Placer Title Company Closes First Digital Real Estate Transaction Using Biometric Technology
August 26, 2002
AUBURN, Calif., /PRNewswire/ -- The first online document utilizing a digital notary seal and biometric signatures in the lending industry was recorded at the Trinity Recorder/Assessor's office in Trinity County, Calif., on July 22, 2002.
The participants, Placer Title Company and the Trinity County Recorder, Dero B. Forslund, utilized Safedoc's technology to digitize the process. The reconveyance (a filing procedure which shows that a deed of trust affecting real property has been paid in full) was executed and recorded within minutes of its origination, speeding the standard process by more than two days.
"Digitizing the loan closing process will save the lending and title insurance industries millions annually by speeding the transaction process and eliminating expenses such as shipping and courier fees," said Placer Title Company (PTC) CEO Marsha Emmett. "These savings can then be passed on to consumers through lower real estate transaction costs," said Emmett.
Currently, most counties in California take at least a week to two weeks to return documents, and some as long as a month. By digitizing the process documents can be returned to the title company as soon as they are recorded.
"The actual time to record and index a document will drop from minutes to seconds once these processes are fine tuned and integrated into our existing systems," says Trinity County Recorder Dero Forslund. "The workload in our office could be reduced by 33 percent if most title companies can deliver documents electronically. In larger counties we expect the saving to be even greater."
Security is the key to utilizing this new digital technology. "Biometrics takes security to a whole new level," said Safedocs President Terry Van Bibber. "Our application, based on military technology, digitally applies biometric signatures and notary seals to lending documents that need to be recorded, and is the first in California to be approved by the Secretary of State."
Safedocs digital packaging service(TM) provides a complete end-to-end digital closing loan document and reconveyance system that allows lenders, title companies and recorders to digitalize their current work flows and use their current document systems.
Source: Placer Title Company
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