What RON software to use for NSA doing remote loan signings?

What RON software are you signing agents using for loan signings? Do you have to buy your own software license, or are you logging into the signing service, lender, or title company’s signing platform?

I’m in Washington state and like everywhere else in the world, we are reeling here from the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor of Washington just signed an emergency provision for RON so I obtained my endorsement a couple days ago. Now just trying to get a better understanding what the next step is, what software if any I need to buy to be able to do loan signing remotely.

I appreciate any feedback, any recommendations, any cautions/lessons learned you might have.

1 Like

I have completed the training required by the Nevada Secretary of State for remote online notarization. I selected docVerify as my platform because I can keep all of the fee I charge. It’s expensive to sign up and you need strong computer skills to use the service.

6 Likes

If you email RON@signatureclosers.com
They are good at helping you get setup with step by step instructions.

2 Likes

Thanks, Shelly. And if I were to get “set up” through a signing service company, would this obligate me to accept whatever rate that signing service is offering for an assignment? Or can I still negotiate my rate before accepting an assignment? Just wondering how this works. Thanks for your help.

Thanks, I am looking at docVerify as well. I appreciate that they are strictly a notary platform and not a signing service. From what I can understand, docVerify saves the recordings for five years. In Washington state, the requirement is to save records for 10 years. As the notary, am I also required to “back up” these notary recordings on my own local storage server for 10 years regardless of what RON software I end up using?

Thank you for any feedback/recommendations/advice from anyone. Wet signings I understand, but a bit of a learning curve for me trying to understand what is involved/what is required to get started with eNotary and RON in particular in Washington state.

If there is a Washington attorney willing to go on the record, that would be outstanding. haha

Thanks Shelly. I’m RON authorized in Idaho but have been trying to figure out where and how to utilize it as an NSA.

Texas online and in person notary and signing agent here. I just got setup with docverify monday, the problem i have found is their per transaction fee. Did you notice that every remote online notary transaction takes 4 credits? that is $20 per transaction, on top of the monthly fees and setup fees. That basically eats up and profit for a RON in Texas, where we can only charge $25 plus $6 for a transaction. Keep in mind i am discussing the personal one off individual notaries, not the larger fee transactions i plan to do for lawyers and title companies. Are there any other companies that are cheaper?

1 Like

Hi Nick, contact Josh Curry at SIGNiX. Very competitive RON platform/rates for notaries: https://www.signix.com/digital-signature-pricing-2019

2 Likes

I am sure that I am not the only notary new to RON. Colorado just announced the ability to notarize remotely. I did apply and have been approved as an eNotary. Since my husband has an autoimmune disease, we have decided that it is best for me not to accept closings for a few weeks or so.

I have no idea what to do next and how to use Colorado’s DAN numbers, that are required for each electronic notarization. I did sign up with DocVerify. I might change based on the information contained in these replies.

If anyone has further information I certainly will appreciate it!

The eNotary is not the same as RON in Colorado. The eNotarizations are still face to face over a digital platform is my understanding. I’ don’t see in the SOS’s new regs that we are required to be eNotary certified for CO. It essentially removes the requirement for in person face to face identification for all notaries. And then the other RON technology issues come up - recording, storage, archive, execution etc.
My question is: who drives the type of RON software? The lenders? The title cos? Does it vary by title and lender? Will we have to be on multiple software systems? Nothing yet from the state yet on training or requirements for software.

While I still don’t know the answer to this question, I wanted to mention some of the steps I took and then retracted!

After quickly researching several platforms, I chose DocVerify because it seemed they could do it all for the expensive price I was going to have to pay (they don’t). I paid a $100 set up fee, a $100 Digital Certificate fee (must be replaced in 5 years - but now I find out that doesn’t matter because all states don’t require that - Florida doesn’t apparently) plus $480 for one year. I needed to sign up with one in order to submit my application for RON, which asks which platform I will be using. I have since registered with my state.

After reading some of the information on Pavaso, ClearSign and others, I realized purchasing the platform with DocVerify was overkill. I will NOT be CREATING and UPLOADING documents. That is the responsibility of the Title Company / Lender. Therefore, I requested my money back and DocVerify reimbursed the $480 (not the digital certificate nor the set up fee).

Now, I have been received notices from various signing agencies asking if I was RON certified. I am in the process of researching these companies to determine if we even need to sign up with any of these platforms at all!

Once I have found out more, I will post what I find out here somewhere.

6 Likes

Here’s a disappointing update for Washington Notaries interested in RON: Apparently as rules currently stand, Washington notaries are expected to absorb all RON costs and not permitted to pass RON costs on to their clients. I was just phoned by Jordan at the Washington State Notary Commission and informed that Washington notaries are required to record/store/safekeep audio video recordings of all RON transactions for 10 years and at this time there are no rules in place that allow a notary to charge additional to cover a notary’s RON expenses or a/v notarization storage expenses.

