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How Remote Online Notarization is Revolutionizing the Real Estate Industry

RON allows real estate professionals and clients to streamline their processes. It saves time, reduces logistical complexities, and ensures the authenticity and security of important documents.

It has also made the closing process more accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic by allowing individuals to avoid in-person meetings. This is a significant improvement for people with mobility or travel limitations and other factors limiting their access to notarization services.

Convenience

For a long time, getting essential documents notarized meant scheduling and traveling to meetings. Meetings could take weeks to prepare, and your physical availability and that of notaries would determine how quickly you could buy a home or close a deal.

RON is changing that. With RON, document signers can be anywhere worldwide and still have their documents notarized. This process eliminates the need to travel and meet in person, making it much more convenient for real estate agents, clients, and borrowers.

This technology also provides a higher level of security than traditional paper-based notarization. RON providers like ProperSign offer advanced, secure technologies that include identity verification, dynamic knowledge-based authentication, and video recording for an entire audit trail. This gives the notary more evidence to support the authenticity of a document in the event of a dispute. This added layer of security makes e-notarization more widely accepted and valuable than ever. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, RON is now available to Americans nationwide.

Efficiency

Closing mortgages on time can be challenging for lending firms and those looking to buy homes. With RON, the process is streamlined by eliminating physical meetings, which helps speed up turnaround times. This can reduce errors and lower paper costs in loan closing documents, which is a win for everyone involved.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many state legislatures used the opportunity to pass laws that allow remote online notarization. Making these laws permanent will help boost access to mortgage loans for Americans working abroad, in quarantine, or in areas where travel is limited due to health restrictions.

The technology behind RON also offers enhanced security and efficiency for signers, real estate agents, and title agents. The use of video conferencing platforms eliminates scheduling conflicts and transportation delays. Advanced security measures such as multi-factor authentication and tamper-evident seals prevent fraud. They also provide detailed audit trails that enhance transparency and accountability.

Security

A centralized, secure platform eliminates the need to coordinate in-person meetings and travel, reducing the time required to complete notarial tasks. It also expedites important transactions, allowing businesses to close deals quickly and efficiently.

Mortgage documents and other financial forms often require notarization to verify the authenticity of a signature and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. RON enables real estate professionals to complete notarizations remotely, eliminating the need for in-person meetings and the associated travel costs.

Although some people may hesitate to adopt a paperless process, the best RON platforms put security at the forefront. They incorporate multi-factor authentication, tamper-evident seals, digital audit trails, and more. They are also certified MISMO compliant and meet the strict requirements of New York RON laws. This level of security and accountability makes RON an ideal solution for the real estate industry.

Compliance

In the past, they executed real estate documents requiring parties to meet in person for a notary to verify their identity and signature. This is no longer true, thanks to remote online notarization (RON).

The RON process utilizes electronic signatures, identification verification, audio-visual communication, and record-keeping technologies to verify document authenticity and establish compliance. These tools reduce error rates, streamline the closing process, and accelerate timelines.

Moreover, the RON process can help eliminate barriers for borrowers and lenders that may have difficulty traveling. Lastly, the process is highly secure. Credential analysis and identity proofing technologies verify a signer’s government-issued ID and review personal information from public and proprietary data sources.

While many states have adopted RON through executive orders or proclamations during the COVID-19 pandemic, only 23 states have permanent RON laws that meet the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) and ALTA’s model RON legislation’s standards. Nevertheless, RON’s popularity is expected to grow, especially among mortgage professionals who use digital mortgage technology that offers a secure eClosing platform.