eSignature Legitimateness for Business Purchase Agreement in United States

How to eSign a document: e-signature legitimateness for Business purchase agreement in United States

good morning welcome to Tuesday talks with the Minnesota Association of Realtors my name is Chris today we're going to talk about an important subject that we could call so a couple of times a week probably related to electronic signatures and a larger issue electronic transactions themselves and they work hand in hand in order to go through it today we've had Brad Boyd are one of our legal attorneys at Thompson and I back do a lot of research on the issue and he's laid out an agenda item for you today a full white paper of briefing on it that you're able to get in today's Erie source right below this video the video is here so that it's kind of an introduction to the issue itself first on electronic transactions an electronic transaction is essentially no different than a regular transaction a regular transaction has two parties generally that are coming together on certain terms they put those terms in writing one party offers to the other terms of a purchase in our situation for a transaction and the other side either counter offers or accepts it that's a traditional transaction and Brad lays out a very nice overview of a traditional transaction we've had facts transactions which is the transmission of the transaction itself so if indeed I can't get to another agents office or to the sellers if that's my client perhaps I can fax it to them the key to the facts is that somebody has a documentation a receipt that shows that the other party has received it that's why it's important if indeed you do fax acceptance to the other office or to another agent that you have that receipt that says usually okay at the top or received at the top so that you can say yes my party signed it I faxed it over to them before delivering it to them and they received it and here's our proof that they received it the next part gets into electronic transactions when you're dealing with emails so let's say I man Grand Rapids Minnesota I was there last week beautiful tone beyond that though I'm in Grand Rapids Minnesota and there's a client in the two city's purchasing property up there it would be inconceivable for me at nine o'clock at night after meeting with my clients to drive all the way down to the Twin Cities and deliver that purchase agreement and it could be that I don't have a fax machine or I'm having difficulty with a fax machine but I decide I'm going to scan the purchase agreement at my office and email it to the agent that's okay so long as and there's not good case law on this but as brad has indicated this is very similar to a fax transmission as long as you have a read receipt and that is when the agent on the other side of the transaction opens it up it sends you a receipt that yes they have received this message and that's an option in most emails that you're able to use that's a very important part just the act of me sending it to them does not mean that they've received it and I need to have some documentation to show that they've received it so that's the electronic transaction part of it that's in the memo that Brad's put together the last piece is an important piece relating to electronic signatures so let's say again I'm in Grand Rapids but my client is now in the Boundary Waters all they've got is their handheld device I'd love to deliver the purchase agreement to them and canoe out there but that's not very handy and some people would say well why don't we use an electronic signature have a code there is a number of companies that offer those that comes under what's called the uniform electronic transactions Act yep they have a whole act on it and in Minnesota that determines what happens and the key piece for real estate on that is that the parties must agree to do business that way in advance of doing business that way that means that my client is suddenly headed up into the boundary waters I'm not able able to all of a sudden say well we're going to use electronic signatures from here because the parties have not agreed to that in advance and that's the emphasis of the law that you need to understand when you're dealing at it Brad's put together a full piece we hope you'll take the time to review it if you're a bro or in the marketplace please put a policy together so that when indeed your agents fall run across this you have a handy policy that was decided not in the heat of battle but in the cool of the weather so put one together we hope that you enjoyed it today we'll talk to you again next week