My refinances take me on average 45 min from drive up to drive away. I scan at home which takes me 10 min or less. I live within a 3 min drive to FedEx and UPS. I would say 98% of my assignments are 20min or less drive time from home so i find it more convenient to scan from home.
I’m so jealous 
! I live 24 miles from the nearest FedEx Facility. I have a UPS store 5 minutes away, but 80% are FedEx. My entire County doesn’t have a FedEx facility. Now you know why I need so much built in time for my appointments! 
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I accept jobs mostly within 20 miles, but some are a little further in more rural areas. I have a Brother HL-L6200DWT mounted in the back of my car, and a lightening fast scanner.
I try to get back towards the city to make my drops b4 cutoff. I’m out of St. Augustine, FL.
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I can relate to “rural” - I can drive 30 miles one way and never leave my county. (Columbia County FL) - there are no FedEx or UPS drop boxes in my town- we have a Mailbox store for package drop in Lake City and they removed all but a couple drop boxes in Lake City - Mailbox Store, UPS Store or the airport- easily 15-25 miles one way to drop a package.
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I do carry a scanner with me to do scanbacks at the table. I always ask first in case the signers are in a hurry to get somewhere. I often times travel an hour from home and FedEx drops are scarce in my area so I scan while Im out. I do keep an invertor in my car also so that i can scan in my car if need be. I usually scan to a USB stick then can plug that stick into my phone or surface pro to upload. I was shocked that i did a signing in a realtors office earlier this week and he was impressed I carried one. He says most dont and make excuses as to why they cant scan right away.
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I carry a small epson scanner that i plug a USB stick into. Then i can plug the USB into my phone or tablet to upload. If i need to plug it into my car, i have a small 400w invertor to use that i got from Harbor Freight.
Since you are scanning at home, i suggest scanning and saving to a USB drive. Even home networks can be hacked. I keep all my notary work on a USB then can unplug it when not in use. Its just an extra security measure i take.
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Only once I scanned at the signing table and it was a one-off situation.
The realtor for the buyer was from out of town, as was the title company. Escrow told me the realtor would bring the docs to the signing table. After the signing was over, I had to scan from the table and then hand the docs back to the realtor to drop them at their office by COB that day.
I have no idea why they wanted both a scan and a same day drop but followed their request since they were paying me well.
Scanners have relatively reasonable power demands. Printers are power hogs.
I recently purchased the Epson 300 scanner. It works great, but when I try to send the scans they don’t go through. I guess the package might be too large. Do you have any recommendations?
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I use Adobe online (subscription to an Adobe product required). Once I scan, it gets saved to my Google account. I open Adobe online and upload it to the compression tab and shrink a 33 mg file to 7 mgs in less than a minute. I then upload the document to the signing service app or website.
Please invest in a VPN connection to scan and move your documents over the internet. I use IP Vanish ($10.95 p/m).
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Hello, 145-170 pages refinance no more than 35 min, sellers doc 15min , purchase docs 45min.
They were funding the day of signing, would be my guess.
They received the hard copy of the package hand-delivered the same day too. The closing was in the morning and if they funded the same day, they could have done so an hour later once the realtor dropped it off. In fact, with me scanning at the table delayed the realtor from leaving to return the package.
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I’ve never once had a lender require much-less ask me to scan at the table?.. This is my preference, and only a small few occasions have I not or felt the atmosphere where I’d rather leave and stop at a coffee shop to scan… I’ve always had a really high awareness and sense around me on which way to go… I sometimes use the two hours if I am close to another closing or if I know it’s for clarity versus sane day funding… and of course I’ve been swamped but always send a quick email to please extend the tone for scans and the reason… staying in constant communication eliminates the text/ emails asking for scans…
Jody
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I haves Raven scanner and take it in the home and scan at the table and the clients are impressed that their documents were sent right there. Especially if it’s a good distance from my home.
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I have never scanned from the table. Back during the refi boom, I would accept assignments far away (and for an appropriate fee) and I would use my mobile set up to scan from the car. Now I only do local to me assignments and I scan at home. I think it’s rude to set up shoppe, so to speak, on a customer’s table and do our “office work” in their sacred space. I just do. Just like we don’t park in their driveway. Of course, I will no longer drive outside of my community for work so Title might wait 10 minutes to get docs. And I’ve never had any pushback.
Most of my work this year has been either direct assignments or general notary work so I hardly use my scanner. But never in a quarter century of loan signings have I considered hauling a scanner into a signers house and scanning documents at the table. What signing agency has the nerve to request such foolishness.
Carrying around a mobile scanner is not going to be your golden ticket to the 6 figure club, especially in today’s market.
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Hah! The old 6 figure club! I’ve always asked - exactly where does the decimal point go? These days, it must be pretty far to the left.
I do so many things now to make a living, my income would be reduced if I did NOT carry a mobile scanning setup. With it, I can (for example) do a refi at 10 am, scan from 10:45 to 11, complete residential inspections from 11:15 to 2:30, do a HELOC at 3, scan from 3:30 to 3:45, do an automobile signing at 4:30, then finish the day with a mobile notary appointment at 6 pm.
The majority of loan signings I see these days require scans, and the lead time has shortened. By carrying a scan setup, I am able to provide quality scans in a matter of minutes, without wasting the time required to dash back and forth to my office.
Not all days are so busy, of course. But I find that the flexibility of a laptop and a portable scanner in my car continues to boost my ability to generate income.
I always enjoy your cogent, well considered posts, Joe!
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Sweet 