What I’m trying to do now is cut out the middle man- those greedy signing companies that take all the profit and try to leave us with crumbs. I’m sick of it. Do you have any suggestions on how I can directly market the companies we work for through these crumb snatchers Thanks!
I don’t know if the signing services can be eliminated. Some title companies and lenders have contracts with those platforms and you can be preferred by a Title Company and still get reached via a service. I send my contact info and fees schedule to the title officers I work with on orders. You just have to plug away and publish your fees and stick to them. Market to all the National Title Companies and counter offer everything. I’ve been at it almost six years and am seeing things really open up now.
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Thank you for the feedback - I do that now. I had a company call me directly 2 weeks ago and they are keeping me quite busy in SC and they pay me every Friday. The blessing is they don’t concern themselves about how much I will charge them, they accept my invoices and nothing is said. I need about 4 more of them and I will be set 
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I know you think Signing Services don’t deserve the money, but unless you have tons of title companies ready to call you directly, set up an account with their headquarters, carry the proper amount of E&O they require, it likely won’t happen as fast as you think. A SS serves a huge purpose for the title company in that they make one email, and it’s handled for them. They write one check to cover all the closings for them after they funded. To us, sure, we’d love to omit them, but from a corporation perspective, they don’t want a zillion notaries getting paid on their payroll It is easier have 1 or 2 Signing Services and be done with no interruptions to their busy schedules and are dependable and take care of a lot of questions that could arise before the closing from the notary.
Sure, it’s not impossible to get in good with smaller mom and pop title companies in smaller cities, and also easier in certain states than others, but it would really be an uphill climb. Surround yourself with great SS’s who pay well and pay fast.
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Thanks for sharing -
You can build a reputation that gets Title Companies telling signing services - hire this person. I get that with many Title Offices. I continue to send updated rates information to all the Title people I deal with. I agree - the middle man is actually a contract and it’s not going to go away. But you can build leverage for yourself. Charge the fee you want. That’s the best we can do and it’s keeping me very busy. This isn’t a part time venture for me. The most important thing is following directions, clear communication and returning no errors. And scanning and shipping on time is also important.
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Although I wouldn’t recommend completely omitting the signing services, I would say diversify your connections out there. Build a client base of many different types of clients. In other words, just do both middleman and direct signings if you can.
I work with many signing companies around the country, while also maintaining connections to a vast client base of local individuals, businesses, companies, and other organizations that I’ve built relationships with over the past decade+.
I’ve also had many instances where signing companies sent me to a client, and the client was very satisfied with my notary services, and ended up calling me directly for all future signings in my coverage area moving forward. That happens with a lot of law firms and title companies especially.
Since I am technically an independent contractor and not an employee, that is something that I can legally do, as I did not sign any agreement that says otherwise. But that doesn’t mean that I will ever stop working with signing companies either, as I can always get jobs through them as well (although they don’t pay as much, obviously, since there is a middleman involved).
Keep your options open, and keep in mind that if you are not satisfied with the payout offered by a signing company, you can always negotiate, and if they aren’t flexible on the payout, you always decline the job.
I’ve declined countless jobs from signing companies because oftentimes it’s just not worth my time and effort (number of pages required to be printed, signing location, and appointment times are major determining factors for me). I can take on a closer job that pays about the same or just a little less, but much easier and faster to do.
Always keep your options open, kind of like diversifying your investment portfolio.
Best of luck to you out there! 
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