Saturday, December 30, 2023, I received a request from one of the Nationwide singing services. The new fee was $50 lower than previously. Why, you ask; so did I. They said volume is down and they are offering reduced fees so they can maintain their margins.
Today, I received a notice from the Notary accounting software company that I use. They are increasing their fee by 20%. Why, you ask; so did I. It is so they can maintain their margins.
Ah Margins!! So if fees paid to Notaries are down and costs charged to Notaries are up, does that mean Notaries donāt need MARGINS? If so, we must be the only profession in the Good Old USA that donāt need to maintain margins. Hmm!
They have a lot of nerve telling the people who are actually doing the work that they are cutting their pay. Logically, this nationwide unprofessional middleman would do us all a favor and just throw in the towel and get out of the business.
Iāve this same conversation with signing services and TCs. Iāve refused to accept anything below my set minimum. Iāve got a closing today, thatās four months since my last closing. Iām now considering closing up shop due keeping my Notary business alive is costing more than my margins will tolerate. Glad I started a different business.
Someone is feeding you a lot of yadda yadda! Often closing docs will show notary fee and it is not what you are being paid ~ that higher dollar amount goes to middle person that hires you and they are getting greedy due to less work. Accepting low ball offers will keep the scenario going unless we stand together as a notary group and not accept low ball offers. My work has dropped off considerably but Iām still getting signings because other notaries are dropping out of the game. My gut guess is business will not pick up until mid 2024 when interest rates are anticipated to go down. My current property signings are cash buyers/sellers.
During todayās closing the sellers wrote a check to the Title Company to pay for my services that was to be include in the package. The sellers were a bit miffed at how much I was āchargingā them for my services. I explained that I only got a portion of that amount. The husband was savvy enough to figure out where most of the money was going. I donāt share your mid 2024 prediction and I hope Iām wrong. Inflation and a shortage of available homes is weighing down on buyers.
President Trumpās Tax Cut Jobs Act expires at the end of 2025. This opens the door for the post 2024 election legislature and administration to re-write the tax code. I expect new Tax Legislation will become one of the topics in the November election.
Quick comment because I have to leave for a signing. None of us holds the answers for the future. Iām responding to signings and there are a lot of variables depending on where you are providing services. Fortunately, my area of service has a lot of expensive homes for sale and people willing to pay cash ~ this will run itsā course sooner or later. New homes currently being constructed all over the place in my area. This mornings signing is for home purchase in AZ and someone leaving WA. Never know what the next signing brings. We all struggle to stay in this business for the long term. Good luck to you!
We all need to stop accepting lower fees, we are doing the same job, and the prices of gas, paper, and toner has gone up. We need to stick together and stop accepting low ball fees its not fair to us. Ive been in the overall business for 40 years. This is ridiculous dropping our fees we are the only face the signers see most of the time. We should be properly compensated.
The nerve of them i questioned my pay too and they replaced me. I just dont take jobs under 100 dollars so now not only are u down in margins but notaries as well something got to give we dont work for gas and ink.
Higher fees wonāt materialize as long as there are NSA trainers who keep telling their students to take low ball fees until you build a reputation. They donāt realize this is a commodity business with buyers going hiring the low bidder.
These Signing Companies have jokes. The Notary Fee in the settlement in most of them is $250. They got greedy and had too much fun with the influx of notaries accepting lowballers. Thanks to all the GURUS who teach their class to take cheap labor and charge it to experience. Now, this entire industry is pure slavery if not charity. I stopped accepting anything below $250. Heck, everything on earth went up and this business went down. So so so wrong.
The demand and pressure is on us to print docs, execute error-free, drive in and around traffic, deal with the a variety of signers and their scenarios, scan and drop docs on time so closings get funded. The pressure can be real.
What is particularly sad, is for those of us who are independent contractors and certified as āNSAāsā in the handful of āattorney closing states,ā NSAās have been relegated to the ātrash heap.ā Just Google MA General Laws, C. 222, Ā§17(e) or worse, C. 222, Ā§28(o) and read where the only potentially lucrative part of our business is exclusively in the hands of the attorneyās. The lobbying groups for the MA Bar, title companies, credit unions, banks, etc., were very, very successful at making sure their overlords in the MA House and Senateā¦and with the help of a number of the RON technology platforms, (see https://www.notarize.com/blog/making-history-in-massachusetts-the-latest-on-ron-legislation-in-the-commonwealth ), saw to it that the attorneyās bottom lines would be well protected. The effect on wet or RON administered real estate closings all but wiped out the need for NSAās in MA. Why would a MA attorney bother to outsource to an NSA when they could do it themselves and add it onto their legal bill? Very sad and NO ONE to represent the interests of the independents! Itās pretty difficult for an NSA to depend on acknowledgments and jurats upon which to build a profitable business.
