4 Ways Technology and Electronic Conveyancing Make It Easier for Buyers and Sellers

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make. Thanks to all the paperwork and legal requirements, it’s also one of the most stressful. Fortunately, technology and electronic conveyancing make buying and selling houses easier.

Skip the paper

Using technology to buy or sell a house can save time and money. You’ll avoid the hassle of paperwork, printing and scanning, and ducking to the post office to send a fax. In most cases, there’s no need for paper-based documents – everything happens online. Documents are easily locatable and accessible by all parties, and it’s significantly more beneficial to our environment. 

From engaging your real estate agent and applying for your home loan to identity checks and completing settlement, technology is making buying and selling quicker and easier.

Digital signatures

Digital signatures are legally binding electronic signatures, and they’re used in many aspects of our daily lives. In real estate, digital signatures are added to binding contracts and agreements, like contracts for sale, agency agreements and residential tenancy agreements. 

In a nutshell: digital signatures do what physical signatures do—they serve as an assurance that the person signing the document is who they say they are. However, it is important to note that a digital signature differs from an electronic signature. 

“A digital signature is a type of electronic signature, however it’s much more sophisticated and secure,” Toby Blyth, Partner at law firm Colin Biggers and Paisley, said. “Whereas an electronic signature can be as simple as using your finger to sign your name on a tablet or iPad, a digital signature has special encryption to ensure that signatures are legitimate and documents are not altered after being signed.

• Source: Real Estate Institute of NSW

At Oliver & Co., we use Secure Exchange, DocuSign, and other systems that have digital signatures built into them, making it a safe, secure and faster experience for our clients. 

Buying or selling a home with electronic conveyancing

Having to deal with paperwork is enough to make any buyer or seller anxious. And if you add in the stress of buying or selling a home, it can be downright overwhelming. Luckily, technology has made this process simpler and more efficient.

Electronic conveyancing is one of the most significant innovations in real estate technology today—and it makes your life easier by cutting down on time, costs and paperwork. It also makes things faster for everyone involved because it’s done remotely from anywhere in the world using a secure portal that gives buyers and sellers access to all relevant information about their transaction at any time during the process. 

Electronic conveyancing or e-conveyancing allows the seller, buyer, respective agents, banks and legal representatives to exchange documents electronically. When it comes to settlement day, it also means that there’s no need for all parties to come together in person. All the required documents are sent over the internet, so there is no need for hard copies of anything to be signed. This saves time and money because the parties don’t have to print, sign and scan documents, use courier services or wait at a fax machine to send over signatures. Electronic settlements also help reduce errors from being made on paper documents, which can result in title problems later on in your home ownership journey.

How electronic conveyancing works

• E-Conveyancing for buying or selling a home is conducted using an online platform like PEXA or Sympli Australia.
• The platform creates a virtual workspace or room that your lawyers, conveyancer and bank representative will access as part of the settlement process.
• Within the workspace, all parties can prepare, sign and lodge documents for registration with the state land registry or title office.
• As a buyer or seller, you won’t have direct access to the platform, but you will need to authorise your lawyer or conveyancer to access it (and sign documents) on your behalf.
• Once all documents are signed, the purchase price balance is paid, and the settlement money will is disbursed.

The benefits of electronic settlement

• It saves time and is convenient because all documents are handled online instead of having them physically signed by hand and returned to the relevant party.
• There are faster turnaround times because it removes many of the manual processes previously undertaken, including reducing the time needed to sign and return documents.
• It helps prevent errors from happening due to miscommunication between buyers and sellers.
• Buyers and sellers can choose from a greater range of lawyers and conveyancers, like those that work outside their local area or remotely.

Paper settlements can take weeks with many manual steps involved. Electronic conveyancing means less stress for buyers and sellers – and we all know how important that is when you’re keen to settle into your new home!

Stay up-to-date with apps

The development of apps for the real estate process is exciting. You’re familiar with the realestate.com.au or domain.com.au apps to search for property listings, look for open homes or track your property’s estimated value. There are also bank and broker apps to help you lodge documents for financial preapproval and loan applications. But, if there’s one app we’re happy to talk about, it’s a conveyancing app. And we’re more than a little excited to share this as we launch our own Oliver & Co. Conveyancing App.

The conveyancing process is complex, with many moving parts, parties and complicated legal requirements. It’s little wonder that in the past, buyers and sellers have felt left out of the process or not sure of the steps involved. But conveyancing apps can change all that by making the process smoother and more accessible while at the same time ensuring you’re up-to-date and in the loop at every step of the process. 

The Oliver & Co. Conveyancing app is easily downloaded from your App Store or Google Play store. Once you’ve requested us to act for you, you’ll receive access to the app and all the benefits that go with it, like:

• Digital ID verification
• Real-time updates
• The ability to track your matter and follow along as key milestones are reached
• SMS, email and push notifications, so you never miss a message
• In-app chat with our friendly team. 

The conveyancing app means you can say goodbye to playing phone tag or waiting for emails to land in your inbox. Instead, you can open your app and instantly know where you’re at in the conveyancing process.

Making your life and move easier

Buying and selling a house can be a stressful and overwhelming experience, but it can be made easier with technology. By using digital signatures on contracts, you can sign them at any time, from anywhere and not have to worry about finding someone to witness your signature in person. It also means no more paper copies of documents sitting around for days or weeks between each party involved. Electronic conveyancing is safe, secure and convenient to use, with the bonus of ensuring accurate records are maintained. If you’d like to know more about how we use technology to make your buying and selling journey less stressful and more enjoyable, give our friendly team a call on 07 4056 1070 to book your free 15-minute phone consultation. We’d love to hear from you.