E-signatures valid on Maryland real estate contracts

Recently I’ve heard feedback from a few Maryland real estate agents who are concerned about the validity of e-signatures on Maryland real estate contracts.

As a company that prides itself on empowering real estate agents with knowledge to make their clients’ closing experience as pleasant as possible, we took it upon ourselves to investigate this matter and address the concern.

After making a few phone calls, I was able to reach out to an account rep at DocuSign, one of the companies that spearheaded an industry-wide effort to move the FHA to formally recognize E-signed third-party documents.

An April 8, 2010-dated FHA mortgagee letter is the first in what is expected to be a series of responses to this initiative, and it essentially says (and DocuSign confirms) it’s now official: E-signed third-party documents, including real estate contracts, are now being accepted by the FHA.

I asked specifically about Maryland real estate contracts, and here is what their legal counsel sent back:

“MD is a UETA state and nothing in their version of UETA makes them different with respect to real estate contracts. Note that they have a consent provision that takes them closer to ESIGN, but it is not to be construed as requiring any additional steps to what DocuSign already does. Please see my blog post on consent, from March/April of this year.”