The time has come for those of us who perform notary
services to be treated and paid in a manner keeping with our responsibilities.
I do not need to list the various expense we incur to
properly and legally perform our important duties.
I do not need to list the various abuse we experience from
those less than professional entities that have buried their heads under our
collective flesh to suck our lively hood.
I do not need to inform you that no one else is going to
take up our cause and help us with this.
The various “organizations” that profess to support us are only
interested in our profession as a profit center.
We all know and treasure the good signing companies and
people we have had the pleasure to work with and we all know and abhor the bad
ones that use the existing system to abuse and defraud us. The good ones are already on our side the
rest need to be brought to accountability.
The title companies that need our services are regulated by
the insurance commissioner in their respective states. As a Florida licensed real estate broker and
instructor I know first hand that the commissioner in the state of Florida has
a high level of interest in the workings of Florida title companies.
This is your call to arms.
This is your opportunity to step up and take part in helping to shape
our profession for years to come. None of us can do alone, we don’t have the resources but we as a group are essential
to the title and therefore the real estate industry. The real estate industry is one of the
largest revenue producing sources in this nation and we are directly involved in
it.
I’m calling on you to get involved. Form groups within your own states and make
your voices heard in the legislative and regulatory machinery. I’m pretty sure that the more professional
title companies would be more than willing to throw their weight and influence
with us. Find a state law maker. Talk to your attorney general about interstate fraud.
This wont be quick and it wont be easy but if we unite we can do.
We can start to make a difference or we can continue to just
sit back and complain.
My email is billpaulnotary@ij.net. I might get thrown off this forum but I won’t
be stopped.
For a “call to arms”, Bill, that is pretty vague.
Unlike you (apparently), I am not just a signing agent revolving around real estate - I am a Notary Public, offering the full range of my skills to the people in my community. The income from loan signings is very nice, but my business could survive without it.
I find your “call to arms” alarming, in that you apparently have decided that Notaries Public should be regulated within the narrow parameter of what you have chosen to experience.
Try spending a year as a general Notary, working a storefront location with walk ins, covering senior facilities, answering calls to hospitals, courtrooms, jails and sickrooms. When you fully understand the entire job, then repost your suggestion.
Judi
Please accept my apology for an abrupt response.
You are absolutely correct I am not like you. I do not make my living as a Notary. During the productive years I a Owner/Broker of a moderately successful real estate agency. A CAM, and a licensed real estate instructor for one of the biggest schools in the state.
I’m sorry if you inferred that I favor the regulation of Notaries. Not my politics at all I assure you. I do favor the organization of Notaries in order that we exercise our collective muscle when dealing with those less than scrupulous entities that have cut our income by 60% and hold payment for 60 days or more or don’t even bother to pay us at all.
Reading the closing disclosure of sales or refi’s will disclose that we are getting less than 30% of what some title and signing companies are charging for our services. We are the ones on the rainy roads at 10pm helping close for a family that works worse hours than we do. It’s our paper, our toner, fuel, clothing, insurance, fee and what not and we should be getting properly compensated, and on time too without having to chase some of those blood suckers around.
I am not like you. By your own declaration you have created a thriving business and having done that in the past I fully applaud your obvious motivation and grit. I’m part time. I work when I’m well enough or not on a cruise ship but I don’t work for ten dollars an hour. I doubt you do as well.
Oh and yes, I have worked in ACLF’s and hospitals and a minimum security facility with a pretty scary looking dude. The most memorial was final documents for a lady who then asked me to pray with her.
She passed within 6 hours.
No regulation for us. But certainly some organization.
I certainly do agree with you Mr. Paul. I do loan closings, notary work and weddings. But my largest income is from loan closings. And when we finally start e-closing, the majarity of closings will likely make me drop my fees even more, if I want to continue working for myself full time.
Years ago I tried to “organize” the Florida notaries. But, it takes a lot of work and management and ultimately, it will take money. That would be a business unto itself and most notary/loan closers aren’t in a position to dedicate themselves to doing this.
This comes up every few years. This person would need to be someone within any given state that wants to establish an association or other type of entity that can lobby or pay folks to lobby on their behalf, would charge a fee to join so that those monies can be used to pay for those types of expenses, or develop the association as the NNA has by becoming the most connected, knowledgeable group in the state, with products to sell, etc. in order to help pay expenses, etc.
That was the reason I dropped it. I wasn’t knowledgeable or morivated enough to continue. Maybe one day, someone will take up the cross for us/with us!
Thanks for the response. Other than the lady who inferred that I wanted to regulate notaries you have been the only person who seems interested.
We already know that it won’t be easy. The parasites have gotten their collective heads under our flesh and like any other blood sucker the disinfectant wont be easy.
It will certainly take more than just one but now there seems to be two, and that is a 100% improvement.
I’ll start tomorrow from my end if you’ll be good enough to to share any progress you have already made.
I have a couple of good friends in the title business that I’ll reach out to. I also have state rep and a US senator that I think will listen to me.
Let’s keep in touch, not lose sight of the goal, ask for divine guidance and see what we can do.
My email is billpaul!@ij.net my number is 863-660-6970.
If we gonna git in it, let’s get in it to win it. A favorite line of my beloved departed brother-in-law who helped me get into the notary business. (He did over seven hundred (700) weddings a year for Disney.)
