Great information and thank you for posting.
I have been using DocuSign for a while and I have saved in time, ink and paper! IT IS GREAT!!
There are some lenders that will not accept DocuSigned contracts, which means that I have another opportunity to meet with the clients.
Sharon, I really like them both but I think that EchoSign could have more advantages like unlimited signatures each month and the fax option currently in place without any additional charge. I paid for the year in advance for DocuSign but still have time to switch to EchoSign and get a refund on my first 30 days.
Steve, I love using it too. I'm glad you've had a great experience with it. I haven't had a lender tell me yet that they won't accept it but only time will tell.
Good post. We did a similar comparison. We found Docusign is used much more broadly than EchoSign because of key features that are missing in EchoSign. With Docusign you get additional capabilities important for our market:
Features DocuSign has that EchoSign does not:
* DS has a familiar signing process. ES frustrates customers with 'mouse signing' which does not work, DS is much easier - just click.
* Better with large documents - using Templates, we can tag up all the signatures and initials for a 30 page package with one click. ES would take me an hour
* Correct- with DS you can correct the email or name after you send. With ES you have to start over. This slows things down.
* Set signer order any way you want - with DS you can do this, ES is more limited.
* ESIGN compliant - DS has the consumer compliance step that ES lacks. Attorneys find this important.
Also, DS is integrated into key Real Estate Applications and ES is not. We use it right out of WinForms. And we were told ES does have a limit per month of 50, and a 50 page limit per email.
Finally, no matter what you use the FHA is causing problems with anything other than paper. I hear they are trying to get to accept esign documents soon, but they are a real hassle.
Jen -
Thank you for taking a look at EchoSign. We're very excited about our tremendous growth in Real Estate and really appreciate the insights and thoughts. Please let us know any further feedback & experiences.
Jason M. Lemkin
ceo
Jen, I have been trying to talk my company into going paperless for a while now, and at our last meeting I think the owner of the company finally started to listen. I sure do hope we make a move in this direction.
I use DocuSign, have for over a year, it does everything I need it to do. When I signed up I got unlimited envelopes (nice deal back then). Looking forward to the upgrades later this month.
That was me above...sorry.
TedJx, Thanks for your comments. I had a different experience with EchoSign. My clients and I just had to click to sign. The mouse signing is an option but is not required. I am not sure about the other things you mentioned.
Jason, thanks for stopping by. Maybe you could respond to TedJx's comments regarding EchoSign? There are a lot of us out here ready to try the technology that can help us save time, money and paper.
George, That is great news! It sure would help the mortgage industry too. Keep us posted.
Thanks Tom, Have you heard anything about additional charges with the upgrades at DocuSign? I haven't heard any details regarding that yet.
Hey Jen -
Interesting blog, it showed up in my 'Google News' finder this morning, so you must be getting lots of visits! I am on the road this week doing focus groups with Reators in the bay area listening to feedback and trading stories. In many regards, RE Agents are pushing the envelope with this technology more than even some very large customers! Very good insight, and if you were involved in these sessions, thank you.
I am positive that as the world begins to realize that in fact you can close transactions with confidence electronically, this will become 'just the way it is done'.
This thread talks about some of the unreleased features in the DocuSign platform that are coming shortly, and since they are so close at hand, I'll fill in some gaps. First, yes we are going to support fax. We've held off for a while because the documents are not as trusted as electronically signed ones, but in some circumstances they may be needed. If your customer needs to fax something in, it can go right into your envelope. The other is handheld device support. We don't think that just using a 'desktop view' on a handheld works very well. Yes you CAN sign using an iPhone today for example, but it is not optimized for the smaller form factor and is sort of clunky(as most non-mobile sites are). Starting soon, if you sign with an iPhone, Blackberry, and MANY other small form factor devices you will see a signing experience DESIGNED for that smaller form factor. In addition, some really neat advancements that will be of particular interest to the Real Estate Community will be released including advanced correct features, resizable signatures and initials to fit those small real estate forms, and more. As far as additional charges go - I would not expect them to cost anything more...
