Sotheby’s International Realty saves time and paper by digitising real estate contracts

The boom times continue for the Australian real estate industry. On the back of sky-high prices and limited inventory in 2021, this year is shaping up to be another crazy one. And, in this hot market, the ability to quickly and correctly fill out and sign real estate sales contracts to secure a buyer’s dream home matters more than ever. 

Indeed, as Docusign’s Jenna Bome explained in a break-out session at Momentum APAC recently, paper-based processes in real estate are proving a deal-breaker. And it’s why leading agencies are making the switch to digital.

Jenna spoke to the Managing Director of Sotheby’s International Realty, Michael Pallier, about Sotheby’s experience in transitioning to digital contracts. This highly respected real estate agency sells around one billion dollars worth of luxury homes and country properties every year, and going digital has helped the team deliver an even better service to buyers and vendors.

No more driving hours to deliver contracts

Sotheby’s is using Docusign Agreement Cloud to streamline and simplify its agreement process. Since making the switch, the real estate agency has reduced its paper usage by 80%. And, contracts that would have taken agents several days to execute now take just a few hours – sometimes, minutes.

“Technology has helped us carry out more transactions with less effort. So, we don’t have to physically drive the contracts to each client when we sell a property – we do it remotely. The client could be at their holiday house or away on business; and the same with the buyer,” said Michael.

In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for Michael and his colleagues to drive for hours to a country property to get a vendor to sign a contract. They even used to fly overseas to get the signatures. These time-consuming, energy-guzzling trips are now a thing of the past.

“We simply upload a contract to Docusign, and send it to them to sign on their phone or computer – and they send it straight back. It’s a lot faster to get deals done, and we can carry out more transactions in less time. It also saves energy, as we don’t have to drive to customers’ houses – so it’s better on the environment, too.”

Contracts signed in record times

For Sotheby’s, the speed at which contracts are being signed using Docusign is impressive. Michael shared the story of a luxury home that sold in one evening, saying, “I had a sale of a home in Vaucluse, for $7,450,000. The buyers looked at the property at 3pm on a Friday, we got an offer and acceptance on the property that evening, and we exchanged a contract via Docusign at 9pm. It was all done within six hours.”

With digital contracts delivering such tangible benefits to the business, no wonder Michael was so emphatic when he said, “If you’re not there yet, you must go digital. And if you’re not with Docusign now, you should sign up today. You’ll love it.”

So simple to set up

As real estate agencies like Sotheby’s will attest, it’s super quick and easy to prepare an agency agreement for signature using Docusign. To see how simple it can be, get in touch today.