We’re far past the days of eClosings being a future trend that title and settlement professionals need to keep an eye on. They’re now an increasingly important part of today’s real estate landscape.

While many transactions still revolve around traditional in-person closings, industry research shows that 90% of mortgage lenders now offer some form of digital closing. At the same time, Remote Online Notarization (RON) continues to gain traction as more states, lenders, and settlement providers embrace digital workflows.

Yet for many title and settlement professionals, managing digital closings across multiple platforms introduces a slew of challenges. That’s why we developed SoftPro Sign! This versatile eClosing solution, available in SoftPro 360, enables all parties involved in a real estate transaction to securely sign or notarize documents online. 

Here are seven reasons title and settlement professionals turn to SoftPro Sign for their eClosing needs.

1. SoftPro Sign Provides Flexibility 

Not every closing has the same requirements. Instead of using one product for eSigning and another for RON, you can handle both types of transactions through the same platform. With SoftPro Sign, you can facilitate:

• eSign-only transactions

• eSign + RON transactions
  

With these options, you no longer have to choose between vendors who offer only one or the other. Now, getting documents signed or notarized is a breeze!

2. SoftPro Sign Enhances Collaboration 

Effective collaboration among all parties—title agents, lenders, real estate agents, consumers, and others—is essential to every real estate transaction. SoftPro Sign provides a centralized digital workflow for eClosings, enabling you to send documents, collect required signatures or notarizations, track progress, and receive completed packages back electronically. By centralizing these steps, you gain greater visibility into the signing process, making it easier to coordinate each participant’s responsibilities and reducing the back-and-forth needed to complete the closing.

3. SoftPro Sign Protects Sensitive Information

Title and settlement professionals handle sensitive personal and financial information every day. Unfortunately, some eSignature platforms are far from secure, preventing you from sending or collecting personal information from your customers directly through the eSign software. SoftPro Sign helps support secure digital transactions through:

• Multi-factor authentication

• Secure login processes

• Encrypted storage of eSignatures
  

This means your customers can access their documents and complete their closings securely, while your team enjoys peace of mind knowing that all personal information is protected. 

4. SoftPro Sign Saves Time 

Switching between systems can slow teams down and create unnecessary work. If your eSignature platform isn’t integrated with your title production system, your team has to download document packages and reupload the signed documents back into SoftPro manually.

Not so with SoftPro Sign, which is fully integrated with SoftPro through SoftPro 360. This eliminates the need for multiple logins, removes tedious rekeying by pulling information directly from the SoftPro file, and streamlines the workflow by quickly and easily pulling documents from SoftPro Attachments or outside records into the program.

5. SoftPro Sign Reduces Errors

Buyers receive a multitude of documents to sign. Without guidance, they might miss a signature, skip a required date field, forget an initial, or leave an entire form incomplete. That means you must then contact them, explain what's missing, and ask them to sign again.

SoftPro Sign guides the signer through the documents and highlights where action is required, reducing the risk of missing signatures or incomplete fields and making it easier to receive complete document packages back in a timely manner.

6. SoftPro Sign Cuts Costs

Traditional remote closings require documents to be printed, packaged, mailed or overnighted, then signed, returned, scanned, and stored. SoftPro Sign helps reduce the need to handle paper documents by enabling electronic document execution, thereby lowering administrative costs and saving staff time. (You’ll also save a few trees while you’re at it!) 

7. SoftPro Sign Simplifies Remote Online Notarization

For out-of-state or relocating buyers, or those who are unable to take time off to come to your title office, coordinating in-person closings is a challenge. SoftPro Sign helps you collect signatures and notarizations without requiring everyone to meet in person, whether parties are across town or across the country.  

When utilizing RON, all you need to do is submit the document package through SoftPro Sign. Your notary will schedule a RON webcam session with the signer. After a credential analysis, a RON webcam session begins. Your notary ends the session once all documents are reviewed, signed, and notarized. The documents can be manually added back to your order or automatically added with automation in SoftPro.

Additionally, if you’re authorized and commissioned as an online notary in your state, you can act as your own notary using SoftPro Sign or collaborate with a network of notaries as needed.

The Bottom Line

By bringing eSign and RON capabilities into the SoftPro workflow, SoftPro Sign provides the flexibility needed to support today's evolving closing process. Request a demo to see how SoftPro Sign can help your team work more efficiently and deliver a smoother eClosing experience.