One of the most important — although maybe not super exciting — parts of being a real estate agent is getting clients to sign documents. The good news is that with e-sign software, getting clients to sign anything, from the listing agreement and property disclosure to the closing documents, is as easy as clicking a few buttons! The right electronic signature software makes the process of creating, editing, and sending documents for signature quick and easy.
Here are our choices for the best electronic signature software:
- Docusign: Best overall e-sign software for real estate
- Dotloop: Best transaction management software with e-sign tools
- Adobe Sign: Best for Adobe integrations
- DropboxSign: Most simple and easiest to use
- PandaDoc: Best for advanced document management
- Zoho Sign: Best all-in-one business suite
The Close’s top picks for the best electronic signature software
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DocuSign: Best overall e-sign software for real estate
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Docusign is the go-to e-sign software in every industry, and its real estate-specific plans make it particularly useful for agents and brokers. It has a user-friendly platform that makes it easy to upload documents, organize documents for different transactions, track signatures, and even edit documents within the platform.
On top of that, Docusign is the electronic sign software that is used and offered by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), making it the industry standard. It even made our roundup of the best real estate software for investors.
Dotloop: Best transaction management software
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Dotloop is considered one of the best electronic signature software options because it is specifically designed for real estate professionals. In fact, it is not only an e-sign software, but an all-in-one transaction management tool with plans made specifically for agents, teams, and brokers. This makes it an ideal software solution for real estate brokers and agents that want a user-friendly, all-in-one tool to create, sign, and manage documents and transactions.
Looking for other software to streamline your brokerage’s operations? Check our guide to the best real estate brokerage software for some options.
Adobe Sign: Best for Adobe integrations
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Adobe Sign is part of Adobe Acrobat, which is arguably the most well-known digital signature provider. With Adobe Acrobat Sign, you can easily create PDFs, customize signatures and fields, and track all signatures. Acrobat is an advanced document solution that makes it easy to edit PDFs and share them with clients, vendors, and all parties involved in a real estate transaction.
Even though it doesn’t have any real estate-specific features, Adobe Acrobat would be ideal for agents or teams that also use other Adobe tools for photography, video editing, design, and content creation.
DropboxSign: Most simple and easy to use platform
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DropboxSign (formerly HelloSign) is the best electronic signature software for those who want a simple, user-friendly solution at the best price. It is one of the few e-sign software options with a free forever plan, though it’s limited. While that may be tha case, it has the most important features for real estate agents who need to share documents online — plus, it has integrations with popular tools like Google Drive, Microsoft Word, Hubspot, and Dropbox.
This platform is a great option for real estate professionals of every level — for example, I use it to manage my rental properties, and it would also be ideal for new real estate agents who want a simple, affordable platform to get the job done.
Need a refresher on all the things you need to have a successful start to your career? Download our new real estate agent checklist to make sure you don’t miss out on anything.
PandaDoc: Best for advanced document management
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Compared to a few of the other simpler options, like DropboxSign and Docusign, PandaDoc has more robust features for creating and editing documents and collaborating with a team. Because of the in-depth features, it’s best for mid-sized to large real estate teams and brokerages that need a digital signature provider for streamlining and organizing documents, transactions, and partnerships.
Zoho Sign: Best all-in-one business suite
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Zoho Sign is just one part of the powerful and well-known Zoho CRM software. Even though it is a much more robust platform, it easily qualifies for our list of the best electronic signature software. Its e-sign features envy all the other options on our list, like simple document customization, a free forever plan, a free trial, drag-and-drop fields, and signature tracking. Plus, Zoho is actually the most affordable option on our list!
Zoho Sign integrates seamlessly with its massive collection of apps, like Zoho CRM, Forms, Desk, Mail, Flow, and Contracts. Plus, it includes some of the most valuable integrations for real estate professionals, like Google Workspace, Microsoft, Dropbox, Outlook, Hubspot, Pipedrive, and Zapier. For all these reasons, Zoho Sign is ideal for real estate professionals who want an e-sign software solution that fits within their existing CRM and software tools.
The Close Methodology: How we evaluated the best e-sign software
At The Close, our primary goal is to give real estate professionals accurate, detailed, and objective information on the best tools and software to grow their real estate business. To help you choose the best electronic signature for real estate, we worked with a team of real estate experts, researchers, and writers to do detailed research.
Based on our research, we used the following criteria to choose the best e-sign software:
- Pricing: We searched for software with a variety of plans and pricing structures that fit the income and needs of real estate professionals of all levels. We also prioritized software that offered free plans and free trials.
- Secure & legal: The best electronic signature software must fit legal standards and be well-protected, so we only chose providers with extensive security and legal standards.
- Integrations: Since real estate professionals use a variety of software tools, we searched for e-sign software options that integrated naturally with other common CRMs and tools.
- Ease of use: We evaluated the user-friendliness of each platform and valued those with both mobile and desktop access.
- Reputation and reviews: Since documents are an extremely important part of every real estate transaction, we only chose electronic signature software with a strong reputation and many positive online reviews.
To learn more, read our full The Close methodology.
How to choose the best e-sign software
In order to choose the best electronic signature software, you should have a solid understanding of what your business needs. For example, the right e-sign software for an individual agent probably wouldn’t work as well for a brokerage of 50 people. Individual agents typically need a simple, user-friendly platform that allows clients to sign documents on the go. On the other hand, large teams usually need collaboration tools, document organization to separate transactions, and a higher volume of document storage.
For real estate professionals of all sizes, make sure that the e-sign software you choose integrates or works well with the other tools you use. For example, if you use Gmail to communicate with clients and Google Drive to store documents, you should look into platforms like DropboxSign and PandaDoc that integrate directly with Google Workspace.
Consider these common features that real estate agents need in electronic sign software:
- Legally binding
- Reusable templates
- Drag-and-drop form fields
- Multiple signer support
- Real-time notifications
- Automatic reminders and notifications
- Time-stamped logs
- Mobile signing
- Secure document storage
- Ability to organize documents by transaction
- Integrations with your current tools
Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
Can real estate contracts be signed electronically?
Yes, real estate contracts can be signed electronically, and they are legally binding in most places under the E-Sign Act and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). Electronic or digital signatures are common and are widely accepted for all kinds of real estate documents, like purchase agreements, commission agreements, listing contracts, property disclosures, and more.
What is the best electronic signature for real estate?
There are many different e-signature platforms that can work perfectly in the real estate industry.
The best electronic signature software for your business depends on exactly what your business needs. However, we chose DocuSign as the best overall choice because of its affordable pricing, ease of use, and its exclusivity with the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Can you use Docusign for real estate?
Yes, Docusign is a commonly used e-signature software for real estate and is legally binding. In fact, Docusign offers a Realtor plan for members of the NAR, where it offers all state and local association forms.
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