Case Study: Realty Inspection Services
EchoSign Relieves the Stress of Purchasing a House
Company Overview
Realty Inspection Services of Dallas Fort Worth is an independent, locally owned real estate inspection company. Working with buyers and sellers, Realty Inspection Services has been in business since 1991 and has a stellar reputation in the local area for providing a variety of home inspection services, including pre-listing inspections, buyer’s inspections, home warranty inspections, phase inspections and termite inspections.
Workflow Challenge
Realty Inspection Services’ insurance requires a signed service agreement prior to releasing all inspection reports. In addition, duplicate copies of each agreement are required – for the home inspection service, for the client, and for the insurance company. Realty Inspection Services manages about 1000 agreements per year. “It’s very common for the owner or buyer to be absent from the inspection. So prior to the inspection, we had to find a way to get the client to sign the agreement. We’ve tried everything – fax, scan, email – and it’s all very inconvenient”, says Katie Goggans, Owner, Realty Inspection Services. In addition, there is significant expense in agreement duplication and storage (agreements must be stored for 4 years). Typically, when an offer is put on a house there is a 5-7 day period when either party can back out or renegotiate the offer. However, a delay in getting the inspection paperwork signed can reduce this 5-7 day period down to 2-3 days, imposing extra stress in the process of buying or selling a house.
EchoSign Solution
In early 2008, Realty Inspection researched electronic signatures online and narrowed their choices down to 3 vendors. “We wanted to make sure electronic signatures were legal and accepted in our industry, so we did our homework,” says Katie. “We chose EchoSign because out of all three choices it was the easiest to use.” Since using EchoSign, Realty Inspection Services has found that it’s easier and faster for their customers to read and sign the inspection agreement as more customers have access to email than have fax machines.
Results
“Buying or selling a home is a stressful process and there is a lot of paperwork involved. EchoSign helps alleviate some of that stress and some of that paperwork,” remarks Katie. “Everyone has email, but not everyone has a fax machine so EchoSign just makes the process a lot smoother.” EchoSign automatically emails the executed service agreement to all parties and the documents are stored online and easily accessible by everyone. In addition, our clients and realtors no longer have to wait for us to receive the signed service agreement so that we can release the inspection report for their review; this leaves more time for renegotiation. In the past year, EchoSign has saved Realty Inspection Services almost $1000 on contract duplication costs and storage costs.
Our customers love EchoSign! EchoSign saves us time and money. We are also members of a home inspector coaching program and we always recommend EchoSign to other home inspectors across the nation.
— Katie Goggans, Realty Inspection Services