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The pitch
I hope that after I close my eyes tonight to sleep, a spontaneous, industrywide innovation occurs that allows me to wake in a world where electronic signatures are the norm.
Someone will email me a contract that I can return executed after just a few clicks, without having to leave my Gmail account.
I want it to be so commonplace that the act of doing so doesn’t even elicit a smile, just a silent acknowledgement of another task done.
Imagine my surprise to find that this real estate dream may very well have already come true.
What do you know about HelloSign?
The sale
Electronic signatures have been legally valid for more than 15 years.
Yet earlier this week I had to commit about 15 minutes to PSS (print-sign-scan) a rather inconsequential document. Hopefully, maybe, my nightmare is over.
HelloSign is the easiest way to digitally execute documents I’ve yet discovered, allowing you to sign directly within your Gmail inbox.
Next to the Download or Google Drive icons of an attached document appears a “Sign” button. Clicking it opens the HelloSign interface providing signature options ranging from uploading a saved signature image to drawing in your own.
In my testing, HelloSign found a saved signature on my hard drive and had it ready to place.
A “Save & Attach” option completes the process and loads the document into a pending message. Adobe PDFs, Word Docs, Google Docs, and up to 14 additional file types will work with HelloSign for Gmail. (Even PowerPoint.)
HelloSign offers several other very worthwhile features, and to some extent, functions as a document management tool. You can store agency agreements, buyer representation forms, disclosures, common addenda, or listing agreements as Templates for regular distribution.
Each document can be accessed through HelloSign and sent to the party needing to sign. Recipients can open it on mobile devices and thankfully don’t need a HelloSign account to execute the form.
A compelling use of this feature for agents would be a static link to your representation agreement on a website or social media profile. Prospects pointed to the link could become customers in under a minute. You could drop such a link on landing pages, Facebook ads, in tweets, or at the end of YouTube videos.
We all want our business relationships to be easy to form and maintain. This kind of simple customer onboarding process would no doubt earn you a reputation of being an efficient, tech-savvy and innovative real estate agent.
Templates can be made private or available to teams, which would allow brokers or team leads multiple ways to govern use of essential forms and ensure each document exists in its most recent iteration.
Multiple team members can be sent a single document signature and when executed, each person will be supplied copy.
I understand that many of your customers are still afraid of the Internet, and may not even have an active email address. For those folks, HelloSign offers an In-Person Signing feature.
This tool needs little explanation, but the physical presence of a tablet or computer screen should provide your seller or buyer enough confidence that these newfangled transaction processes are actually quite convenient.
While I don’t store many documents in Evernote, it’s nice to know that HelloSign integrates with it, as well with Box (which I use every day), Dropbox and Google Drive.
Agents can also benefit from being alerted when a document is being reviewed and signed. Sure, it may be a tad Orwellian, but this feature allows you to monitor when your opposing agent is looking things over and, more importantly, when their customer agrees to your customer’s terms.
The close
HelloSign has a very nice interface, friendly controls and stands for all the right things about improving business processes through electronic signatures.
This is a quick tool to learn that has multiple benefits and applications for individual agents and brokerages alike. I’d say give it a shot.
Help me live my dream.
Do you use HelloSign — and what do you think? Leave a comment and let us know!
Do you have a product for our tech expert to review? Email Craig Rowe.
