Hello Everyone, does anyone have any opinions on Companies that refuse to pay for additional services such as scanning of closing documents? which takes additional efforts and time.
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(CA) Yeah, either take the job, negotiate for more $$, or pass. Those are essentially your choices. It’s not an opinion, it’s the way it is. I’d be curious to hear if there are other options.
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Yes absolutely. Scanbacks do take additional time and effort and I also charge accordingly.
However, companies do not like ADD-ON prices. They just want a flat rate for any given assignment. They want the rate we agree to. And I want the assignment we agree to. So when a hiring company calls to check your availability for an assignment and asks for your rate, make sure you ask ARE SCANBACKS REQUIRED? If they say NO, then great. Repeat it the whole thing back to them: For a (type of signing) at 6PM in (location) with NO SCANBACKS, the rate will be $XXX.
For a (type of signing) at 6PM in (location) WITH SCANBACKS, the rate will be $XXX.
If the scheduler doesn’t know whether scanbacks are required, assume that they are required and give them that rate so they can get it approved.
But we can’t give one quote and have them approve it, and then come back to them later asking for more money because it turned out to be more work than we expected. They get upset because from their perspective, we already agreed on a rate.
These are the types of questions I like to ask before giving a quote:
- TYPE OF SIGNING?
- HOW MANY SIGNERS/HOW MANY PAGES (if number of signers is not known, I assume 2. If page count is not known at the appointment scheduling, I assume it is 150 pages.)
- SIGNING LOCATION ADDRESS? (so I can determine travel distance)
- ARE SCANBACKS REQUIRED? (because time is $!)
- ARE DOCUMENTS READY NOW? (if docs aren’t ready and if I already have signings scheduled, I will give them specific parameters according to my current time constraints. For example, “I can do this signing if documents are ready to print now.” Or, “I can do this signing if I can receive the documents by 1PM.” Or, if the signing is at 9am tomorrow morning, I would say, “I can do this signings if I can receive documents by close of business today, please.” If I am completely booked but they are really pushing to get a critical signing done by tonight, I explain that if the documents are ready to print now and if borrowers are flexible on the signing time, I will call them after my last signing is completed to give them a more precise ETA. This happens quite a bit. By communicating my expectations and constraints frankly with the scheduler, it helps both of us.
I really like working with ServiceLink.
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WA, Thank You to everyone for their thought and opinions. They have notaries with experience and share your point of view with the cost expectation.
My question is, how Did the Companies figure The cost For scan Backs, fax back, cost of printing, miles, and time? More or less, what is the secret formula?
Athens Blum
Athena’s Notary
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Athena, the rates any given hiring company, not just ServiceLink, offers to pay us for a loan signing assignment are simply the rates they would LIKE for us to accept. It is just business. The less we cost them, the higher their profit margin. No hiring company takes into account our time/cost or even our travel distance when they post an assignment.
The rate a hiring company would like to pay us VS the rate they are able/willing to pay us are quite different.
BOTTOM LINE: If their $ offer does not match your rate, you have every right to counter. Each assignment is a negotiation. Ask probing questions to help you understand what is required, how far you will have to drive, etc., and then bid accordingly. If they can only give incomplete info, bid as if it is more work expected. Politely ask the whoever is calling you to get your rate approved. Stand by your rates so that you can stay in business long term.
(Some prospective hiring companies will also try to tell you that their 200-page loan pkg will only take you 20 minutes to complete, including the QC check at the end. When we all know the signing takes however long it takes – because we cannot be accused of rushing/pressuring the signers into signing faster than what they are comfortable.)
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Guess I am a little naive and efficient, but I set my price up front. I go through the pkg one more time before shipping, and I scan the whole thing. Takes 2 minutes! I do not waste my time breaking it down. Get a decent scanner and do not quibble. Same price, with or without scanning.
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The problem is that the schedulers may not know the answers to some or all of these questions. It would depend on what they’re looking at when they call you. From what I’ve seen, the overwhelming percentage of orders require scanbacks now, so unless they specifically tell you “no scanbacks”, assume that there are. They operate on a “one price fits all” policy. If you don’t take the job, someone else will…especially now that business has slowed to a crawl and notaries have nothing better to do than stare at their phones, waiting for that coveted “ping” when a new job request comes in.
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I would suggest that you figure your cost to get this done with travel, printing, time for scanning, package drop time, along with what you want your profit margin to be and let that be your initial fee that you would do a closing for. Then you have a lower figure you can counter-offer if they reject your first price. Only you can judge what your fee should be.
