Who is accepting Low Fees offers?

I am agreement. I tried to hold out for higher fees however either my offer was counter bid lower or I simply wouldn’t receive the assignment. With hundreds of hungry nsa’s in my region, not taking assignments when on the table is a foolish.

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I agree. I too tried holding out for a reasonable fee, but I almost starved! I’ve talked to a few schedulers, and they tell me that their companies are more willing to go with new untried notaries at a lower cost, than a sure deal with a notary they know will do a good job at a higher rate. Their reasoning is that they save so much $, and soon those new notaries will be more experienced, and used to accepting lower rates. So far it has worked very well for them.

therein lies the problem. You! You value yourself better then there isn’t a problem You value yourself s low or worse?? no need to continue

Why are you complaining about 2-page signings for $50 when there are lots of offers out there for 180 pages for $50? I’ll take the 2-pagers all day long.

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Where are you located that you can get $150. When I lived on the Oregon coast, I could get $125 but after moving to Idaho, I’m down to $75, but I turn down anything less than that.

I do Loan Mods for one company. Docs are Fedexed to me, I have the flexibility to schedule within a 10 to 14 day period, signers are usually happy to come to my office (saves me travel time/cost). 10 minutes and it’s done, a quick $50. Fits well into my regular signing schedule. I’m with steves11 on this - take all aspects into account when judging a fee. That said, I only do Loan Mods for the ONE company, and ONLY because I am able to keep related costs to a bare minimum.

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Lenders/ Mortgage brokers have MBA
Realtors have NAR, that kinda ( Set ) or Suggested commission at 6% , I dont know any broker who will work for 1% or even 2% comission, If that’s is not monopoly rate setting/ what is ? Why can’t all notaries get together and Suggest Prices that will work/

Wait !! NNA did that already and screwed notaries long before. I don’t give them any business anymore.
BOYCOTT NNA and shut them out of business . Order your supplies for manuals, stamps elsewhere, seals etc anywhere else BUT NNA.
If you want to get fidelity approved notary like me , but boycott NNA, and use another BG check ask me how.
I am one. I get $100 signings from fidelity. True rates dropped even by them… Thats the next project to get rates backup again

I did a cost analysis of my notary business and found that when I did a signing within 25 miles of my office (50 miles round trip) my “hard costs” is $65.05. I’ve been doing this for several years and work in an area where I work loans in a heavy traffic metro area as well as rural loans. If you do the math, I think it’s easy to see why we cannot stay in business at this rate. It really “bugs me” when the assigner says,"but there’s only xxx number of page(usually less than 75) and it’s only xx miles from you. Number of pages is minuscule in the total cost of the assignment. Look at the cost break down in the docs you get. I don’t think you will find a service provider that is getting less than $125.00 for their services. My vehicle is part of my office and requires not only fuel, but maintenance, tires, etc.

I ger all the business I wan and I really appreciate the assigners who understand our side of the business and will pay the $125-$150 I want to get so I can stay in this business, cover my costs, and allow me to make a profit. We need to help each other by STOP TAKING LOW BALL FEES!

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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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Kudos. I’m learning that hustle is the name of the game within this industry. Negotiation is key to make profit. Thanks for sharing, this is motivating to state the least:sunglasses:

That’s because the Title Companies, Lenders and Reatlors don’t know our fees are being reduced so low. They see fees on the CD at $150 and more while the notary signing companies are only paying the notaries $50 - $125 (if your lucky). I know this for a fact after working for one of these signing companies in their appointment center.

Ask the dumbA$$ scheduler, whether they go to grocery store and ask to negotiate the price of milk, bread and eggs citing cost of producing these things and then saying that I will set my price. and pay only so much less that the marked price…

I had an interesting situation last week, for a Friday July 5th signing at 8 pm. Navy Federal Title calls me for a signing and says they want to assign to me. They did not mention the fee.

                      I said , Hold up !! Whats the fee? 

She says $100. I told her, I would rather be on the beach than take this fee. So i quote $175.

     I told her I charge the $175 and up from the title companies locally and they are happy with my service.

.
She says, “I have been calling notaries , no one is answering” . But !! Let me get back with approval !

