Thursday, April 17, 2008

E-Sign. The Sign Of The Future?

Let's hope not. I did my first two E-Closings today, and I have to say I was thoroughly underwhelmed. There were about 50 pages that required a hard copy, including title docs, the mortgage, and other notarized documents. Then the note, TIL, RTC, and about 10 other miscellaneous documents were to be e-signed. Hard copies of all documents still had to be printed for the borrower. The whole process of turning on my laptop, logging in, and slowly scrolling through docs and waiting while the system dragged from one page to the next while the borrowers, broker, and I all huddled around a laptop was completely inane. There was absolutely no advantage, no logical reason, no upside whatsoever to performing a signing in this manner. It wasn't quicker, it wasn't easier, it wasn't better for the borrowers. The signings take two to three times longer, it's a logistics nightmare, it's hard for everyone to review documents in that fashion, and there was a definite concern from at least one of the borrowers that the docs online matched their hard copy version.

This idea needs to be buried along with New Coke and the Edsel.

2 comments:

LaShon James-Major said...

Good post, Alex. I like this line, "This idea needs to be buried along with New Coke and the Edsel."

I had no interest in e-signings and after your description my opinion hasn't changed.

Are these companies paying the same for e-signings or less?

Alex Y. said...

This particular title company paid me my standard fee, but they're just learning this e-sign procedure as well. I'll be raising my fee for e-closings in the future. I'm providing a laptop, paying for a wireless card, paying for an air card for my cell phone, and the signings take at least twice as long. My feeling is that my e-closing fee will be the same as my purchase closing fee.