I got a call from a rep at Metro Inspections who was an outstanding sales guy but no matter how great he presented the opportunity, the company is demanding with gathering their customer’s data for them, not just photography work. I found the there wasn’t a reasonable time frame to get their work done, it was either 24 hours, or 48 hours if I recall correctly.
I just said yes at the time due to his good sales pitch. I checked out the Metro app and found it cumbersome and demanding of my time. My first assignment he offered an extra $5 for my first job had when done it was $35 paid in 30 days. I was given 48 ours to complete. I was asked to report my contact with the business with Metro and my first call to a sandwich shop no one answered. Metro is very hands on keeping track of their workers. In addition you have to be trained to do this work correctly to have the owner fill out a questionnaire.
I recalled doing this work 7 years ago, it was a lot more lenient with time demands, just get it done within 5 days or something. Now they claim 48 hours. That’s not good for a notary business to take these tasks. A good notary business won’t do this work sacrificing their notary work this way. We get emergencies all of the time. Have to set aside schedule only for notary work. I don’t know what other source they’ll find for this work however, it will be tough because the pay isn’t worth it at all. If they paid $75 that would be different.
I received an offer for two jobs in the same city, 50-75 miles from my location, needing to be completed in the next couple of days. The fees are beyond ridiculous in my opinion. The offered fee was $30 each with no indication of what all they required. After going back and forth by text, I was able to find out that they needed interior and exterior photos, and paperwork that needed to be completed. Without a fee increase and the ability to schedule the inspections back to back so I didn’t have to travel back and forth twice, I declined. I have done other property inspections where I live for $75 and one for Aspen that was a piece of farm equipment that took 15-20 minutes for double the fee Metro offers. I don’t know why anybody would take that fee. How do you keep your business profitable at that fee level?
They only call me when they can offer a fee much higher than the standard. I just won’t do the jobs for what they offer. If I have a day with absolutely nothing going on I might do a couple for filler income. But the “data collection” jobs pay peanuts. It has to be super convenient and fit into my day or I just don’t do them. I take jobs with ProxyPics also but they are offering a LOT of night audit jobs and I get up too early to do evening jobs. None of these types of jobs pay the bills but can fill in a slow day once in a while.
