Buyer agreements, in full
The feature page: the whole lifecycle, the status vocabulary, and what is stored against a signature.
Walkthrough
Paid add-onSign a buyer agreement
Your form, your fields, your signature — captured on a phone in a kitchen rather than mailed back three days later. This is the whole path: the PDF you already use, the fields you drop on it, the household you send it to, and the completed file you get back with a certificate page attached. Document signing is sold separately from the rest of About Time Tours, so read the banner below first.
Availability: this is a paid add-on, and it cannot be bought today
Inside the app it is called the Document Signing add-on. Settings shows a Documents row with an Enabled or Disabled pill against your account. Without it the Documents screen reads “Documents Not Enabled”, and the server refuses the call as well — every agreement request is checked against the entitlement and answered with “This feature requires the Document Signing add-on.” There is no client-side switch to flip.
Billing is not switched on during the beta, so there is nothing to buy and no checkout to complete. The way in is to ask: an add-on can be granted to your account, or inherited from a brokerage whose subscription covers it. Contact us for access during beta.
“Can I use my own form?”
Yes. You upload a PDF and that PDF is the agreement.
Nothing is drafted for you. There is no library of forms you must choose from, no clause generator and no template you are nudged towards. You bring your state association’s form, your brokerage’s form, or the one your compliance officer emailed you last spring, and the app treats it as the document of record.
What the app adds is placement and choreography: where the signatures go, whose they are, what order they happen in, and what the finished file looks like. The words in the middle are entirely yours, unread and unedited. You also tell it which state the agreement belongs to, and it shows the license number you have on file for that state — or warns you that you have none.
Fabricated example — not a real form or a real client
Demo · page 3 of 6
Buyer Representation Agreement
Cedar & Fir Realty (demo) · Oregon
SignatureBuyer 1 · Jordan Avery
SignatureBuyer 2 · Sam Avery
DateBuyer 1
DateBuyer 2
SignatureAgent · you
Text · license numberAgent · you
Each field carries a colour and a name. Everyone sees the whole document and every field on it; Buyer 1, Buyer 2 and Agent can each only fill their own.
Part 1Paid add-on
Upload your state or brokerage PDF
The screen opens on Step 1: Select a Form. Either you pick something you saved earlier, or you choose Upload Your Own PDF and hand it the file.
- What you do
- Open a client from your list, go to their agreement, and pick a form. Uploading takes a PDF and only a PDF — the file picker is restricted to it. Then set the state the agreement belongs to.
- What the app does
- Stores the file privately against your account, checks your licenses for that state and either prints the number it found or warns you there is none on file for it. Your last form and last state are remembered as the defaults next time.
After the first one, most agreements start from a form you already set up rather than a fresh upload. The upload path stays there for the day compliance changes the form on you.
What an agreement is attached to
Not a person — a household. Agreements hang off a client group, which is how the app models a couple, a family or a pair of co-buyers, and it is what makes two signatures on one document possible without sending two documents. A group can carry up to four buyers on an agreement; start one on a group with more and the server refuses outright rather than quietly dropping somebody off the signature page.
Part 2Paid add-on
Place fields and assign each one to a buyer or to yourself
Step 2: Review Fields opens the PDF full screen. You tap a field type from the strip, then tap the page where it goes.
- What you do
- Drop the fields the form needs, drag them into place, resize the ones that do not fit, and duplicate the ones that repeat. Then set who each one belongs to — Buyer 1 through Buyer 4, or Agent.
- What the app does
- Colours every field by its owner and labels it with its type and role, so a crowded signature block reads at a glance. Fields are required by default; you can turn that off per field.
When the document goes out, every signer sees the whole form with all the fields on it, each labelled and coloured by whose it is — but only their own are editable. Buyer 2 cannot sign in Buyer 1's box and neither of them can fill in your license number.
The six field types
- Signature
- Drawn with a finger, or typed and rendered in a signature face. On the finished PDF a typed signature prints as the name you typed and a drawn one prints as a signed marker — the strokes themselves are kept on the signature record rather than drawn onto the page.
- Initials
- The same capture, sized for a margin you have to initial, and stamped the same way.
- Date
- Date-picker entry, stamped into the finished file as text.
- Text
- One line — a name, an address, a license number, a figure you type in.
- Paragraph
- Multi-line text, for anything that needs a sentence.
- Check
- A checkbox, and the basis of both behaviours in the next part.
Part 3Paid add-on
Linked, conditional and exclusive fields, where they earn their keep
Three behaviours in the field menu. Ignore them and the form still works. Use them on the two or three places every representation agreement is awkward and the signing gets noticeably shorter.
- What you do
- Select a field, open its menu and pick the behaviour. Each one is set up by tapping the other fields it applies to, with a running count in the banner across the bottom of the screen.
- What the app does
- Remembers the grouping on the field itself, applies it while anyone is filling the form, and honours it again when the finished PDF is drawn.
These are the difference between a form that fits your document and a form that fights it — a long address that has to run across three ruled lines, an addendum that only applies sometimes, a set of options where exactly one is allowed.
