Can We Sign My Real Estate Deal Electronically?
The short answer is “sort of”. One of the silver linings of the pandemic have been forcing service providers and their professions to make things easier to provide service without unnecessary face to face meetings.
With a coordinated effort with ISC, the Law Society of Saskatchewan and any number of lenders, the requirements to sign in person for real estate deals have changed. While at first this was a temporary measure, all parties have accepted this change on what appears to be a long-term basis. The solution is that we can meet through a video conference provided specific protocols are met for the specific type of document being signed.
It isn’t as easy as docusign, but it is very achievable by most people. I have done virtual meetings with people from all over, and with all types of technology skill. I find one of the biggest advantages of the new approach is that I can more easily assist individuals in more rural communities where their needs may have been underserviced. The key is to have access to commonly available hardware and software, and a little bit of patience for the process.
What do you need?
Hardware:
- Webcam (or a smart phone)
- Scanner (or a smart phone)
- Printer (or we can courier to you documents)
I find that it works best if you either have a home computer, laptop or ipad/iphone for the video conference, and then a separate phone to be used for scanning.
Software
- Video conferencing software (zoom, facetime, teams, etc)
- Scanning software (Notes app on an iphone works great, or other third party service providers for android)
Getting Documents to you
- We will either send you pdfs for you to print off, or we can courier the documents to you, and have the documents returned to us by scanning or by courier.
How does it work?
On a Sale
The most complicated requirements are those for the transfer authorization. To sign this document, a number of steps need to be taken:
- We have to meet over a video conference
- I have to be able to hear and see you throughout the meeting
- You have to sign the document with wet ink (no electronic signatures)
- You have to scan the document during the meeting and send it to me.
- I have to print, sign, and scan and return the document to you during the meeting.
- We are then to request the print copy from you for our file.
The remaining documents will be signed during the meeting and returned to us. We will get some information from you as to what to do with your sale proceeds during this meeting, and will talk about how we pay off your mortgage, your real estate commissions, and any other debts associated with the property.
On a Purchase
The tricky thing with purchases is any specific requirements of the lender. Some have different forms that need to be filled out, some will only accept certain methods of signing the documents, some will need additional or specific ID if we are doing it virtually.
Most of that is dealt with by our office. Again, we will walk you through what we need in order to have the mortgage fund.
The only other issue is getting the remainder of the down payment to us. We have had clients that will deposit funds directly into our trust account, that will wire us the money, or forward us bank drafts, all with the assistance of their bank. Again, we can usually make something work.
Law Society Identification and Verification Requirements
We have requirements to “identify” and “verify” our clients. It is akin to FINTRAC requirements of other professionals, but given our special relationships with our clients, it is something that imposed on us through our Law Society. The identification portion is easy, but the verification usually required us to see a copy of the identification of the client in person.
The Law Society has given us a number of different ways to resolve this issue, as shown in the link below. We can usually make something work without a lot of additional hassle.