Finally, check out our most recent blog on the authentication options in DocuSign. It is an area where we get lots of questions about the Agent's ability to set up a transaction that determines exactly who is on the other end. http://tinyurl.com/ln74qa
Thanks from the road,
Tom Gonser
Founder/DocuSign
Follow at http://twitter.com/tgonser
First I must say I'm impressed that the Jason Lemkin CEO of EchoSign stopped by with comments and Tom Gosner Founder of DocuSign did too. That is really cool.
You are right Tom, there are a lot of people checking out this post. If we could get the whole real estate world on electronic signatures, think of how much time, money and paper could be saved? I am already hooked on it. I love that it's so easy to use.
I wasn't at the Focus group in the Bay area on this, it was just my own research. I was drowning in paperwork and needed to figure out how to reduce some of it and manage it. Thank you very much for your comments.
I have used DocuSign for many years and I can't imagine life without it.
My primary business is working with out of state buyers and before all the paperwork has been faxes at least 6 times before you get executed contract by that time you cannot read a line of it.
I am going to check out these vendors.
My company is paperless itself, but you still have to get your clients' signatures. I have a scanner which helps, but three generations down you can barely read the paperwork.
Thanks for the input, Jen.
Jen,
Thank you for the information. I think it will really be helpful. I plan on checking these vendors out immediately. The free account with five documents offered by Echosign really is tempting as a way to get familiar with the process.
So this may be a sily question, but is there a device that you connect to a laptop for docusign to work?
Arthur, Like I tell my clients, no question is silly. There is no device needed. All you need is an internet connection and your computer. In order to sign, you just click and your signature is created. You can either create your own signature by using your mouse on the screen or you can do like I do and let the program create your signature. It's really easy.
Thank you Jen for posting your personal insight on DocuSign & EchoSign. I too have been looking to go paperless and were looking at these two companies. The one thing I liked about ES is that the clients actual signature can be used and in DS it's computer created. Am I wrong, or can DS also use actual signature?
Hi Jen, Thanks for starting this conversation - it's really valuable to understand what's out there on the market.
Wanda, DocuSign has a feature that enables you to upload an image of your "actual" signed signature and use that image as your electronic signature - in that sense, your clients' electronic signature will look like their "wet" signature.
You can also try DocuSign for free, with DocuSign Express for Drawloop. You can use DocuSign Express for Drawloop from the web, from an iGoogle Gadget, or from a Mozilla Firefox browser plug-in. I've taken the liberty to link to a recent blog post that explains the various free DocuSign options, along with other resources as well.
I hope my thoughts were helpful - please do feel free to reach out if you (or any of your insightful commentors!) need anything!
Best,
An Bui
DocuSign Social Media
Wanda - yes you can upload your actual signature as written in ink into DocuSign if you'd like... A *really big difference* compared to those who offer mouse signing, which will never look like your signature. We looked at using a mouse to sign years ago, and all our user feedback was that they could not make a signature they liked with a mouse. It became a really big distraction, and added no value so we dropped it.
Even two homebuyers who share the same email (which is so common in RE Transactions) can use their own handwritten signatures, or simply adopt one.
What's more, coming in early October will be support for faxing in documents (as in "I don't want to sign online!" - which nobody will do), and requesting additional documents such as a pest inspection report, whatever - which people WILL probably do. AND a completely new signing process designed for mobile devices - not just saying you *can* sign using your phone - designed for it. Pretty neat stuff.
And yes, all of this is integrated right into Ziplogix Winforms or Zipforms so you can easily send your forms for signature right from those applications. If you often send these documents and forms with lots of places to initial and sign, you will save yourself a HUGE amount of time using DocuSign templates which allow you to place all of the tabs in all of the documents with only one click! There is a reason we have over 8,000 RE companies using DocuSign and growing fast!
TG
I have been using my tablet for a few years and having people sign on the screen. But that means that the tablet has to be there... I might be looking at these services soon to solve that problem and allow "signing" without creating paper and without me tablet being there.
Wanda, It looks like you got your answer directly from the source!
Thanks An and Tom for your comments.
Lane, I had considered getting a tablet but this is great for doing it without being there. With as much as you like technology, once you try it I'm sure you'll be hooked.
Thanks for such a great post. As would be, other shared good ideas too.
Ginger