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Scanning files have saved me several times when a Title Company states that a doc was never signed. Because I have the scanned package, I can email them the signed doc. The problem then goes away.
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I feel like some companies think that we notaries are sitting in an office all day
with a big scanner right in front of us and all we have to do is press a button to make
scans NOT!!!
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Yes, its called taking advantage. I have to do loans now where I have travel from where I live. Then I have to take the loan home to scan, and then I have to make an hour round trip travel the next day to ship. Fedex is great they will come to my home and pick up. However, most of the loans that need scan at this time are Home Equity and they usually ship UPS. UPS will charge you to have home pick up.
No winning here. Working for pennies.
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Portable scanners are not that expensive. In fact, I’m planning to sell the scanner that I carry in my notary bag and buy a larger one.
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I have a portable scanner but would never use it for loan signing scanbacks on the road or at home. Nor would I recommend it to beginning notary signing agents. I prefer to use my own desk/workspace, computer, full-size scanner, and secure network to complete scanbacks for a few reasons:
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First and foremost, I promised my hiring company (lender/title co, etc) that I shall take reasonable care to treat their borrower’s personal and financial information safely and securely. I have a secure network at my home that I have control of and where I can safely/securely transfer private loan information. But it would be unreasonable and frankly irresponsible of me to expect any loan information I send over someone else’s wireless network or a public WIFI is safe or secure. If the borrower’s data falls into the wrong hands, I am completely at fault.
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I would not assume it is OK with my hiring company to stay at the signer’s home/location after the signing is complete out of convenience for me to complete their scanbacks. After the loan signing is completed, borrowers expect the signing agent to leave so that they can get on with their routine. I always complete the signing as instructed and depart immediately.
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When I do a scanback, I must be able to view each document on the screen as it is scanned so that I can confirm with my own eyes that each page is scanned clearly, correctly, nothing is cut off. My portable scanner does not allow me to do this. Plus with a portable scanner like this, each page must be scanned one page at a time. Attempting to scan 150-pg loan package from the driver seat of my car is simply impractical.
For all these reasons I simply prefer to use my own office desk/workspace, computer, scanner, and secure network to complete any necessary scanbacks. But if a signing agent has a large work vehicle with ample workspace, scanner, laptop, and secure WIFI, yeah maybe that’s an ideal mobile signing agent set up. Kudos to those of you who do, but I drive a MINI Cooper and have no plans no desire to work from a parked car. 
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I agree 100%. That is the answer to every brand new notary signing agent who asks, “HOW MUCH SHOULD I CHARGE?”
Very true, schedulers who call us don’t always know specifics. But whenever I am asked to submit a bid for an assignment based on incomplete info, I have to make reasonable assumptions. I have to assume scanbacks are required and bid accordingly.
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That is incredibly efficient. 2 minutes = 120 seconds. So if you had a 100-pg loan package, that means you can scan each page in under 1.2 seconds, including reviewing it? Amazing. Which scanner do you use, Rob?
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I think she brings up some very good points…jmo
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In my market, most of the requests are accept or not. The majority assignments are rarely negotiable. If i counter back. Then the assignment gies to someone who works cheaper. Very competitive market, at least for me. I remember the one loan represented as a simple refi. When i got the package upload, it was a reverse. Instead of 125 pages x 2, it was over 300 pages x 2. I asked for more $$ and it was reassignied. So 2 hours at the table and over 600 pages of printing got assigned. 2 weeks later, it was assigned again. This time with a phone call. When i met the signers, this was the third time they signed. Guess that first assignment company got what they paid for.
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Hi Kina, what do you mean?
I just ignore loan signing requests that lowball and instruct us NOT to reply back with alternate rates or availability. Problem solved for me 
I too have met with some weary/frustrated/irritated borrowers who were rescheduled multiple times or had to have a signing redone due to errors by the previous signing agent.
Some signing service companies are in such a rush to get a loan assigned/scheduled with a notary signing agent quickly and at the cheapest rate that they cut too many corners. And yes, sometimes they get exactly what they pay for. Then they end up having to pay even MORE to have the signing redone correctly.
And leaving out a critical detail, passing off a reverse mortgage as a simple refi? Grrrr. That’s is a pretty important detail. Print costs aside, reverse mortgages do take significantly more time, as we are or may be dealing with vision impaired and/or hearing impaired elderly homeowners who require more time to be able to read/review each document in such a large loan package at their own pace, and extra time to sign their name. Extra time and extra patience is required for reverse mortgages. 
= 
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