Will We Ever Be Paperless?

The notion of a paperless society is no longer foreign or uncommon. We are all becoming increasingly familiar with what this means and the impact of the changes it has already made in our personal lives as well as in our business spheres, whether we prefer it or not. Let me posit this question though: Despite the many programs out there to create the ease and the possibility of a paperless business, can a real estate office truly become paperless?

Think about it. Do we ever go ahead and throw away our hard copies? Even though Cloud servers and working in the Cloud is the way that most businesses are going, have you ever honestly scanned a closing HUD and then just thrown it in the trash? I highly doubt it! As much as we try to eliminate paper from our offices and businesses, is real estate ready to be paperless? A great example of this would be the agency disclosure. Who upon just meeting a new agent is going to put their signature upon a stranger’s iPad and just blindly trust that they are in real estate and will, in fact, email it?

Let’s face it; there is something abidingly permanent about having something in writing. There is a tangible need for the paper document; to touch it, to read it, the feel of holding the weight of what it means within one’s hands. As much as technology is advancing and no matter how much we may try, I do not believe that real estate can ever function completely without traditional paper documentation.