So I will not be doing any RON in Washington until new WACs and pricing rules are actually implemented to fit Washington’s March 26 emergency RON proclamation. Why are Washington notaries expected to go into debt performing remote online notarization? Absurd.

Jordan said she would follow up her phone call to me with an email and so I will copy/paste that here when it arrives.

UPDATE - HERE IS THE EMAIL, COPIED AND PASTED BELOW (“xxxx” used replaces the staff member’s last name:

On April 16, 2020 at 11:17 AM “xxx, Jordan (DOL)” Jxxx@DOL.WA.GOV wrote:

Hello Carmen,

This is all information from my supervisor:

Senate Bill 5641 section 1 subheading (6)-An electronic records notary public, a guardian, conservator, or agent of an electronic records notary public, or a personal representative of a deceased electronic records notary public shall retain the audio-visual recording created under subsection (3)© of this section or cause the recording to be retained by a repository designated by or on behalf of the person required to retain the recording. Unless a different period is required by rule adopted under subsection (8)(d) of this section, the recording must be retained for a period of at least ten years after the recording is made.

What this means is that the Notary would need to keep a journal of the remote online notarization as well as they are required to create an audiovisual recording of each remote notarization. Most RON platforms/providers create both the electronic journal entry and the recording of the RON event. Notaries may be permitted to store their audiovisual records through a RON service provider they choose to work with.

Right now the Governor’s proclamation 20-27 only allows for the early implementation of remote notarization with no fee increases at this time. We do hope to increase the fees at a later time when rule changes can be made. The maximum fee you can charge per notarial act is $10.00. You can charge travel fees per WAC 308-30-220 that is something that is negotiated between the notary and individual requesting the notarial act.

Best,

Jordan xxxx
Customer Service Specialist II
Notaries/Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Program
Washington State Department of Licensing
Office: 360-664-1408 | Fax: 360-570-7053
jxxxx@dol.wa.gov | dol.wa.gov

1 Like

Charging a “travel fee” for RON??? haha I don’t think so :laughing:

Hi Carmen ~ so far I’m anti RON due to the expense and lack of profit and different laws in each state. To me it appears this is as big of cluster as testing for COVID-19 and sharing results globally. Should financial institutions want Notaries to go this route they need to make it more affordable. Keeping records for 10 years is another issue. The way software systems change will we even have a system to retrieve information in 10 years? The curve is going down in WA and I shall venture out again 2nd week of May while using PPE and asking smart questions prior to going to signing. I admire your persistence in researching RON.

1 Like

Thank you, Alice. This is certainly frustrating. I am anti-RON in the sense that I’m just not going to do it unless I know that I am capable of understanding and following Washington RON law, and that I don’t go into to debt performing RON!

I know title companies who resort to using RON notaries in Virginia to conduct their RON signings. Honestly, I feel like Washington’s current RON rules or lack thereof make it IMPOSSIBLE for Washington notaries to compete in the RON field.

Meanwhile, if anyone knows of any RON service provider who stores and secures audio video files FOR FREE FOR TEN YEARS, please speak up! Does DocVerify allow free storage for 10 years, or just 90 days? And who has access to the files?

So many unanswered questions for our state notary commission to first sort out. Maybe I need to be a notary lobbyist, I swear.

Just to clarify, the Enterprise edition of DocVerify (required for RON) comes with 30 credits per month. So you can do 7 regular RON transactions (4 credits per transaction) prior to having to purchase additional credits. This does not include the $2 fee per transaction if your state requires KBA.

So with the monthly $50 fee, the first 7 transactions are roughly $7 per transaction. After that, purchasing additional credits would work out to $20 per transaction.

I just signed up as well. Their Pricing FAQ is here.

1 Like

Pretty sure the travel fee is in response to the electronic notary which is face to face :joy:

No, no. Our phone discussions were about RON, not electronic notarization, when she made the suggestion for me to charge a travel fee for RON. I asked her if she was seriously suggesting that I could ethically charge a TRAVEL FEE for RON as a means of recouping RON expenses and she said it was just an idea. IDK. Perhaps the State of Washington expects its notaries to “get creative” with RON charges. I consider that a clear ethics violation. Not going to do it. :laughing:

Duug, $7-20 per transaction? You are using DocVerify for RON for basic notary services, and not for loan signing packages. Is that right?

Both. Signing packages usually run around 7 credits. I was just pointing out that the $50 fee does give you 4-7 transactions per month before having to buy more credits.