The Age of Paperless
The Wheel Estate Cam: Episode 7
By Frank Borges LLosa, Friday, December 11, 2009.
Episode 7: It's time to say goodbye to your fax machine and printer, says Frank Borges LLosa of FranklyRealty.com in Arlington, Va., who advocates for electronic signatures and paperless real estate processes. He suggests Adobe Acrobat (full version), PDFtypewriter and eFax, among other programs that can be useful to facilitate paperless transactions.
Consumers are demanding paperless technologies, he said. "You've got to be embracing these technologies, otherwise your competitors will."
Watch past episodes of the Wheel Estate Cam.
Frank Borges LLosa is the broker, founder and owner of FranklyRealty.com, a real estate brokerage in Falls Church, Va. He is the creator of the Trust Me I'm a Realtor blog and multiple listing service wiki site FranklyMLS.com. You can follow him on Twitter: @franklyrealty.
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Submitted by Jeffrey Bastress on December 11, 2009 - 3:20pm.
We are trying to be as paperless as possible, but run into digital signature issues with the mortgage process, especially FHA that requires original signatures on all disclosures during the process and closing.
Talk about wasting tree's....it is the mortgage application, disclosures, closing documents in triplet required by investors as a huge road block in an entire transaction going paperless.
Nice driving and video skills I might add....
Jeffrey Bastress
www.Startpoint Realty
jeffrey@startpoint.com
www.HomesByJeffrey.com
blog: www.RealtyRag.com
Submitted by Prabakar Mahalingam on December 11, 2009 - 6:00pm.
Frank,
Nice video and I like what you are doing on your blog. I love technology and we are glad to see more and more tools out there for agents and offices to go mobile and paperless. Thanks for your referrals. I also wanted to mention a couple other tools to the readers. Real Estate Dashboard software for going mobile and paperless. Its a complete solution from doc management, efax, eSignature, remote backup, online access and more. eSignOnline for electronic signatures is available at a very low cost of $9.95 for 80 sessions per month or $19.95 unlimited.
Prabakar Mahalingam
CFO, VP-Business Development
GoPaperless Solutions
www.gopaperless.com
760-432-6093
Submitted by Richard Fisher - Morro Bay Realty on December 11, 2009 - 9:31pm.
Paperless is truly the way of the future. We have been dealing with Paperless problems from most of the Real Estate Offices, Escrow and Lender we work with. Our office start going Paperless in 2003 and covert to 100% Paperless files in 2006. Over time most other Real Estate Offices will tolerate our Paperless Offers, Escrow Officers will access our documents and email us their documents, and Vendors now submitt Paperless Reports. Lenders are still fighting the battle including some who still insist our Electronic Signatures on our docutments be hard signed to get loans with FHA being the worst.
Our Paperless Transaction are created on Zipformonline in Templates, sent into DocuSign Templates where their Sticky Tabs are automaticaly placed to show the signer were to sign and dates are automaticly place. Finally from DocuSign they are sent into TransactionPoint for storage and 24/7 access by all parties involved in the Transaction. Transactions becomes so simple when both offices use Electonic Transactions.
In the future the Paperless process will be very easy and only take a couple of hours to close and record a Transaction when the Escrow, County Recorders and Lenders are tied into one simple seamless flow. The Technology is here today, it is changing the thinking and habits of todays generation and will become easier with future generations.
Submitted by Jim Duncan on December 12, 2009 - 4:48am.
I ran into the "FHA doesn't allow electronic signatures" recently ...
Turns out, according to Docusign, they do -
http://www.docusign.com/blog/2009/06/11/fha-lender-acceptance/
And Wells Fargo admitted (reluctantly) that the hold up was them, not the FHA.
And we still had to go get originals ....
Jim Duncan
Associate Broker/Blogger
Nest Real Estate Group
434-242-7140
http://www.realcentralva.com
Submitted by Doug Francis on December 13, 2009 - 12:33pm.
In my opinion, using digital signatures is the best thing since sliced bread! It has definitely added some freedom, and probably saved me from using a few dozen reams of paper... yes, you too can save the planet.
(my clients like paperless too)
Doug Francis
RE/MAX Presidential in Fairfax, Virginia
http://www.DougFrancis.com
Submitted by Frank LLosa on December 13, 2009 - 10:17pm.
Jeffrey,
When you say original signatures, are they requiring you to snail mail them contracts, or are faxed (ie digitally sent) contracts accepted?
