I’ve been doing loan signings for agencies again after allowing them to use my services from 2010-2015. My business became localized and I did well without this type of work for 5 years. I started up again due to the pandemic in 2019. So I’ve been doing loan signings this way since 2019.
I wanted to comment that the payment systems have improved a great deal from 6 years ago. I only recently experienced a 60 day past due invoice, 45 past due invoice and another. I don’t want to get into these problems with being paid like I was years ago so I have a question to ask on this forum.
I’m a lot more knowledgeable at the tricks of the trade of some of these low balling agencies. Low ballers often have trouble paying back their NSA’s so whenever I get a low baller’s offer as I do each day texted to me from the Signing Order site, I immediately respond with my fee to let them know in the San Francisco Bay Area we have a high cost of living here.
When I respond to a text message from an agency using the Signing Order site I’m provided with a button opt out of “accept” or “decline”, to let them know my fee. I’ve since heard 10 of these signing agencies have complained about me contacting them this way with my fee they refer to as being “blacklisted” as if I’m harassing them.
Now, I never asked the Signing Order site to send these text messages with offers, I’d prefer emails. So I get these requests from my iPhone’s ringing system and look at the agency’s website offer.
For the low ballers, I usually just type, "your fee offer is way below this market and my fee is $125 for scan back purchases travelling to Marin (Tiburon). One agency, Cloud Signings, offered $70 for this location. Ten years ago such a fee would have been laughed at for such a request. These agencies are trying to lower the NSA’s fee while taking more of the title company’s fee offer in my opinion.
Apparently these agencies have no shame offering such ridiculous fees for an NSA to go to one of the wealthiest places in the SF Bay area for a purchase signing that is likely a very high end property worth millions of dollars. A low ball agency has no shame offering the NSA $70 for the person’s travel time, toll bridge fee, signing time, gas, printing fee, rush fee for same day service, materials etc. For instance, a legal ream of paper is $18 now.
It’s been my experience that title companies that use these sell out agencies usually distribute title company low quality documents from other states that cause much time at the signing table. These poorly constructed packages usually don’t provide California required Jurat wording that adds to the NSA’s time. The title companies also tend to have a huge number of notarizations (15-24) that’s time consuming.
So in my response to a very angry agency (Premier Signings LLC) that phoned me yesterday arguing what my problem is turning down $75 for a scan back purchase package, along with accusations of my alleged “harassment” of agencies with my fee requirements, I sent her a professional email response with why my fee.
My question here is that it has been my experience title companies that are doing business here in San Francisco and Marin Counties usually disclose on the settlement statement $250 as the amount they pay for NSA Signings. $125 for the notary and $125 for the Signing Agency that has the audacity to believe they deserve to take that much away from the NSA’s labor over the signing. Agencies never used to take 50% and have clearly been trying to take that ratio from the notary allocated fee that used to be 25% 10 years ago.
These agencies are bidding for title companies packages that represent wealthy communities of the highest real estate properties in the nation! It’s been my understanding many of these agencies have to bid to get the title company’s job so they gamble with the NSA’s fee bidding far too low. This clearly takes away from the notary’s justly earned fee, especially those of us who have years of experience. For me, this is a problem.
Please don’t ask me to accept your $70 offer to travel to Tiburon over the Golden Gate bridge impoverishing me with your poor negotiations with the title company. If you can’t get a decent fee for the NSA you shouldn’t be in this industry.
So when an agency like Premier Signing Agency LLC called me complaining I wouldn’t take her buyer signing for $75 with scan backs a red flag goes up and I don’t accept it. My fees are clearly stated on the Signing Order site and I don’t believe a NSA should be harassed and ridiculed for attempting to negotiate her fee request. I was ridiculed by this agency yesterday who said I was blacklisted on the SO site by other agencies complaints that I “harass” them with my fee negotiations they texted me with their offers.
So here’s the issue, you have your fee on the SO site as clear as day and signing agencies are complaining that it’s too high for them. So how is it an NSA’s responsibility to surrender their fee because the agencies have to bid low to get the title company’s work? If an agency is unable to negotiate a legitimate fee for the NSA in a high demand area like San Francisco they aren’t making it as an agency and need to stick with other less expensive geographic areas.
So many of these agencies in my opinion haven’t established a strong working relationship with title companies who are just in a wild bidding opportunity to get their work. They aren’t reputable agencies when they bid too low for the work that cuts into the NSA’s due fees. That’s why these bottom feeders have complaints on NotaryCafe’s forum for their trouble paying notaries.
Therefore my rule of thumb has been to deny services to low ball signing agencies that are struggling in this industry. They also tend to hire employees to make themselves look viable to title companies that cause them to place the NSA on the lowest level of priority.
These bottom feeders who begin to harass NSA’s for not accepting their fees, who can’t negotiate because they bid too low to get the work, we NSA’s need to turn them down because they are too weak giving into shafting our fee to the title company selling us out. It’s not good character to do that to NSA’s and in the end many don’t pay at all. Look for patterns in agencies that shaft NSA’s this way, they have some nerve bidding low for title companies ruining our industry this way.
So is there anything I’ve disclosed here that someone wants to comment on I need to understand and become more compassionate towards the agencies that are just doing the best to get me work? Because the hubris of some of these agencies seems to be over the top and their manipulation of making me appear to be problematic for my fee is quite breathtaking.
I’ve been in situations of two elderly Chinese folks with their daughter who weren’t expecting me to arrive to sign a refinance package. I had no table to notarize them, they were in a hoarding situation of a mess home. I had three people to sign in the Sunset of San Francisco, and the father was stubborn wanting to read the entire DOT! That I made my $125 fee, the signing agency made the same. I did all the work and the agency got half of my fee.
So on and on, I could go on but we are sent to really disgusting places to do our work and gag on the smell of senior apartment complexes when we arrive, we are put through so many bad experiences the signing agencies negotiate to take half of our fees just for farming out their packages to us.
Then when we try to negotiate our fee, that’s already listed for them to view, they complain we want a fair share they receive for our services. If they can’t negotiate a fair fee they shouldn’t be in certain multi million dollar real estate markets like the SF Bay area. Hubris I say, clear hubris.