I just need to vent. Ive been busting my hump all year to make this business feasible. I’ve invested in equipment and training and memberships. Im kind to Signer and patient with Title and Loan. But why is it that my time is not valued? Why can I accept an assignment and wait and wait sometimes rescheduled days later or even get taken away if I don’t respond to the reschedule
notification fast enough! This happened just now with SC and I am HOT! They took my morning and afternoon and now my fee. I feel so helpless and abused by this rush to accept anything system. It makes me seriously want to reconsider this whole enterprise. Fortunately I am over the 50 signings threshold to get other SS or Title Cos directly. No more last minute anything as I am beginning to see that NSAs are not particularly valued in these endeavors
Sorry you’ve had this experience. Yes, unfortunately you are correct for the most part. Usually, the culprits are signing services who don’t value our time. If you haven’t already, you’ll find that loyalty is an unknown/unappreciated commodity in this business.
The best bet is working directly with title/escrow. If nothing else, at least we get the full $200+ fee rather than having to share it with a platform and a signing service.
The downhill turn began with the platforms, gained speed with the oversaturation of folks who’d accept a loss to prove themselves, got faster & steeper when big TCs used or started their own SS/platform. Add scans, same day low offers, don’t care who we send as long as they’re willing to work for peanuts, not a thought–much less a care–when they pull the signing out from under you.
I keep thinking it can’t get worse, and quickly learning, yes, it can.
<<Why can I accept an assignment and wait and wait sometimes rescheduled days later or even get taken away if I don’t respond to the reschedule>>
This is also one of my pet peeves. You’re supposed to be waiting with baited breath for their reschedule email and if you don’t respond within 5 minutes they give it away to someone else. Sometimes though, if you scream loud enough, they’ll take it away from the other notary and rightfully give it back to you.
The only way you know if a company is a “good” company is if you’ve worked for them previously and had positive results or it has been highly recommended by other signing agents. Lately, I’ve been getting offers from a bunch of companies that I’ve never heard of (aka “flybynights”). Taking a job from one of those is “at your own risk”. I know that from personal experience.
The only way to improve the situation is to post the name of the signing service and their address. The address is important because a bad signing service can use the name of a good one and sometimes they find it less expensive to change their name than pay all the notaries they owe money to. They always threaten to blacklist notaries. We should be able to blacklist them.
Just post a factual account of what happened and we can decide for ourselves if you got what you deserved or if this is a company we don’t ever want to work for.
Thanks for the input and responses. Admittedly I was in the middle of the back-and-forth with Title. My frustration was primarily with myself for coming across as thirsty and “needing” the assignment. I have a full-time job but I WANT this business to be my successful springboard into retirement so Ive been dedicated and focused. I have been fortunate to heed the advice of establishing connections and havd had some more direct opportunities. I’ve also taken signings for amounts I KNOW were lowball. Ive also requested fee increases successfully. My experiences over the past 6mo have been tremendous and stressful and reaffirming and everything else associated with progress. I enjoy what I do and the positive impact that im making with my signers. I just wish the math matched the efforts more.
Please…don’t put yourself in the bargain bin. When you think you’ve got ‘enough’ experience to increase your fee, they’ll drop you & move on to the next one in the bargain bin.
I never heard of the 50 signing threshold. That’s new to me. I’ve done over 20,000 plus signings, I think I’m way past that. I just did 7 real estate (mostly refi’s) signing on Thursday 12/18 in Myrtle Beach. This is unusual, I usually I get one or two a day.
The 50 signing threshold was to be approved for MavSign among others. No worries. I am over this and the back-and-forth. I work my business as best i can buy it is frustrating feeling helpless regarding volume and location. You don’t have the opportunity to determine if its a good or bad deal before you accept or decline
Since few of us get to see the wizard behind the curtain, it is my theory that those signing jobs are on a national portal, offered to all and sundry signed up signing companies. Sometimes while a company is waiting to find out if you are still available at the new time and/or location, the job gets snatched up by another company. It is not always working, but when a signor tells me they are not available until XYZ, I will leave a note on the portal and let them know their signor (isn’t that a weird word?) is earliest available at XYZ and I can or cannot accommodate. Next question, will be need new docs. Sometimes this has the appointment date/time changed and all you have to do is look for the update and click that you are available. Companies who are more jittery or who only have conditional ‘rights’ to that assignment, do not always have the pull to wait for the dust to settle. Win some, lose some but always get compensated for the print job. ALWAYS.
Thank you for taking the time to read & reply. It hionestely means a lot to know that I have peers that can relate without judgment. I was having a moment, and needed to vent in that exact time but my frustrations are universal. I don’t like feeling like I’m fighting for a gig or a cattle call for half of what is actually being charged, but with 100% of the responsibility. I honestly enjoy MOST aspects of this profession. I am just working through growing pains and happy to have people who understand the struggle.
You can look on Facebook for notary groups to join. At least one keeps a list of signing services and companies who don’t pay, or pay very late, or are a pain to try to work for as you have experienced. Before I counter or accept an appointment with a company I don’t know, I check to see if they are on the list and search the groups to see if other notaries like or don’t like them. The mobile notary business is not what it was 4 years ago.
