The housing market is pretty much at a stop. I am rarely seeing anything for home closing. Last signing I did for a title company was a general bank document. I ran into an escrow friend who said she’s been off couple days it’s slow. No buyers or sellers.
I’m mostly handling general mobile notary work in my area. I’m looking for ways to get creative and keep busy as a notary. What’s everyone doing?
(CA) Yesterday I was out cultivating new business opportunities for my general notary work initiative. While I was calling on prospects in a commercial office building, I noticed that one of the ground floor suites (a big one, too!) had a nameplate next to the double door entry that read LOAN DEPOT. Now, over the past 18 months, I’ve done at least 100 refinance signings for Loan Depot, probably more. So, I thought I’d drop in and introduce myself, leave a few business cards and build some local goodwill. After all, they’ve always been a good source of work for me. I marched right up to those doors, grabbed the handle and nearly broke my hand when it didn’t open because the doors were locked and, as I then noticed when I looked in the side window, the joint was vacant! Seems the train has left the depot, as it were. Yeah, even the esteemed Loan Depot is shrinking because of the declining market. I doubt they’ll be back, in that location, anyway. I’ll bet they laid off 50 people that worked in that very large office suite.
So, what’s everybody doing, you ask? Many former mortgage industry employees, like those former Loan Depot employees, now work at Amazon packing boxes or they work at Starbucks cleaning tables and drinking $6.50 latte. I saw this same thing in the financial collapse of 2008-2009. Mortgage guys flying high, driving fancy sport cars and sipping exotic cocktails from crystal glassware in expensive bars, bragging about how they were killin’ it in the market. When the bottom fell out, those same mortgage guys were begging to sell fancy sports cars at dealerships and drinking Bubble-Up from paper cups.
I feel bad for those Loan Depot folks, though. They were good people and had a good product and they deserved better. But that’s the way it goes sometimes.
You are doing the right thing looking for GNW. Keep at it and you’ll turn a corner soon enough. I know because I’m doing that now and my efforts are just beginning to show some promise. We’ll see what happens.
I agree with @Bobby-CA’s post but especially his last paragraph … Just keep in mind that GNW requires constant marketing and “in Your face here I am” mentality. You don’t sign up with anyone and just wait for the phone to ring. you’re constantly out there cultivating your leads and establishing rapport.
All of the mortgage lenders with those overly large offices all over the country. I’m sure they’ve consolidated and reduced staff. They don’t need some many dammed brick and mortar offices to get work done. The pandemic has shifted that narrative.
I still hear ads on the radio (yes I’m that generation) for local mortgage companies here in Seattle.
GNW seems to have picked up here as well.
A tip from an old pro?
GNW is typically spontaneous as in the clients never know they need you until they do. Then they call a friend who is also a notary, for example in Florida where there’s one notary to every twenty eight people. Or they google one in California, where there’s only one notary to every two hundred people. In that case, if you answer your phone, your working.
With that in mind your biggest expense should be internet advertising. And for those who prefer doing it the hard way, develop notoriety, the state of being well known for offering notary services. That means phoning your “hot 100” friends or friends of friends and tell them you have a notary commission.
For all those soon to be poor notaries that were told (and believed) that it wasn’t a good practice to leave a business card after signing a loan? I would suggest canvassing with a handful of cards. Don’t forget to carry your Stamp and Journal for those spontaneous opportunities that you uncover.
I enjoy the GNW. I pretty much cover my neighborhood. I always know when the UPS notary is on vacation, my phone is going off like crazy LOL
My engagements with law firms is on the rise. When economy softens law suites germinate.
I have had a couple law firms reach out but no hit. They do look for notaries to travel around notarizing their clients, especially for law firms that are remote and do estate planning. Maybe I will get a hit soon.
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