The Word NO Is In TechNOlogy For A Reason

This is an age of sophisticated technology in which almost everyone has the capability of conducting most of their business from their smartphone. Popular applications, such as DotLoop and DocuSign, allow you to read contracts, electronically sign them, and return them to the sender within seconds. While time-saving, is it really the best way to handle your real estate transactions? Why not take the time to meet with your clients face-to-face and be one hundred percent certain that everyone understands the documents being signed?

Here are three examples of possible problems with electronic signatures:

1. The sellers have been enjoying “spirits” when they receive the purchase offer.
2. One spouse knows the email password for the other and signs the purchase agreement without his or her knowledge.
3. The sellers don’t read the contract, rather, they simply sign where indicated and do so based on what you told them it said over the phone.

Granted, you have no liability in any of these pretend scenarios. After all, there is no way for you to know if your sellers are intoxicated when they sign the purchase agreement, or that both spouses did not sign of their own volition, or that your sellers failed to “read then sign” per your instructions.

That said, come the light of day, it will definitely be your problem. You will get the call saying, “We were out last night, had a few drinks and didn’t really understand what we were signing. There’s no way we are going to sell our house at that price. We want out of this deal.” Or, “My wife knows my email password so she signed the document for me even after I told her I was not going to agree to this purchase offer. This contract isn’t valid. I had no intention of signing it.” Or, “We were reading the purchase offer we signed last night and we now realize the buyer wants several thousand dollars in seller concessions. You never told us about that. We are not honoring this contract.” Now, what are you going to do?

Obviously, you will be taking valuable time away from your business in an effort to prevent the loss of this one sale. Worse than the loss of the sale will be the probable loss of your client because you will be blamed for the debacle. If you had chosen not to use the technology at your fingertips and scheduled an appointment with your clients to discuss the contract in person, you would have never found yourself in any one of the above scenarios. Think before you push the “Send” button. Think, “I will be a more efficient Realtor if I do this in person.”