I told her. ! What approval? Its the client who is paying !! So Why are you HAGGLING !!! Let the client haggle, NOT you.
SO she comes back in under 30 minutes saying i got fee approved to $125. I told her NO WAY !!
Then she says $140… I say NO WAY

They she SAYS $150 is the max they can give !! I STILL I Say NO WAY !! ( I was tempted to cave in)

You know why I said this !! becoz, they were NOT HONEST TO offer $150 approved price on the second call and tried to downplay me & I need to stick to my principle and show her NOT to do this again. I perhaps made another notary’s day.

I told her good luck and keep calling other notaries. SO SOMEONE got lucky and got offered $150 perhaps.

That was a lesson to her in treating a notary with honesty and professional pricing

They she says, Ahh, Would you like to register in our title company for preferred vendor. . I told her NOPE. Use the same forum ( 123notary ) where she found me originally to find me again

So notaries !! the takewaay is

    Define your operating principle & profit & pricing !! 
         Stick to it , NO MATTER WHAT !! 
  You need to know when to call a bluff and when to fold !! 

Perhaps playing poker often will teach you some art of negotiating and reading people and make you strong willed.
Many title companies are lying to client on closing fee , and then they try to squeeze you for as much profit they can skim. This is an industry wide phenomenon and I intent to put and end to this lying and thieving from both client and notary !!

So now you know!! Stand your ground and demand what you need , else tell them to shove it.

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Good for you. Another takeaway is: a rising tide raises all boats. Let’s get these fees UP.

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You have to use an attorney or title company office for Cash Out in Texas.

If “YOU’RE TAKI|NG THEM” then you are taking a loss and need to get a spine and not accept anything less that $100+

Wells Fargo only offers $30 for loan modifications. I did accept it because I was less than 15 minutes away from the client. Plus, I was headed in that direction so it was not out of my way. I did an assignment for $30 but it was 1 1/2hrs away. I just responded IKYFL.

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It’s a variety of reasons why low balling season has arise lol but for the most part it’s seller season and lenders are being overrun with processing documents which means unlimited business. So unlimited business means that these companies absolutely know new notaries are trying to get numbers up and eventually someone will take the low fee. I myself have not had this issue because there are limited notaries where I am but it’s only a matter of time. Already looking into other entrepreneurial ideas. Stay blessed!

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Where I live there is a plethora of notaries and they are taking the low offers. I’m going to have to start looking for my next money making GIG in this economy. I’m getting really discouraged with this notary business as I did with food delivery gigs, which are also a joke.

Don’t get discouraged and remember that at the beginning any kind of business struggles to thrive. I have felt the same way sometimes but it goes away. I’m lucky that I have a stable job with steady income, and I’m doing this as an extra, but I’m starting to like the interaction with all kind of people. So, just hang in there :wink:
Also, I understand your frustration trying to stay firm with your fees, same as me, while some new agents take anything, without thinking that if they do the math they’re barely making $10 per hr.

FYI… Make sure your E&O insurance is $50K or higher, then you may see signing appointment offer alerts at higher rates… I know it makes at difference on SnapDocs because when the signing companies set their boardcast parameters, they can exclude any notary that doesn’t have enough E&O insurance, as well as anything else. I increased my E&O to $100K when I decided to do loan signings full-time, after a job loss… because years before, I had received a letter from a signing agency that said that they would no longer be using any NSAs that carried less that $100K in E&O insurance.

It just occurred to me that we need to ask what’s signing agency’s requirements for a NSA to get their business at our minimum base rate of $100.00 for an edoc package 140 pages or less.

Also, consider going direct to title companies and attorneys to offer your service. Be presistent. But before doing so, be sure to note the signing agency/notary fees on the Closing Disclosure or Settlement Statement to guage what’s a competitive rate to charge for title companies. Remember the your angle and the title company incentive is to save money. Reminder, do not approach any of the title companies that you’ve notarized docs for in the recents years. You most likely signed a non-compete clause in your contracts with most of the signing agencies. If possible make a list of these title companies and dates.
NNA has done a articles on other income opportunities for notaries. I met one lady that does/notarize last will and testaments.

  • Advertise your mobile notary service at senior center, hotels, and hospitals. Be sure to follow state laws for notary service advertisement.
  • Host notary service events at local libraries, community service centers and grocery stores that have community centers/stations… for safety be sure to establish a Venmo or CashApp to accept payment in advance of completing any notarizations.
  • Network with real estate investor groups. I met another lady that reported getting a large number of loan signing appointments from a real estate investor group and the pay was/is above $100 per signing and the packages were less than 100 pages…
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