Settleware ‘No Brainer’ blog

If you bought or sold a home within the past year you certainly understand the challenges around the implementation, processing and closing this high-valued transaction. You also might have concluded that in this day and age ‘there must be a better way’? You may not have realized that there was and is  a ‘better way’ - which would have eliminated most, if not all, the stress and friction you just experienced with this paper-intensive process.

Less than 5% of the today’s real estate agents (most responsible for getting the deal started) have taken their business to the next level and have incorporated electronic signatures into their workflow, contracts and agreements. An E-signature is the ‘glue’ that connects all parties and documents over the Internet-100% paperless with secure real-time execution. There is no longer the need to drive all around town to chase down signatures or to find a fax machine (95% of consumers have Internet access and only 5% have fax machines at home) or to pay for expensive overnight deliveries. As a long time real estate veteran I can recall those calls late on a Wed aftrenoon that all parties must meet at 10:30am Friday in some office typically 20 miles away from no where in order to close the deal (on the East Coast still deploys face-to-face sit down closings-which in reality become a long winded 11^th hour art of negotiation session). Buyers, Sellers, their agents and all the ‘suits’ –personal attorneys plus the banks attorneys and title attorneys had to re-arrange all their schedules – crazy. Talk about stress – last minute day off at work for principals, running around finding  last minute baby sitters, running to banks to get cashier’s checks, etc..

Imagine if all you had to do was open your email, type in your name on contracts, click consent and submit? I think we would all agree that this would definitely be the ‘better way’. Although the E-Sign Act was signed into law by President Clinton back in June, 2000 it has taken many years of collaboration and ‘buy-in’ for all the Industry participants to get on board with a complete electronic and paperless transaction: Agents, Title, Escrow/Settlement/Closing agents, County Recorders/Registrars, Lenders, Attorney Generals, District Attorneys, Secondary Investors, MERS e-Registry, Desktop Title Lien Search and Secretaries of State. The sense of those of us that were  trying to solve ‘the pain’ in this high-liability transaction is that we needed to sit down with all these folks and get them to agree to accept these legally binding documents. As you can imagine, this was not an easy chore and has taken twice as much time than we expected.

As the Industry continues to ramp adoption it is important to understand most vendors were started by ‘technologists’ in search of an opportunity while others, solving the pain, compliance issues, garnering Industry wide certification, brought to the table extensive domain expertise, know-how and collaboration skills to have all parties to raise their hand  - “I’m In”. Welcome to the future – the all digital real estate transaction.

Out of town at a conference today and had the chance to scour the USA Today-seems like I only get to do this when I trip over it while traveling..Anyway, I was amazed at what I found in the headlines and quotes as I traversed the business section:

• Amazon Sells More eBooks than Print
• Linked In Shares Soar On First Day of Trading
• Investors are Willing to Take Chances on Up and Coming Companies
• Businesses Struggle as Shipping Costs Rise
• Some Change Driving Habits as Pain Hits Those Who Can Least Afford it
• Gas Prices Pushes Some Consumers to the Edge
• “It’s painful, it erodes my profits and I’m concerned about the potential for growth”
• “If I can ship the same product, reduce shipping costs, reduce shipping costs and the carbon footprint thing by not using so much fuel that would be huge”
• “Over the next four years we could see $185-$200 a barrel of oil, which translates to a gallon price of $6.00″

Could this provide the catalyst and create the tipping point for e-Signature adoption?  It’s made sense to us for more than a decade!

After more than a decade of the passage of the e-Sign Act we’re pleased to announce that the Escrow/Settlement Industry is poised to adopt electronic signature technology into their paper intensive processes. In our recent Escrow Survey an overwhelming majority of respondents (67%) stated that they would be adding e-Signatures to their escrow workflow, contracts and agreements within the next 12 months.

Seems like the rapid acceptance and adoption of electronic signatures by real estate agents, buyers and sellers may be the primary cause for this recent change of priorities. Escrow officers and settlement/closing agents generally carry out the instructions from the principal parties and are not particularly known to be ‘early adopters’. Buyers/Sellers/Borrowers, who are becoming more comfortable with e-Signing upfront purchase and counter offers, instructions and agreements, will now be able to complete their transaction over the Internet (anytime, anyplace-even at the airport on their mobile phone) removing most, if not all, the friction associated with current paper-based processes. No paper, no faxing, no scanning, no expensive overnight FedEx or UPS shipping charges and most importantly, no more chasing down missing documents, pages or signatures!
Removing the stress for all parties, especially the overworked escrow officers and closing agents, will be very much appreciated!

Spend 30 minutes with Lillian Walker:

• Real Estate/Mortgage Broker and e-Sign Pioneer (Has done more electronic transactions than any other agent)
• Certified E-Sign Practitioner, Lecturer and Trainer for more than 2 years

How would you like to:

• Learn why this Successful Broker is seeking “e-Sign Enabled Escrow Officers/Companies” (and Thousands of other Agents are too!)
• Hear ‘Lessons Learned’ as to what the average Buyer and Seller think about e-Signatures and paperless transactions
• Learn How Simple it is to get started and be live in 24 hours with less than 1 hour of Training…
• Double Your Business without adding additional Staff – at NO COST to you!!
• Plus “How to beat your competition in this challenging market”

Well, these are just a few of the things you will discover when you attend the best E-Signature Event of the Year!

