I just had my easiest experience ever dealing with the paperwork of real estate transactions. And I did it selling and buying property in Tucson while living in Hong Kong. The way that the documents were handled saved time, hassle, and money for everyone involved and the fact that it was far better for the environment than traditional methods was just frosting on the cake.

Here’s how it was done. My Realtor, Susan Denis of Habitation Realty, uses DocuSign, a paperless document handling software. My escrow agent, Judy Kaiser of Fidelity National Title, uses a similar software called Smart View. What those systems, and others like zipForm and eSign, do is allow documents to be generated, transmitted, reviewed, signed, returned, and stored without being printed.

According to Jim Hogan, of the Hogan School of Real Estate, the Arizona Department of Real Estate allows electronic signatures and electronic records, as long as records are backed up and kept in a way that precludes alteration, and saved for the same period required for paper records.

In my recent transactions, there were two sales contracts, two purchase contracts, two cancellations, four escrows, a feasibility extension, a purchaser name change, and probably a couple documents that I’m not remembering. Out of all those I only had to print a total of seven pages. There was a two page deed that needed to be signed in front of the notary at the U.S. Consulate, and a five page seller property disclosure form that I had to print so that it could be filled out by hand.

Besides the convenience for me, the client, it benefited the Realtors and escrow agent even more. No one had to do any driving to get or give documents or signatures. Nor did anyone have to print, sign, and scan documents to provide signatures or pay FedEx charges to deliver or return documents (except for returning the deed). The time savings increase productivity. And since paper files are replace by digital, filing time is saved and retrieval becomes easier, and the need for filing space is essentially eliminated.

According to Susan, the time savings created by DocuSign are “a life-changer; there is no way now I could imagine living and practicing real estate without it.” Judy says, “SmartView not only reduces the amount of paper we purchase; it also reduces the amount of office space that we rent because we don’t need all of the filing cabinets that used to be necessary. Electronic signatures allow me to be more productive and it’s easier to get work done.”

Like the productivity and cost benefits, the environmental benefits are also obvious. Less gas is used because the need to drive to get signatures, or pick up or deliver signed documents is eliminated. Less paper is used and ultimately thrown away. Finally, less building space is needed for document storage.

And paperless systems are not limited to real estate transactions. According to Chad Williams, COO, Pepper Viner Homes is in the initial stages of implementing a cloud-based paperless document system that may ultimately span all company functions including, sales, construction, trade partner management, and homeowner communication.

Like always there are some caveats. If brokers, the escrow agent, or the lender use different digital systems or require “hard” signatures, which most lenders still do, some forms may have to be printed. For some software, printing is sometimes required to “split” separate documents that are generated in one digital operation. Finally, not all clients are comfortable yet using email or digital documents.

Thank you to John Mijac of Long Realty and everyone mentioned above for providing information for this article.

Dante Archangeli is the owner of Tucson Artisan Builders LLC, has been a Southern Arizona Home Builders Association member since 2000, and a green builder for longer than that. He also blogs about sustainability at GoodNewsForNature.com and terrain.org/author/darchangeli/.