I predict, right here in this blog, that within the next five years, the real estate industry (and other industries) will legislate the end of paper Agreements of Purchase and Sale and accompanying documents.
There's a new product on the market that RE/MAX Hallmark endorsed recently and it's all about digital transactions. It's called DealTap. In the short seminar I attended yesterday, the process was laid out for us and at first glance, it's appears to be superior to the way we've been doing it all these years.
Many of the final agreements we send to the lawyers and administrators in our office are illegible. We have to also send a "read only" copy. There's sometime some doubt regarding the changes we've made and questions are asked if all the initials in the correct place. I often think that a lawyer with an attitude and an eye for detail could cause a stir if their client wanted to get out of a deal and render the Agreement null and void (but that can probably happen under any system).
Using the DealTap syste, it would be virtually impossible to miss initials, changes and signatures. Every change, every initial, every everything is recorded sequentially in a timely manner and from I can see, the information is indisputable. No one would miss an initial because the system wouldn't allow it.
All we have to do now is either convince the agents to learn to use it or, more likely legislate it.