Electronically Signed Real Estate for Sale by Owner Made Easy

Electronic signature real estate agency agreement template

so most of the real-estate professionals of today are using what's called electronic signatures or ease signatures to conduct their business while they're an awesome tool it's a very dangerous trend that we're starting to see that puts you the agent in the crosshairs of not only lawsuits a regulatory enforcement and here's what you need to know in this video [Music] hey everyone my name is Paul V Chesky and once again welcome to the real estate classroom well there's no doubt that electronic signatures have revolutionized the way that real estate professionals are doing business today programs like DocuSign digi sign ecig all of those type of programs have taken this industry by storm and in fact it's estimated now that 71% of all real estate sales transactions are now going through some type of electronic signature program and while these programs are awesome because they save the agent a ton of time and they're very efficient there are some very scary trends they're starting to surface that are putting the real estate professional in the direct crosshairs of not only lawsuits but regulatory enforcement and the numbers are only growing so here's the problem two signatures one email address what's happening is you're sending your documents for two signatures to one email address where there's an appearance that one person may be signing for the other with the click of the mouse an issue is only an issue when it becomes an issue and when it becomes an issue you'll have wished that you had played it by the book crossed those T's and dot your i's and this situation typically becomes an issue when one party wants out of the deal and they're looking for a reason to terminate the contract and I can tell you at the school here we've had numerous calls in recent months from buyers alleging this very story line it's no joke I had one call one time where boyfriend girlfriend had bought a house was pending it hadn't closed yet she discovered he was cheating on her and obviously they broke up and she didn't want to go through with the purchase of the house and she made the allegation that he signed on her behalf therefore she's not a party to the contract and actually upon further investigation it was determined that that very thing did happen he signed her name on her behalf so I think you can see the problem here and the problem that it could pose potentially for real estate professionals so what can you do to mitigate these circumstances as a licensed agent three options option number one at a minimum if there are two or more clients that signatures are required send two separate emails to that one single email address that way party one can electronically sign their documents and then party two can electronically sign their documents at least it gives the appearance of separation option number two which is actually option better than option one obtain wet signatures on a separate authorization form instructing you the agent which email address or addresses each of the parties want to use for this transaction so if both the parties want you to send their documents to a single email address they are giving you written authorization of that now make sure this gets put into your broker transaction file because it does provide just an additional layer of protection in any case it's very important folks very important anytime you are sending documents to the same email address always send separate emails based on the number of parties that must sign to buyers to emails three buyers three emails I think you get listen and I totally understand that this can be a pain in the butt and very inconvenient but it could save your bacon when this issue arises option number three two or more parties two or more separate individual email addresses from a risk management perspective the best solution here is each of the parties to the contract having their own unique individual email address that's all I have for today's video I appreciate you being here hey do me a favor real quick give this video a thumbs up or a thumbs down either way I don't care it is all traffic for the channel if you would click on that little red subscribe button and subscribe to the channel click on that little notification bell and please share this with the colleagues somebody do you think might benefit from it and last but not least thanks for watching and have a great week [Music]