Text and paragraph
Link Fields
Chain two or more text fields together and they behave as one long entry. Type into the first and the text wraps down the chain in order, so a long address flows across the three ruled lines your form actually has instead of overflowing the first one. The later fields in the chain are not typed into directly, and if the text still runs past the last one it is truncated rather than spilling off the page. Unlink Chain undoes it.
Checkbox-driven
Link Dependent Fields
Attach fields to a checkbox. While that box is unchecked, the fields under it are skipped — not counted as required, and nobody is stopped from signing over them. Check the box and they come back into play. This is how an addendum block that applies to some deals and not others stops being a chore on every deal. Unlink Dependents undoes it.
Checkbox groups
Link Checkboxes (Exclusive)
Select two or more checkboxes and link them as an exclusive group. The app asks how many can be selected at once and defaults to one, so a set of mutually exclusive options behaves like radio buttons: tick a new one and the one already ticked clears itself. Set the maximum higher when the form allows two of five, and the app clears older ticks as soon as the group goes over its limit. Unlink Exclusive Group undoes it.
Part 4Paid add-on
Save the layout as a template
Placing fields on a six-page form is a twenty-minute job the first time. It should be a zero-minute job the second time.
- What you do
- Save the fields and the app offers it back to you: save this configuration so you can reuse it next time. Give it a name and choose who else can see it.
- What the app does
- Stores the field layout against that PDF, then offers it in the form picker on every future agreement — with the state it belongs to shown beside the name.
Reuse a four-buyer template on a two-buyer household and the Buyer 3 and Buyer 4 fields are dropped automatically. One template covers the couple, the single buyer and the family without three versions of it.
The three visibility scopes
- Personal
- Yours alone. It shows under My Templates in Documents, and only you can edit or delete it.
- Team
- Shared with a team you belong to. It appears for your teammates under Team Forms.
- Shared
- The standard forms available to everyone, listed under Standard Forms. You can use one without owning it — edit and delete stay with whoever created it.
All three land in the same picker, grouped under Personal, Team and Shared, with Upload Your Own PDF at the bottom for the case none of them fits. Templates can also be built from scratch in Documents without a client in front of you — useful for a rainy Tuesday rather than a live deal.
Part 5Paid add-on
Pick the household group and send it for signature
Step 4: Send to Clients. One button, and it stays greyed out until your own side of the document is actually finished.
- What you do
- Fill your fields, sign your own signature block, then send. If either is outstanding the app tells you which: sign your fields in Step 3, or two required fields unfilled.
- What the app does
- Pushes a notification to every buyer on the agreement and emails each of them separately. Then it tells you what actually went out rather than claiming success.
The confirmation is specific — 'Agreement sent — push notification sent, 2 emails sent'. When delivery could not be confirmed it says so instead, and tells you the buyers may need to open the app to see it.
Sending again
Once it is out, the button becomes Resend Notification to Buyers. That sends a reminder about the same document — it does not issue a second agreement, and the buyers do not end up with two things to sign. Nothing reminds them on a schedule; a resend is you pressing a button.
One live agreement per household
A group can only have one agreement in play at a time. Draft, sent, partly signed or fully signed all count. Starting a second one is refused with “This group already has an active agreement” — so there is never a question about which version is the live one.
License verification gates sending
An agent whose license is still being reviewed can build the whole thing and cannot send it. The app says so directly — verification pending, you will be emailed and notified the moment you are cleared — rather than failing quietly at the far end.
Optional: make it a precondition
Documents carries a Require Buyer Agreement switch: with it on, clients must sign a representation agreement before tours and collaboration features become available to them. Building a tour for a household whose agreement is not fully signed is then stopped with a plain message — all group members must fully sign the buyer agreement before creating tours. Off by default, and it is your call.
Part 6Paid add-on
What the buyer sees, and how ordered signing works
Two buyers sign one after the other, not at the same time. With four, all four queue in order. The queue is enforced on the server, not just hinted at in the interface.
- What you do
- Nothing, while they work. The agreement screen lists every signer as Signed, Awaiting Signature or Pending, with their name and their email, so you can see exactly who it is waiting on.
- What the app does
- Opens the document for whoever's turn it is, makes their own fields the only editable ones, and takes a signature drawn with a finger or typed and rendered. Everyone else can open and read the agreement while they wait.
A buyer who opens it out of turn is told plainly: waiting for your turn, and the name of the person who needs to sign first. Nobody is left tapping a dead button wondering whether the app is broken.
Your buyers need the app, not just the email
This is the honest limitation, worth knowing before you promise anything. The email your buyers receive contains no signing link. It tells them to open About Time Tours to review and sign, and that is the only way in — there is no browser flow for a signer without an account. So the agreement follows the client invitation rather than replacing it: a buyer you have already onboarded signs in a couple of minutes, a buyer you have not needs inviting first.
| Who just signed | Status becomes | Who is up next |
|---|---|---|
| Nobody yet | Sent | Buyer 1 |
| Buyer 1 of two | Partially Signed | Buyer 2 |
| Buyer 2 of two, you have not signed | Buyer Signed | You |
| Buyer 2 of two, you signed before sending | Signed | Nobody — it is done |
Four buyers is the ceiling — the roles are Buyer 1 through Buyer 4, and a household with more than four members is refused rather than truncated.
