Hello there. I am curious about in office fees. No printing, faxing or shipping is involved. I drive to the office which is about 10 minutes from my office. Signings are fairly easy and small packages. 1-2 Signers and I’m usually done in about an hour maybe hour and a half. What are you charging for this service? I know the mobile agencies are sending us out for a range in fees from $60 TO $125 but that’s including the faxing, printing and shipping service not to mention drive time of up to 35 miles each way. Just looking for some advice. Thank you in advance!
Use you base fee for a single non e-doc transaction. Then, if you’re allowed travel fees in your location, you could POSSIBLY add those if allowable.
Sounds like a $40-$50 fee for me. Especially if it is close and you can be done in 1 hour or less. Just a couple of thoughts: 1. The standard millage rate for the IRS is $.54-ish. So how many miles will you travel? 10 miles at $.54 for example would be between $5 and $6. 2. How much do you value your time per hour? $40 per hour at a 1-hour engagement would get you in the neighborhood of between $40 to $50. Best of luck!
Many signing services will pay “printing costs” if a signing cancels and you have already done the printing. Rarely is it more than $20. If you’re going to discount the printing, which may not be necessary, deduct that theoretical $20 from the fee you would otherwise charge.
Don’t under-price your services. You may be establishing a new floor for your services without realizing it.
Good luck.
John Mitchell, you would only charge $40.00 - $50.00? That’s just crazy to me! Almost all my signings are in escrow offices, locally. They print, I go to their office for the signings, give them back the docs, and they pay me $250.00, unless it’s a mobile home package, which takes me about 20 minutes, then I get $175.00. They are the ones who actually raised my fee from 150.00 to 250.00, once we started with the TRID docs. Yes, I know I’m extremely lucky to have this situation but to only charge 40.00 - 50.00 is insane. Even if I went by our new CA law of charging 15.00 per signature, if you had 2 signers and 4 notaries per package, which is typical, that would be 120.00 alone. People need to remember, if you cut out the signing services, you would be getting that whole fee, which is at least double, if you are taking them from the lowballers.
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I am so with you tlwmomo… why would anyone take a signing for less than $100.00 is beyond me. Even seller only, usually a smaller package, pays $80.00 to $100.00 with no scan backs. We need to stand together on this, we deserve to be paid with respect to the responsibility we assume to process signings without error and on time. Those who assume this responsibility for less money are bringing down the profession and hurting themselves in the long run.
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Ummmm, charge as much as you can! LOL!
But seriously, when I accept a new assignment and a fee isn’t already decided upon I usually put the ball in their court first and ask “what is the fee that you pay?” If you are talking to a title company they are probably used to paying a signing company $200 (or more) and may automatically offer you the same. Don’t shortchange yourself by giving them a low ball amount of $40-50!!! They may have been willing to pay you HUNDREDS, but if you say $50 then of course they are going to take it!
Now, if you ask them what they pay, and they give YOU a lowball number, say $50, I usually POLITELY say something like “Hmmmmm, that is lower than what I usually charge. I usually charge $150, but maybe we can meet in the middle and do $100?” (These are just random numbers, of course plug in your own $$'s) Always have a minimum amount in mind that you will accept and ask for MORE! Then when you negotiate down you get the amount that you wanted anyway and the company feels like they are getting a deal, and everyone loves a deal!!!
We have to learn negotiation skills! There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for a fair fee, and if you are afraid to negotiate you will have a hard time making money in this business! The odds are no one is going to call you up and offer to throw tons of money your way, you have to negotiate it and then show that you are worth the $$$!!!
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In Arizona we are only permitted to charge $2 PER SIGNATURE AND .45 CENT PER MILE. We are probably the lowest paid notaries out there. For an in office signing 5 to 10 minutes from my office with no delivery or pick up, no fax or scan back and no printing I feel that $50 is fair. They give me a few signings per week right now as I’m new to the signing company. The packages are fairly small in size and very clean. Thank you for your input John.
I have had a few Title Companies that will pay $100 to $125 but most offers right now are between $60 and $90. Only a few are even paying the $90: XOME, Creative Signings, Sunshine Signings. All of the other companies want to charge a flat fee of $60 for 174 pages x 2!
If you are only notarizing something, that may be true, but if you are doing a loan doc signing, you are wearing 2 different hats and the fee is not just for notaries & travel. It’s also for making sure all the docs are signed properly, which is not the notary’s job, but the signing agent’s job. It’s also for your time, which is a lot longer than a couple of notaries. If you look at the closing fees you will probably see that the fee is a lot higher than $50.00, which means the signing company, just for making that phone call to you, gets the rest of the fee, for the work that you did. My guess is at least double and probably more. Don’t let those companies guilt you into taking less than you’re worth.
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