If so, can you try a Adobe acrobat solution which doesn't have the obvious DOCU sign type box
Also this is the other PDF software for stamping on a PDF: www.PDFtypewriter.com ($35)
I have ruined many computers testing out dozens of softwares to find that one. Let me know if you know of others.
I want a iPhone app that will fill in the content and let the client sign on their iphone.
Frank
Submitted by Jay Seville -- Arlington virginia condos on December 14, 2009 - 5:04am.
Thanks for the ammo, Jim, I just emailed the article and the bolded part to my lender who does not accept electronic sigs. Told him to talk to his lender bureaucrats and get on track w/ accepting the sigs or I'd be taking the team elsewhere for loans.
j
Submitted by Marc Diaz on December 15, 2009 - 6:27am.
What is everyone using for storage and sharing digital files (from the company perspective) with your agents? Dropbox, drop.io, box.net?? I'm looking for a solution for my agents to upload files to me and we have 1 to 1 sharing on those docs, but I, the broker also have a global view of documents across all of my agents. And it would be great if I could annotate them with notes for missing signatures, etc. I've tried all the transaction management systems and always come away wanting.
Has anybody tried echosign for e-signatures? Or even echosign with salesforce?
Thanks for the video, keep'em coming.
Marc Diaz
www.closetrak.com
Submitted by Josephine Parker on March 10, 2010 - 8:48am.
Faxing is already an outdated technology with all the new sophisticated technologies available nowadys...
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Submitted by Julia Molina on March 10, 2010 - 10:32pm.
Adobe has given a new dimension to paperless transaction with the introduction of the their adobe reader. It comes with vast number of features.Layaway
Submitted by Homer Davis on March 14, 2010 - 9:44pm.
Adobe as a software development company has done sp much good for the pc users by developing so many great tools in the recent past. Reader is another one of those great creations.
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Submitted by John Higley on March 15, 2010 - 6:35am.
You should not forgot the Microsoft word. It was the pioneer software in starting a whole new paperless world.
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Submitted by bianca black on March 15, 2010 - 10:01pm.
There are so many services available online to take care of just about anything that you need to do. Why waste paper (and time and gas and everything else) to do it the old-school way? It's much more efficient and cheap. Heck, a lot of them are even free. blood tests
Submitted by Matt John on March 18, 2010 - 2:17am.
Indeed, I didn't have an opportunity to discuss this point on the air, but I'm an ardent advocate of "the right tool for the right job." Sometimes the correct tool for any given task is indeed hard copy paper, or a pencil, or a physical manipulative... indeed, sometimes the right tool is the human mind and a good set of vocal cords! I could not agree more that the full pantheon of techniques, pedagogical and technological, need to be integrated into our school systems for effective teaching and (most importantly) effective student learning. I do not, however, as some nay-sayers would posit, believe that there is a binary choice between one and the other, or that one somehow "supercedes" the other. If we view all technology as simply "tools," which indeed is the definition of technology - anything that mitigates the environment for the user in some way - then we're just broadening our perspectives and our knowledge bases as educators when it comes to tackling the steep hill of 21st century instruction.
regards,
Matt John
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Submitted by Jason Thomas on March 22, 2010 - 8:15am.
PDFTypewriter is not very sophisticated one when we compared with Adobe PDF. Adobe PDF is much more advanced. Watch Naruto Episode
Submitted by Kevin Tinston on April 1, 2010 - 2:31pm.
Wow this is an amazing idea for sure. Firstly it was about typing rather than writing and now even typing on a paper is an old thing. Paperless! That's where the future is. The computer industry takes it all and soon everything will be done using our small friends. I am even afraid to think about the future, I mean how will we live after 10 years. Everything will be computerized for sure. However I support paperless idea for sure. First of all we will save some trees and forests of course. Ohh yes I mean mother Nature of course. Thanks for the nice video and nice article thought. I will be waiting for more nice ones from you for sure.
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Submitted by Mathew Dempsey on April 1, 2010 - 7:59pm.
Electronic signatures and paperless real estate processes seem to be quite captivating however putting aside fax machines and printers just does not seem to be a logical choice. The reasons I can put forward here are many however before I do that I just wanted to make sure what he suggested had any real bone behind it and to my astonishment paperless transactions seemed very elegant to use and I have to say I loved it. (I am still not convinced about the factor that one should throw away the fax machines and printers for that reason! Patio Furniture
Submitted by ken matthews on April 2, 2010 - 1:33pm.
i totally agree with what uggs said makes me wonder if we can go in a different direction
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Submitted by paul paul on April 17, 2010 - 5:44am.
