You should NOT be taking low ball fees for FULL MORTGAGE Signing, FHA LOANS, VA LOANS Or ANY signing. You are undercutting yourself, and working for nothing, once you deduct your gas, mileage, paper, and ink.
These signing companies get paid $100’s of dollars for a signing, and it’s a slap in the NOTARY’S face to even be offered $30 for a full loan, even if it was next door with no drive time.
Newbies, don’t put yourself out there like that. At least get $100+
Pretty sure they don’t get $100’s for a loan mod, but agreed $30 is unreasonable - especially since I’ve heard you have to print 3, get two signed…$30 barely covers the travel in my county…note the word “barely”
You should be hearing from Lisa shortly about this post…
Your right, the signing company don’t get $100’s like the old days. But they can do much better than $30-$40. That’s insulting!
When I lived in Nebraska, I took a few signings from this company, but I soon learned the professionalism & rudeness from their staff was ‘Thumbs Down.’… and the fees were low balled then, but better than $30.
A friend sent this to me because we talk about signing companies we won’t work for.
This info was passed to me for informational purposes, and I’m passing it on …
Not sure why I would be hearing from someone soon.
I agree that $30 is a ridiculous offer for anything and that we should never agree to anything below $100…you still have to consider the job in question and counter with a fee that is sufficient to cover ALL your expenses, time and allow for PROFIT. How many pages? Paper, toner not cheap. Scanbacks? TIME…and probably ‘wait for approval or label’, so another trip to drop. And, of course, travel time & mileage are huge cost factors. However, I have, thus far, been OK with subject company. Tho’ I do have to counter offer and they do take longer than usual to pay, they do pay.
I started the beginning of January and I’ve only accepted one signing because of the low ball offers. Every offer that I’ve received except for the one, I’ve counter-offered with a higher fee and of course, no response. I will not lower my standards because I know how much these companies receive.
As an experienced Certified Notary Signing Agent for more than 15 years, I can tell you some of the fees offered as long ago as 2005 were $85/$95 for a refinance package [more if directly from the Title Co], that was drop shipped to the Notary for signings the next day! The truth is the fee offered by Title Companies is generally $150 and above depending on the TC. If a Signing Service, Title Co. or Lender is using SnapDocs.com, they are being charged a fee between $10-$15/signing to cover the cost of SD’s maintenance of the credentials of thousands of Notary Publics around the country. These vendors would otherwise incur enormous costs maintaining their own cadre of Notary Signing Agents while severely limiting their national reach. These 1st, 2nd, or 3rd party vendors, who sit safe and secure in an office, working a phone and a computer, feel justified deducting the SD fee from the $150 fee, which is their “cost of doing business” that is is being subsidized by the Notary. Conversely, the Notary Public absorbs ALL the costs of doing of the business [paper, toner, time prepping, sometimes QC the package when errors are discovered, gas, time traveling, safety concerns, auto wear & tear] from what remains, which is often times less than half!!! Its been necessary to eliminate working with such companies who won’t budge from the $60-$75/ signing fees they offer. The down side of this practice is less work. It is also not clear if SD, which allows the Notary to opt out of working with specific vendors, offers the same option to vendors regarding specific Notaries. Food for thought, especially since there is not way to speak to anyone at SD. NNA advises that as we can not unionize since we are self-employed individuals and not employees. We might be able to form an association of independent contractors at a local level, similar to a chamber of commerce, that would offer incite and best practices for newly minted Notary Publics to help curb the further erosion of the fees.
Yes, I’ve been getting a slow amount of traffic from Snapdocs as of late (better than most of my 2018 SD experience). I fell for the lowballing offer, mainly so I can get my name out there with experience. Right after, I read some advice on this forum about accepting an offer and when they call to confirm (or you call them), renegotiate the fee. I had an offer of 99 pages for $45, what? I accepted and immediately called back to renegotiate to $125. They ended up offering the job to someone else lol. I felt justified though. 99 pages that would have required multiple signatures, copies of the whole package, travel, printing, scanbacks, time, etc. So yes, do not take these low ball offers for full packages, renegotiating is key!
I actually spoke to Jeremiah from Coast to Coast. They are getting 100-180 of these loan modifications a day right now since interest rates are so high. They are only getting paid $60 each, because the docs are only 20 pages - (print 3 copies). There are maybe 8 signatures, 2 notary stamps, and no fax backs. You can ask for more if you are traveling a distance. I recently got $100 from them, but 45 miles traveling.
You are definitely wasting your time here if you accept these low signing fees. For example, FHA Refinance loans in California depending on the institutions, there are 150-175 pages (legal size papers); 120 signatures (6-signatures to notarize); 2-acknowledgment forms; 4-Jurat forms (Sworn). Do the math for $15/signatures plus the printing costs and travel fee per mile. Signing companies takes half of the fees (50% for you and 50% for the signing company) from the title companies, lenders or other direct companies who hired them. In this case, it looks like Coast to Coast Signings Inc. offers 10% - 20% of the fees they have collected from Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
180 per day sounds huge. If that is distributed across 50 states it is 3.6 per state which doesn’t sound huge for an individual notary. What is 3.6 divided by the number of notaries in your state doing/accepting these loan modification assignments.
I don’t even look at or consider a fee that is less than $50 for this type of document and quite frankly it would have to be within walking distance to my home. I consistently receive these types of offers for $30 dollars which I turn down. It’s not worth my time or expense. I also get offers for “hybrid” closings or “loan modifications” for $50. That’s a no go for me as well. I state what I want to get paid and if they don’t come up to what I want, I simply move on. You should be getting at least $100 per closing. If you accept closings for $30 or $50, you may as well go flip burgers as you not making any money once you consider your time, travel, paper and toner and the 25% income tax bracket. If only ALL notaries would stick to their guns and demand a decent wage for the work performed, we wouldn’t have these low ball offers.
I saw these signings and I took one or two outta desperation but then decided I’m shortchanging myself. There was one where doc’s were overnighted to me but still $30 is way too low for mileage, gas, and depreciation on your vehicle.
I’ve actually done these signings for this company. The signing required 15 minutes of my time at the table and only 30 pages to print, 3 signatures, 1 notary section and with no scanbacks. It was easy and nearby so I felt comfortable accepting it.
$30?? It better be ONE piece of paper that require one signature and stamp. The location has to be literally right across the street from me. I see why they keep offering $30!!!
Coast2Coast offered me a Loan Signing last year for the same amount. I had to decline due to not being available on that date. Before accepting that signing I would have counter offered and if the price was not above the $30 offered. I would not have accepted. Loan Signing Agent is a profession and and the pay should equal the work that we will and are doing.
