How PDF Tools Can Support Digital Transformation in Real Estate
by Jennifer Rees
As a paper-heavy industry built on contracts and legal agreements, the real estate industry is ripe for digital transformation—with the right tools.
As a paper-heavy industry built on contracts and legal agreements, the real estate industry is ripe for digital transformation—with the right tools.
The real estate industry can enhance efficiency, collaboration, and decision-making by utilizing digital tools to streamline processes and reduce reliance on physical paperwork. Depending on the type of document in question, it’s generally recommended to keep hard-copy versions of these for at least seven years to an indefinite amount of time when it comes to the real estate sector. Even so, digitizing and processing documents digitally, besides saving and storing hard copies, comes with many added benefits.
10 Benefits of Digitizing Documents
- Protection against physical loss or damage
- Easy access and retrievability
- Quicker communication and reliability
- Cross-platform functionality
- Quick and easy conversion between different formats
- Secure storage
- Enhanced efficiency and productivity
- Document regulation compliance
- Quick and easy shareability
- Gentler carbon footprint (less taxing on environmental and energy resources)
In the real estate sector, almost all documents are presented to clients, contractors, and the like as PDF documents. But PDFs often need to be worked on. These are the most common PDF activities among our real estate customers:
- E-signing PDFs (with or without annotations)
- E-signing PDFs and requesting other signatures (with or without annotations)
- Compressing documents
- Editing PDFs
- Converting Word documents to PDF
- Converting PDFs to Word
- Converting PowerPoint presentations to PDF
- Converting JPG to PDF
Having the right PDF tools for these processes has proven to be critical, not just because they make work easier and more efficient, but because the tools respond in different ways to the type of document process at play.
Enabling Digitization & Resilience
Real estate is a unique sector in that it covers a wide range of stakeholders, from property developers and legal professionals to homebuyers and rental agents. One key element that connects this entire value chain and supports its integrity is the humble document. From architectural plans and project tenders to lease agreements and property deeds, documents are and will continue to be the glue that holds this broad sector together into a digital future.
With the right PDF tools,digital transformation in real estate can be a seamless and liberating project. If done correctly, it can supports both people and businesses in getting work done faster, simplifying tasks, enjoying superior document security and cost savings. In addition, going paperless can relieve the environment of the heavy burden of traditional document management.
Less than 40% of businesses are prepared for digital transformation due to limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, and a lack of understanding, risking falling behind competitors and missing growth opportunities. This not only signals a profound risk of obsolescence in cases where businesses are resistant to transformation but also a world of gain for the many industries that still have a chance to adopt digital practices. A step in the right direction is simple document management that will pave the way to a thriving digital future.
Are you considering going digital in your real estate business? The best place to start is with eSign, the quickest and easiest way to get contracts and legal documents signed quickly and without unnecessary hassle.