We want people like you at this event. So, you absolutely MUST join us online. And we’re making it SUPER easy for you to register. All you have to do is CLICK HERE and you will be sent to the registration page.

This is a special event we are offering to a very select group of people. Even so, we only have a limited number of spaces available and we really want you there.

So, whatever you’re doing, stop now and take a minute to register for the event, today! (will take only a few seconds to register)

You won’t want to miss this!

Sincerely,
C. Richard ‘Rick’ Triola
President & CEO, Founder

P.S. This deal will only be available for a few days – Webinar is on Wednesday November 10, 2010. Don’t wait to take advantage of this great opportunity!

 by Rick Triola, Settleware Founder

Recently, I was asked “WHY do you do what you do?” my first reaction – WOW what a great question! (Needed to stall a bit so I come up with some ‘genius’) Actually, I didn’t have to dig to deep-we live our passion every day.

Back in the late 90′s and after 25 years of selling real estate, I made a leap to the escrow/settlement side of the business. We needed to come up with a competitive differentiator. At the same time the Internet was coming into its‟ own and I thought” Wouldn‟t it be great if we remove the stress and friction associated with largest transaction most consumers would ever be involved in and connect all parties and documents over the Internet?” By giving back both the escrow officer and agent a „lifestyle‟ change and not having to chase signatures and documents all over town (and sometimes the World when clients were traveling) this would surely be a „Game Changer‟ (name of the book I co-authored to be released in November, 2010). Because of our domain experience we understood that we would need to start with „the end in mind‟ and by getting „Buy-in‟ along the way. We also knew this would be a tremendous challenge as there are so many entities/parties that are involved in the transaction; Buyers, Sellers, Borrowers, Agents, Lenders, Title, County Recorders, Notaries, Secondary Investors and Escrow/Settlement/Closing agents.

When we initially approached lenders extolling e-signature benefits they quickly grasped that this was a „No Brainer‟ but the response also included „If you get Title to issue Insurance against the process and Fannie Mae to buy the electronic Promissory Notes – I‟m in! When we spoke to Title they said “great idea-if you get the County Recorder to accept these e-Signed docs – we‟re in! You guessed it – County Recorder‟s said „if you get approval from the Attorney General” and Notaries said “if you receive the nod from the Secretary of State” – no problem. So, for nearly 8 years we have spent each and every day checking these players off the list. Thankfully, along the way, President Clinton signed the e-Sign Act which gave us standing and validation.

In 2004, we became the first company to go live with e-Signing, e-Notary, e-Recording and in 2007 we added „Certified by MERS e-Registry and selling e-Notes to Fannie Mae‟. Still today we are the ONLY e-sign Solution provider that has taken the time and spent the resources to deliver this Compliant End-to-End Solution. (One of our e-Sign competitors continues to boast that they have spent over $3o million of venture capital – just to deliver an email signature and none

of the above!) The process is so unique that we received a patent in the US and Australia! (Patents pending in the US, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong and the EU)

We plodded through, worked with Industry leaders and pioneers, and we never looked back-WHY? Because our mission from day one was to streamline the entire real estate/mortgage transaction and have become the first and only platform that can boast a TRUE end-to-end transaction over the internet-No Faxing, No Scanning and No Paper!

Next question, “This has taken nearly 10 years to gain Buy-In and to develop – besides your clear Vision to Disrupt the way future RE/Escrow transactions would be processed – where did you get the perseverance to sustain yourself, especially in a industry without any Early Adopters? Another great question…”We believed that if given a chance to legally sign/execute documents/contracts over the Internet why would any escrow/closing agent or REALTOR® want to drive all over town chasing signatures and documents to open or close a transaction. It just made to0 much sense – what professional would not want to be tethered to a fax machine, scanner or worst yet to an expensive overnight carrier” (OOPS – sorry we closed at 5pm)

So here we are today, introducing e-Signing to the folks that „Start‟ the entire process-REALTORS® and Escrow Officers. It didn‟t make much sense to get these pros on Board until we received total Acceptance from all the parties afore-mentioned. Since we have now trained thousands of Agents we are being asked “what Escrow/Settlement companies are processing escrow related docs electronically?” These‟ early adopter‟ agents are now anxious to complete the entire process electronically since they have introduced e-Signing to their Consumers and now to have to Open escrow with a company that is still so 90‟s – nothing more frustrating to have to now go back to original paper and Wet-signing!

We have now come full circle, Escrow companies have now been licensing our patent and technology and it won‟t be long before we see the „tipping‟ point where every real estate transaction will be processed over the Internet- in minutes vs. days!

We are currently embracing REALTORS®, MLS/Associations, Board of Realtors, Escrow Officers and Brokers to join our Cause to truly „Make a Difference-One e-Signature at a Time!‟- that„s WHY we do what we do every day and enjoy every minute of it!

October, 2010

C. Richard Triola, President & CEO, Founder
Settleware® Secure Services, Inc.
www.settleware.com