SAN FRANCISCO — Consumers and agents want three things from DocuSign, according to Keith Krach, the company’s chairman and CEO — trust, choice and speed.
He broke down consumer wants and needs (and agents’ wants and needs, too) at a special session at Inman Connect San Francisco — and announced a big initiative at DocuSign, the establishment of a real estate advisory board.
How will transactions change?
The consumer wants to trust in their agent; the agent, in turn, to trust in the platform. The consumer wants to transact on any device; for brokers and agents, they want to be able to use any title or mortgage company.
Speed is a must for the consumer, used to being able to buy things at the push of a button, and for the agent who knows that “time kills deals,” said Krach.
Asked to imagine what DocuSign will be doing a year from now, “one thing that will not change is, it’s all about trust and relationships,” said Krach.
“The core to the future is: The agent is at the center. If you think about the technologies that we displayed from list to close, the big one is you won’t have to re-enter data, disclosures or workflow — the key is to have it seamlessly integrated with title and mortgage companies.
“The key aspect of the future is making it seamless,” Krach said.
Cultural transformation
For those impatient for progress, he said the biggest challenge is the cultural transformation.
For companies such as DocuSign customer, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, which is vertically integrated with its own mortgage and title insurance companies, it is possible to see the digital transaction flow process, from lead to close.
“Now the key is for all the other brokers and franchises to have a system with other partners in their network,” said Krach.
DocuSign, which helps brokers and agents process more than 12 million documents annually and close more than 2.5 million real estate transactions every year, has increased its investment in real estate product development by 50 percent this year.
Real estate advisory board
It announced today the formation of a real estate advisory board — a consortium of top industry leaders.
They share a common vision of putting brokers and agents at the center of the transaction so that they can close more deals faster, said the company.
The board comprises:
- Rick Davidson, CEO of Century 21, a subsidiary of Realogy
- Gino Blefari, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices
- Rick Smith, CEO of Equifax
- Mike Ryan, EVP of RE/MAX
- Will Lewis, CEO of Dow Jones (News Corp.)
- Joel Singer, CEO of California Association of Realtors & zipLogix
- Pam O’Connor, CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World
- Dale Ross, CEO of RPR
- Gary Simonsen, CEO of Canadian Real Estate Association
- Neil Ward, agent at McGuire Real Estate
- Craig Cheatham, CEO of Realty Alliance
- Ed Krafchow, CEO of Better Homes & Gardens – Mason McDuffie Realty
- Constance Freedman, Former Managing Director of NAR; Managing Partner of Moderne Ventures
- Curtis Feeny, Board Member of CBRE
- Lew Coleman, Former Vice Chairman, CFO of Bank of America
- Jeff Hayzlett, Chairman of The C-Suite Network
- Kathleen Lynch, COO of UBS
- Jim Crown, Board Member of JPMorgan Chase
“Like all the other real estate agents around the world, DocuSign has changed my life,” said Neal Ward, agent at McGuire Real Estate, and a top producer (he was no. 77 on The Wall Street Journal’s list of the top 100 real estate agents in 2013).
“My customers are now expecting to use DocuSign in every transaction — it has become a verb in the real estate community.”
“This is the largest industry initiative in DocuSign’s history, empowering real estate brokers and agents to unlock the power of their data with the choice, trust, and speed of DocuSign eSignature and Digital Transaction Management,” said DocuSign in a statement.