Ooo, great point MM. Makes me wonder if adaptable formatting could happen - formats auto-sized to the screen. could happen with vector-based graphics & some smart UI's.For better understanding what i am saying visit http://cravinganime.com/
I am betting there is a change coming for shops. I know of some that will be switching to tablets. The screen will still be little but the res will be higher. Models (over wifi) will be the primary information accessed.
Submitted by bob marley on April 22, 2010 - 9:32am.
this is true
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Submitted by Go Paperless Solutions Inc. on June 21, 2010 - 9:29am.
This is in response to Marc Diaz...waaaay up there in the comment list, but I have a solution for you. eSign Online (https://gopaperless.com/EsignOnline-Signup.aspx) has all the things you are looking for. There is a digital drop box for secure storage of files which can be accessed from any computer as long as you have internet access and your password. Obviously there is also electronic signing with both a biometric and click to sign option and you can modify pdf files by adding "signing zones" anywhere you need them. Try it free for 30 days and see if it takes care of all your signing and filing needs. We have bi-weekly webinars and real-time chat help to guide you as you get used to using eSign Online as well. Good Luck and give us a call! 1.866.913.0628
Submitted by Melanie Clark on June 25, 2010 - 4:36pm.
Going totally paperless probably won't be something that everyone does for a LONNG time. There are strides being made but companies don't see the initial benefits right now. Who knows though there might be a global shift because of people like this guy and other like minded individuals. I did not know that the Mac had a built in digital stamper in there. Loved the wheel cam. At first I was like "whooa" what is happening?!
I have used Efax and I love it. It makes sending and receiving faxes awesome. Its basically an email after someone sends you a fax. I think that the world would be better off if more people and decisions to move forward in going completely paperless.
One very cool new invention is the "Square" which is a mobile merchant account and credit card scanner for the Iphone. This is another awesome step forward in a paperless world.
Mel
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Submitted by Daniel Vincent on August 6, 2010 - 4:16pm.
Going paperless is certainly the wave of the future. Good quote too about competitors embracing that technology, a very valid point. Sounds like the show "The Office".
Submitted by Faraz Alam on August 15, 2010 - 5:49am.
I really love to read articles that have good information and ideas to share to each reader. I hope to read more from you guys and continue that good work that is really inspiring to us.
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Submitted by Billy Madden on September 19, 2010 - 6:53pm.
We've come a long way since paper was first made thousands of years ago. However I do believe we will still need paper just not so much. Very limited use of paper will be the future. So I guess the greenies can thank technology for saving their trees.
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Submitted by mivpl susan on September 20, 2010 - 11:00pm.
a new dimension to paperless transaction with the introduction of the their adobe reader. It comes with vast number of features.DAEMON Tools Lite download
Submitted by Naufal Abdillah on September 24, 2010 - 5:48am.
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Submitted by Marie Prevost on November 15, 2010 - 10:31pm.
This was a really great contest and hopefully I can attend the next one. It was alot of fun and I really enjoyed myself.
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Submitted by Marie Prevost on November 15, 2010 - 10:31pm.
This was a really great contest and hopefully I can attend the next one. It was alot of fun and I really enjoyed myself.
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Submitted by jazzzz mac on December 7, 2010 - 12:43pm.
There are strides being made but companies don't see the initial benefits right now. Who knows though there might be a global shift because of people like this guy and other like minded individuals. New York bankruptcy attorney
Submitted by jerry johnson on January 4, 2011 - 3:12am.
I have used Efax and I love it. It makes sending and receiving faxes awesome. Its basically an email after someone sends you a fax. I think that the world would be better off if more people and decisions to move forward in going completely paperless. lupus symptoms
Submitted by Jebediah Granston on January 14, 2011 - 11:43pm.
Maybe by next generation we'll not be using old printers at all!..
Submitted by Jebediah Granston on January 14, 2011 - 11:43pm.
Maybe by next generation we'll not be using old printers at all!..
Submitted by Kelly Martin on April 28, 2011 - 10:44am.
Very true, most schools are now paperless when it comes to posting midterm grades, newsletters, etc. It is definitely the way of the future.
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Submitted by Kelly Martin on May 27, 2011 - 10:57am.
I think Adobe Acrobat is the most useful program I've ever had.
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Submitted by on August 7, 2011 - 2:08am.
I totally agree with Kelly, adobe reader is the best program and above it all, it is free :)
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