After a year and more of covid, isolation, customer behavior: under appreciated, under paid, over worked exploited folks have quit and continue to do so in large numbers. You can see that all over in various parts of the service and labor industry. We never get a pause in life to think about life and continue to be the hamster on the wheel. So when covid hit the pause button, people became pensive.
How has this affected you and your sense of business ownership and profitability?
I continue to see the same behavior , complaints amongst notaries? Am I seeing the lack of change here ?
Yes there seems to be some of that going on and it’s frustrating to deal with the shortages.
I’m personally frustrated with the lack of wage increase for notaries. Especially hazardous pay during Covid. Notaries are having to deal with the increase in fuel prices, spending expenses on masks, professional clothing, increased housing cost and all the while the fee in my state hasn’t budged for notaries. The notary fee doesn’t take into account that many notaries need to purchase their own health insurance and benefits. Masks and hazardous pay is not reflected in the fee. I’m also frustrated by notaries having to negotiate a fair fee so they can actually work and build their business while often times that negotiating does seem important as there is someone that will undercut themselves and accept a low ball offer.
Great topic! I see a lot of businesses going back to the same old mold as they continue to place themselves over the employee and more focus on family time. I was really hoping that COVID was going to make corporate America realize that there is another way to conduct business such as remote work opportunities, fair pay, and benefits. At my full-time job, a director stated last week in a meeting that employees needed to be back in the building because they needed to be in the office to do their work. Meanwhile, the last year and a half we were working from home doing work just fine. It’s this antiquated mindset that is driving people away. The proverbial “American Dream” doesn’t exist to most of the American workforce and now people have figured out their time is far more valuable. Employees don’t need to work 8 hours a day when they can get their work done in 4 hours.
The true question is what is going to happen here? There will be a breaking point, and as we see with notary fees, there will be people who will take less just to keep money coming in.
All this to say, this is why my mind was focused on creating a business that gave me the freedom of time, choice, and control. But with the terrible rates, lack of consistent signing opportunities I’m back to being frustrated again.
Especially when I see the amount that the signing service is taking in. I did a $75 gig early on (just started this in May), was able to see that the signing service took in $220. Wow.
Speaking of low ball fee… I have a question for Notaries in states that require you to close Equity Loans in a Title Company office or an Attorney’s office. I’m in Texas and that’s how it’s done here. We have to rent space in them for a fee of around $25 to $50 an hour. I am seeing an over abundance of Cash Out signing requests from Signing Services for such low ball fees as low as $65.to $75 and you pay the room fee, they aren’t even reimbursing you. Equity Loan documents are around 250 to 300 pages x 2. Now in my town and the other towns surrounding it that I Notarize in these offices are 9 - 5 offices and I have seen request for these low ball fee Cash Out signing for as early as 7:00 am and as late as 9:00 pm and the Notaries here snap them up faster than you can blink and eye and they don’t even try to bid for a higher fee. When a Notary accepts Cash Out signing they have to give the Signing Services the name and address of the office they are renting a room from. So for the live of me I cannot figure out how or where these Notary’s are doing these early am and late pm signings when they are all closed. I do have a theory though of why some Notary’s are accepting such ridicules fee’s, they must have stopped teaching math in schools. That’s the only acceptable reason. I was in Walmart one day and the cash resisters were having issue’s so the Cashiers had to figure out the customers change without a computer and the young gentleman I had couldn’t do it in his head I had to tell him how much I should get back. So, I think my theory has some merit.
Many of these cash outs are being done by notaries who provide the address of the law firm but don’t actually close at the law firm. This becomes a problem if the loan turns sour (foreclosure). If the low didn’t close following Texas Law the closing was void i.e. didn’t happen. This is when the notary will be eaten alive when they get sued. As the Texas Secretary of State has said historically very few mortgages turn sour, and fewer notaries are held accountable. With the large number of refis in the past two years this may change in the future.
The signing services don’t verify the closing location with the law firm. They throw the notary over the cliff stating it’s the Notary’s responsibility to know where and how to close a transaction.
I’m in Central Texas and encounter this on a consistent basis.
Why don’t a few notaries band together? Pay a attorney to write up and write out this absurd law ?
Have this removed/ If an attorney is required to be present , they can appear over face time or various video means and explain to their client? Don’t you know, that in America, law works by repealing old laws and writing new laws. As a lay citizen you can write and ask a state law maker to sponsor it and vote on it.
NOTARIES! Quit complaining and be an Agent of Change
This is written into the Texas Constitution that requires an amendment to be placed before the voters. This requirement was put in place due to fraudulent practices by individuals taking advantage of desperate borrowers. Here’s the catch, an Attorney doesn’t need to be present, it only needs to close on the premises of a law office, Title office, or the lender’s office.
Due to the nature of Texas property rights, borrower packages are much larger,150+ pages, than most other States. Seller packages are usually 50 pages.
You could submit a complaint to the CFPB for possible RESPA violations. I believe per RESPA that they shouldn’t charge fees just to profit of a third party service.
I’ve also heard they are doing the same thing to appraisers using appraisal management companies who pays appraisers now only $250 of a $500+ appraisal.
That may be another way of looking at is but we all know what happens when the gov’t gets involved. More rules for all of us.
