Snapdocs Low ball fees

Yes, technically I am contracted by the title company, but the title company works for the builder and in general the builder can make requests that the title company will do their best to accommodate in order to keep the builder’s business.
And no, I do not care to share the name of my builder (even to someone out of state) :wink:

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Snapdocs is a JOKE. :rofl:

Some signing companies prefer to lowball their fees and they use Snapdocs because it is the PERFECT tool for just that. :money_mouth_face:

… and then they get upset because “Notaries dont know what they are doing”. :triumph:

Hey cheapskate signing companies, you get what they pay for. :grinning::+1:

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I have gotten a few for 30. I just respond and tell them it would not cover my expenses.

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That’s great, but how do you do that when you receive the docs at the last minute? It becomes “print and run”, which I find is highly conducive to errors of one kind or another.

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In general I don’t allow companies to put me in a “print and run” situation, because as you pointed out that makes it more likely that a mistake will be made that I will have to pay for with either my time or money.

Here’s an example of how I do this. Let’s pretend I have a 5pm signing scheduled. I email the company (you can also call but I always email for a paper trail) at 2pm and say:
“Hello, I wanted to let you know that I must have documents no later than 3pm (about an hour from now) to be on time for this signing today at 5pm.” Most companies understand that 2 hours is a reasonable minimum about of time for you to prepare.

I’m not telling the company that I won’t do the signing if I get docs after 3pm, but I am saying that if I don’t get the documents 2 hours prior I can’t guarantee an on time arrival. They may respond and say something like “We won’t have documents until 4pm.” Then (if my schedule is flexible and I can push the time back) I tell them “OK, I will call the signer and let them know I will probably be a little late.” In general most companies are ok with this because they know they aren’t giving you enough time. I then call the signer and let them know that I will be late because I don’t have the documents yet and I tell them that I will give them another call with an updated ETA once I have the documents printed and I am on the way to them. Most signers are ok with this.

If the signing company says that’s unacceptable I say something like “Ok, I totally understand if you need to assign this to another NSA with a more flexible schedule :-)” but honestly they rarely ever do this because by the time that find a new NSA and deal with the late docs they will be in the same boat of the signing not happening on time.

THIS WORKS! I had to do this for a signing just yesterday and obviously the company wasn’t offended because they called me today (they didn’t go through Snapdocs, they called me DIRECTLY) to do another signing for them on Thursday.

Do I occasionally lose a signing from doing this? Yes. But I sincerely believe that not all business is GOOD business, and I only want good business, I didn’t get into this to be stressed. And honestly I’ve found that these signings with last minute or late documents end up having other issues that cause me to have to do a lot more work on that signing than I wanted to.

This is YOUR BUSINESS!! Don’t let companies push you around in a way that will cause you to make errors and don’t let these companies make YOU pay for errors with your time or money for late documents. As the saying goes “Poor planing on THEIR part does not constitute an emergency on My part!”

Now, obviously this only works if you are a good Notary, you can’t do a poor job in general and expect companies to respect your business when you let them know your time frame requirements for documents.

Anyway, I apologize for the long message but I hope it helps!! :grinning::grinning::grinning:

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I totally agree with everything you said and I conduct my business the same way that you do. Most of the time I won’t even respond to last minute requests because that puts you under the gun right from the start. When I do respond I make it clear to the hiring party if I don’t believe that I can comfortably make the stated appointment time. Usually they’ll tell me to let the signer know and try to work out a later time. If they have a problem with that, I’ll just tell them to find someone else.

Full Time Practitioner here, My minimum is $45 an hour including travel time from the SnapDocs platform. I just completed one this evening for $175, 60 miles round trip with faxback. Total time printing, driving and scanback was 3.5 hours = $50per hour. The key is timing! The later the notice the more I charge! The broadcast went out for $75 at 10am for a 5pm signing. I knew I could get it for $175 because it “was so last minute”. You will only make money on SD working without notice. I wont even respond to a notification more than 24 hours out. Happy Holidays! Give your yourself a raise in 2019 and charge more! That is the only way you will ever make $50 an hour! Your worth it!

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I am new to Notary Café, and want to say I truly enjoyed this discussion. I have been in the notary business for 2yrs and find it to be a great business, but companies do attempt to take advantage of our time and money. I run my very small business exactly in the same manner as yours, state my price and if that is not good for the signing company I suggest to them to find another signing agent that will work with there fee schedule, and timing requirements. Notaries carry a lot of responsibility and need to be compensate as such. Take stock of your abilities/requirements and be sure you are getting what you are worth!!

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Thanks for the insight. I have a simi-standard message I send to the escrow officers/assistants when documents are late:

With regard to today’s (or tomorrow / XX/XX/2018) document signing scheduled @ 1:30pm; I am not in receipt of the closing documents. Could you please provide me with an estimated time you will have them uploaded? I may need to coordinate an updated time with Mr./Mrs. XXXXXXX.

Depending on the lateness; I edit it here and there - I always get a good response. Above all, I try not to point fingers and add to stress levels because at this point, the title office is usually more bent-out-of-shape than we are.

Coast2Coast is a notorious low baller.

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The loan closing for the most part is like any other purchase. You need to familiar with the contracts in the loan closing documents. I usually find one or two additional contracts(one for the builder and one for the bank) of how money is disbursed. In addition there is always a breakdown of the builders funds from contract to disbursement you should understand.

Just started seeing these $30 jobs…and they require you to print 3 copies of the packet, sign 2, & leave 1. It doesn’t make sense!

New NSA and this is my first post here. Thank you all for the candid comments on this thread! I got my first signing through SnapDocs this past Tuesday. I received the assignment at 6:00 PM and they wanted me to do it THAT NIGHT! Yikes! Without putting a whole lot of thought into it, I accepted it, then proceeded to freak out. Add to that, once I started my print job, I discovered I never purchased legal paper for my new printer! So I had to run out to the store and pick some up, delaying my original signing appointment. Fortunately, the borrowers were extremely nice and flexible with their timing. I kept them informed the entire time, and I arrived at their house around 8:45 PM. I got through the signing and feel much more confident about doing future signings, although going forward I think I will insist on at least 3 hours of lead time if I have to print the docs.

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Here is something to make some jealous and some to get encouraged.
I stopped accepting LOW FEES long time ago, I would rather go without a closing for a week or two.
Here are my results, just from snapdocs.

So you gotta know how to be a good poker player, even if you got a bad hand. This below is from the last two weeks of march from SNAPDOCS only. STOP ACCEPTING LOW BALL OFFERS !!

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i am new to snapdocs and i thought it is a great platform until i get all these low ball notification from them. I usually do general notary work and direct loan doc signing from escrow company. It is crazy low to do a loan doc signing for $75, printing, driving, signing, and faxing back or send it back. It is insulting as well. We are self employed, we need to pay for gas, car, health insurance. $75 dollar per loan signing is toxic ,and it is not a living wage. i totally not appreciate this kind of platform.

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Bravo for this post! I feel the same way!

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Yep they never set a fee!

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I don’t use coast 2 coast always.lowballing
you

The whisper is that some title companies using Snapdocs may drop them in near future.

I use snapdocs all the time and love them. Never had a problem, it seems a lot of title companies are trying to drop there fees. don’t take a low fee we have to live too.