Once again, our costs have gone up through no fault of our own. The lenders, title companies and signing services are not impacted by this. We signing agents certainly are! It won’t cause me to materially change anything that I’m doing, but it will make me pay more attention to the signing location before I respond to a job offer. I am adjusting my counteroffers a little bit upward to cover additional fuel costs and not responding to offers in distant locations as often as I have been. The pay will have to be pretty good to get me to go.
Our mobile signing business should anticipate incurring higher operational costs, as manufacturers and retailers adjust their pricing to account for the economic impacts associated with periods of war. I have two options, increase my mobile signing fees according or switch to RON. In my area the cost of fuel has jumped from $2.37 up to $3.15 per gallon, that’s a $.78 per gallon increase in costs per gallon. That’s close to a $1.00 (rounded up) increase in costs. Looking at the signing orders that are coming out over the past two days, I have noticed there has not been any increase in fees. Our business is price sensitive and we have to decide how to make adjustments. We cannot depend, nor expect the title, lenders, or signing services to do so for our benefit.
Interestingly enough, there is no shortage of oil/gas in the U.S. Truth be known, we are producing enough oil to meet our current and future needs and we sell to other countries these days. This price increase is, in my view, the oil companies’ way of taking advantage of a situation that consumers have no control over.
My guess is Trump will allow this for a couple of weeks, then get mad because it’s not justified and hurts his chances in the November elections. The war will be over by month’s-end and the Straits of Hormuz will be closely guarded and open again. Supply and demand will sort itself out and gas prices will drop.
Naturally, I could be wrong but my approach will be to gut it out for two or three tanks of gas (total cost to me of about $51) and see if things level off. If prices stay high or go up higher ($6 - $7 per gallon here in Califnuttia), like y’all, I’ll be in touch with the signing services about a “surcharge” on the fees they offer to cover my immediate and uncontrollable expense increase. I’ll win some and lose some I reckon.
The only problem with your plan is that signing services pay no attention to notary costs. Their fees are what they are and they always make excuses why they are so low (usually blaming it on the lenders and title companies). There are always notaries who will accept their fees, no matter how low. The only time we see them raised is when there are more jobs available than notaries to fill them. The last time that happened was when Covid was in full swing.
Yeah, I get that. I’m crafting a compelling note to add to my responses to order offers that I hope will prompt the better signing services to up the fee to cover my increased costs. It worked during COVID. We’ll see.
There were not enough notaries during COVID when interest was still around 3%. It will always come down to how many are willing to make no profit at all.
Yesterday at the affordable gas station, the price of a gallon of 87 octane went to $5.19, $5.09 with customer loyalty. The price has been going up 10 cents in the morning and 10 cents in the evening for the last week. I can only take appointments at a distance with a gas surcharge. I try to work locally as much as possible. The occasional long-distance job will come up and I ask for extra for the gas.
I do also, but I noticed most will ignore my counter offer. If the signing is a certain distance, I just don’t respond. I noticed a certain signing service will send out requests for refi at $75 and seller files $65, I just ignore them.
I recently purchased a hybrid vehicle and this has helped me tremendously with my fuel costs. Of course, the vehicle was more expensive on the front end and it will take me some time to recoup the additional cost up front.
Speaking from experience, newbie notaries do not always realize how much profit they are leaving on the table. Signing Services, will see if you will bite at a lower rate. I recommend a good accounting software like Notary Gadget. Mileage expense is included to cover cost of gas, tires, oil changes, wear and tear on car, etc., which might leave an average of $50.00 “profit” for hours of driving time alone. If one doesn’t carefully consider these expenses, being in the negative can become a real liability.
As you know, signing services don’t take mileage into account when they blast out orders. Everyone gets offered the same amount, whether you’re around the block from the signing location or 50 miles away. It’s up to you to decide to accept, reject, or counter.
