I’ve very rarely worked through this platform. Considering the various discussions here lately about them and out of curiosity, I accessed them today to check the job board. There is one job available.
I clicked on it and was curious as to who the hiring party is. All the way through, it gave indications it was Fidelity National Title Group. The instructions are from FNTG. EXCEPT for the “for questions” phone number. That number is for a signing service in Houston.
Now, I’m not blaming the platform for this practice. It’s just the way the hiring party placed the ad. I’m just saying Be Careful. When you accept a job through a platform, you may not be working with whom you think provided the assignment. Be sure to get clarification prior to doing the work and expending your resources.
Typically the job board doesn’t tell you who you’re working with. This is a issue for me as well. The text offers do list the hiring party so you can vet those out before accepting.
Of course, they are biased toward the hiring party. That is where their money comes from, not the notaries. They told me that the reason they don’t list the Company Name on the job board is that some notaries will then contact the company directly to get the job.
Just another ‘hook’ to catch us little fishies. (Tho’ I agree–makes no sense that I can see.) Like the other platform’s refusal to include signing location address in offer ‘for privacy concerns’ (yeah, right…it’s so I can’t really figure if offered fee is acceptable or not)
No. SD does not show the location address on the offer–just city, zip. If you’re in a large city, I guess that works somewhat. BUT in small town/rural areas, the whole county & more can be the same zip/post office-city. Meaning actual location could be anywhere from across the street to a 70 mile round trip. You don’t know which until you are *assigned the order. Ir’s just one of the many ‘bait & switch’ platform procedures that they all do. Huge pkgs, multiple notarization/signers, undisclosed scanback–all of which determine profitability or result in free or even a loss.
I don’t understand your reasoning unless you always quote for the largest pkg.size & furthest distance. Time, mileage & materials consumed are the unknown biggies.
I quote for up to 150 pages. How other people run what they do is up to them. I find counting on 150 averages out when I’m doing a lot of HELOC under 100 pages. And locations in my region I know the mileage. People don’t need to spend a lot of time trying to understand how other people operate. I’m comfortable with how things go for me currently. Things are steady.
So everyone is WA lives in some city? Nobody lives in the boonies? To me, here, pg. count is the smallest variable to consider. The BIG issue is Drive time/mileage as they impact profitability the most.
Eastern Washington has the Tri Cities, Pasco, Kennewick Richland and other than that there are no “cities”. But if you know your region you know your mileage and drive time as I do. I think there’s way too many people worried about how other people run their businesses. I do things a lot of notaries won’t. Could be why I remain pretty busy I just don’t know.
Yes, I am concerned about how people run their business because we’re all together in being the bottom of the food chain and forums are the only method we have to try to get us working together to create a rising tide which lifts ALL boats.
Over the years, I’ve seen many cries for a SA union to mandate higher fees (which independent contractors can’t do–& it’s a dumb idea as one size never fits all). All we CAN do is point out the wishful thinking vs realities and hope for a lightbulb moment when newbs realize the ‘educators’ are SS and are teaching/brainwashing us for their benefit.
I am not required to agree with how you view the industry how you view the people that hire us. I do not agree that a constant discussion about not getting paid enough and not being treated and treated the way people think they ought to be treated is valuable or productive in any way and I’m not gonna fall into that pattern that I see others falling into it’s not your business. I’m sorry you don’t easily recognize that. It’s not your business how I do business.
I’m not picking on you–or anyone. Just going for the ‘we’re all in this together’ lighbulb moment that, as you said, realize it’s YOUR business–as long as it’s profitable for you, you’re doing it right for you. And we each have to calculate the fees that are always profitable. As to SS–they do likewise. Look for the balance!
I don’t take it personally. I just think we have Notaries from all over the country and every region is different. I prepared a new fee page that’s going out to the local title agents and I’ve increased rates for the longer drives and we’ll see what happens I never found this forum the first year that I worked and I’ve always been very happy that that was the case because I did what I thought I needed to do to build a reputation and gain business if I had taken all the advice that the forum has for brand new Notaries, I would’ve never worked because you don’t get anywhere without experience
Probably an area-specific thing, but, all it takes is working for little/no profit (in oversaturated areas this most likely isn’t true as there’s bound to be more’n one bargain bin notary). The hard part is getting yourself out of the bargain bin you put yourself in. OT observation: most offers start at fee that covers cost only or, at best, less than minimum wage.($2/hr. seems popular) Whether it’s AI-driven or not, it’s become standard.
Zip Code works for me in the Los Angeles area, because I’m familiar enough with the surrounding area that it gives me the general location and distance. With that information, I can make a decision whether I even want to consider the job.
