Extraneous documents in signing package

I’m a relatively new notary/signing agent so I don’t yet know all the peculiarities of signing packages. I’m receiving 170 page packages that contain 30-50 pages of escrow docs, title docs and other supplementary closer documents that have nothing to do with my signing assignment. Yet, I must print them (using up my paper, toner ink and time) and then (very briefly) present them at the signing. Do y’all experience this problem? Do you ask for more money to offset your costs when this happens? When and whom do you ask? Is there a way to avoid this problem? What else do I need to know or do? Many thanks for your candid thoughts.
P.S. I asked this question before in a different way (junk in my signings).

It’s the responsibility of the certified notary signing agent to print the package as provided by the client. Certainly, it would be inappropriate to ‘sort’ through the package and eliminate this page or that page (based on your own discretion).

The title company & lender created the package with all the contents & it’s designed exactly as they need it to be. Of course, if there are errors, etc. within the package, those issues must be addressed separately.

Regarding your other queries:
Q. Do y’all experience this problem?
A. It’s industry standard across the US.

Q. Do you ask for more money to offset your costs when this happens?
A. Depends. If that is the standard approximate package size when working with that client, then your fee will have already included the quantity of documents. On the other hand, if the package size is much larger than the standard approximate package size when working with that client, then Yes, a fee adjustment would be requested.

Q. When and whom do you ask?
A. The person you interfaced with who placed the order with you. Make the request in writing and receive the reply in writing. I always request an updated Signing Order Confirmation document, because oftentimes the payment for services is disbursed based on the fee on the Signing Order Confirmation. Plus, this avoids further work in the future to receive full remuneration as their system document; i.e., the Signing Order Confirmation, will reflect the full fee.

Q. Is there a way to avoid this problem?
A. Simply put, No. There is no way to avoid this scenario. Remember to ‘stay in your own lane.’ It’s the responsibility of the lender & title company to draft the documents and create the package. Deleting components of their document package is outside our wheelhouse.

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Thanks for your insights. It helps to have another point of view. And while I appreciate the lender and title wanting a full package with all the extra disclosures and other stuff included, that paperwork consumes ink, paper and time that they don’t pay for.

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But they DO pay for it - when they agree to pay YOUR quoted fee for the signing. That’s why you need to do a business plan and cost analysis and know what your costs are - so these things are covered in your quoted fee -

Which is why we here always preach that the $50, $65, $75 signings have the NSA working in the red.

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Yeah, I get that they consider the extra paperwork in their fee quotes, but at an average fee of $75, that’s not enough (for my geographic area, anyway). When I find that I’ve got to do almost double prep work on these large packages, I’ll just call the signing company and request a larger fee. I’ve got to make up for the extra costs.
Incidentally, it might interest y’all to know that in Southern California where I live and work, gasoline this morning is $4.50 per gallon for 89 octane. We were not affected by the Colonial Pipeline incident, either. Gas taxes are out of sight here. The price of gas sure affects my bottom line as a notary/signing agent.

Not to turn this political but there’s no other way to say it (since you brought up gas prices) - gas in my area has gone up $1.30/gal since January.

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Don’t you wonder why? Oil is plentiful. Demand hasn’t changed much. Do you think it could be the new Administration’s policies? Ah, heck, it just costs waaaay too much.

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The limited supply due to the Hacking incident has forced producers to raise the cost of shipping fuel. The cost of production has risen due to the shut down of Keystone. There’s an increase in demand as we enter the summer vacation/tourist season. These are just a few of the factors that affect fuel prices. This is also why, with few exceptions, I’ve started limiting my geographic service area.

You’re correct, sir. And as I thought about this more, I remembered that in California, the air qualify standards change in the summer forcing the gas producers to change to a different mixture which also causes a significant price increase. Alas. . . I’m limiting my geo area as well.

I always print everything out that get shipped back. I will however, cut out some pages from the packet I provide to the borrower (notary instructions, shipping labels, duplicate copies, blank pages, etc.). Doing this can sometimes save me 20-30 pages with larger packets. Also, I buy generic toner from Amazon rather than brand-name toner. People say it will harm the printer but I have been using the same printer for years without issue. Just my two cents!

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HP scared me into buying ONLY their ink cartridges. With my new printer, I’d better just stick with HP. From now on, when I see over 100 pages, I’m gonna at least briefly discuss upping my fee with the signing house. These jobs with all the extra paper is not worth my time at $75. After all costs factored in, the only way I can be more efficient is at what I call my “ready desk” where I do my pre-notarizing (journal entries, filling out certificates as much as possible, organizing paperwork, etc.) where I’ve developed some fun tricks that save time. NO disallowed shortcuts.
Ah, well, back to work.

Your attitude will not get you very far. It’s YOUR business you set the price. KNOW the company and who has large packages and who doesn’t. The customer should receive AN entire copy of the package. If you don’t want to provide tell title or SS that. They can provide a copy on CD. As far as picking thru docs nope. The only thing I remove is the shipping label and notes to ME. everything else STAYS. I am not a newbie. FYI I don’t use OEM toner etc. and it’s a COST to do business that falls on you

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I agree with you 100%. It is junk. We are very small businesses. We really can’t afford that kind of waste on each package. I look at it this way, they sent me the package. They already have all the pages they need at their fingertips.

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There are several inefficiencies in the printed packed. One company often has several documents with one or two lines on a second page. They could format this onto the previous page. There are also blank pages which I just pull out. All the letters from the title and lender and the privacy policies could be printed double sided. But it would take time to do that. And I question why that needs to be in the signers package that is sent back to title. Finally, if they would send all the docs with the shipping label and instructions to the notary at the beginning, it would take less time to avoid printing all those unnecessary pages in the signers copy.

I always remove the Notay closing from the borrower’s copy but I do send the package back to the title compnay in its entirety. I also print the borrower’s copy on 8.5 X 11 size paper but the signing copy I print on legal (old school). :slight_smile: Lessens my cost just a little.

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Printers are cheap. Toner is expensive. When I figured out that 2.5 cartridges equals the cost of a new printer I quit buying name brand toner.

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Eh, the coffee price should go up because of the incident in Suеz Canаl, but it isn’t. Obviously no better and quick profit than gasoline price/taxes manipulations. When you have not so smart head on top, this is what happened! Remember Bsh Jr?!

There are other sources for Coffee from South and Central America that kept coffee prices stable. Gasoline went up due to several factors; pipeline hacking, change in formulation to meet California requirements, loss of the Keystone Pipeline, and increasing demand as the US recovers from Covid. I’m certain I missed a few details.

Now that you’ve realized you aren’t making a profit doing $75 assignments the easiest fix is don’t take those assignments.

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I was packages with 6 CLS and 4 applications for one borrower…times 2 is a lot of ink and paper! I give them the choice to redo the package or allow me to take the excess out. Just because someone is careless about putting a package together doesn’t mean I am going to pay out-of-pocket for their carelessness. I learned how to push back a long time ago.

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