Part 7Paid add-on
Sign as the agent
In the normal run of things you sign before you send, because the send button will not release until you have. But the agreement is not finished until every signer on it — you included — is done.
- What you do
- Open Step 3: Fill & Sign Your Fields, complete your own entries and sign. If you left your signature until after the buyers, you can still sign once they have finished.
- What the app does
- Checks your required fields before it accepts the signature and names the ones you missed. Fields hidden behind an unchecked conditional box and the later links of a chain are not counted against you.
Every signature is recorded with who signed, in what role, at what moment, from what kind of device, with the network address stored as a hash rather than in the clear.
Give yourself somewhere to sign
Worth being blunt about, because it is the one way to get stuck: the completed file is only produced once every signer is done, and you are one of the signers. If the layout has no field assigned to Agent, an agreement can reach Buyer Signed with both buyers finished and stop there. Put at least one Agent signature field on the form when you build the template and it never comes up — and check for it first if an agreement is sitting at Buyer Signed and you cannot see why.
Part 8Paid add-on
The completed PDF, its Signing Certificate, and finding it later
The last signature triggers the file. Your original pages are stamped with every value that was filled in, and one page is added at the end.
- What you do
- Nothing. Open the agreement afterwards and you get View, Download and Share; the same file also arrives in your inbox.
- What the app does
- Stamps each signature, initial, date, text and tick onto the page where it was placed, then appends a US Letter page headed Signing Certificate. The finished file is stored privately and fingerprinted.
Everyone on the agreement — every buyer in the household and you — is emailed the completed document as an attachment, so the copy of record does not live only inside an app.
What the Signing Certificate page carries
- The agreement's identifier.
- The moment it completed, timestamped in UTC.
- You, listed first, with your status and the time you signed.
- Every buyer in turn — Buyer 1, Buyer 2 and so on — with the name on the account and their status.
- A closing line stating the document was digitally signed through About Time Tours.
Finding it in three months
Documents keeps a History tab of every agreement you have raised, filtered by status — draft, sent, partially signed, buyer signed, signed, voided. Each row shows the household, the state, the date, a status chip and a tick beside each person who signed. Your clients get their own version of it: a My Documents screen that opens on their signed agreements.
From the agreement itself, View opens it, Download saves it, and Share hands it to whatever your phone shares with. Buyers have the same three on their side.
When it does not go to plan
Paid add-onThree things that happen often enough to be worth knowing the answer to before they happen to you. A fourth is worth stating as an absence: an agreement does not expire on its own. Nothing runs down a clock, so one that is still open stays open until it is signed or voided. If the form carries an expiry date in its own text, that is between you, the form and your broker — the app is not tracking it.
They signed it on paper
- What happened
- You met at the house, the form came out of a folder, and it was signed with a pen before anybody opened an app. The agreement is still sitting in the app as sent.
- What you do
- Use Mark as Manually Signed and write a note saying what happened. The app warns you first that this marks it fully signed for every party and cannot be undone.
- What that leaves you with
- The agreement closes out and carries a visible badge reading “Signed outside the app” with your note beside it. No new PDF is generated and no completion email goes out — the paper you signed is still the document of record, and the app is honest about that rather than manufacturing a file nobody actually signed.
The deal died
- What happened
- They went with a relative, or moved cities, or simply stopped answering — and there is an agreement out for signature that should not be.
- What you do
- Void Agreement. Only you can do it, and only before it is complete; a fully signed agreement cannot be voided, which is rather the point of a signature. Voiding also clears the signing token attached to it.
- What that leaves you with
- The agreement shows as Voided in History and stops blocking the household. A Create New Agreement button appears in its place, so if they come back in the spring you start clean rather than editing something dead.
A buyer left the household
- What happened
- One of a couple is out — separating, or simply not buying — and you take them off the client group. Or two clients you had separately are merged into one household.
- What you do
- Nothing extra. Changing who is in the group is the action.
- What that leaves you with
- Every agreement on that group that is not already voided is voided automatically, because the set of people it was drawn for no longer exists. The person you removed is moved into a group of their own. You rebuild the agreement for whoever is actually buying and send it again — which is the right outcome, because a two-signature document with one signer left in it is not something to rely on.
Around this page
Where the add-on sits
Which tiers bundle document signing and which do not. Billing is off during the beta, so nothing on that page is purchasable yet either.
Getting your buyers in first
Agreements are signed inside the app, so the invitation comes before the signature. This is that step.
Bring your form, and we will switch it on
Document signing is a paid add-on and billing is not live during the beta, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to cancel. If you want to run your own representation agreement through it, tell us and we will enable it on your account. Bring the PDF you already use — that is the only input.
Brokerage-wide instead of one agent? Talk to us about the office. An add-on can sit on the brokerage rather than on each agent, so everyone inherits it.