I am a fairly new notary, about a year and a half. I live in California. The assignments that I get only have where the signing is, the type of signing and the fee. Too many times I have accepted an assignment that will pay $100 or less only to find out that I have to print out 300 pages and there are 12 notaries. How do you tell if the fee matches the job? I have asked about how many pages and notaries and they tell me they don’t know yet, they haven’t received the loan documents. I would like to hear how others handle this situation. Thanks
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Yeah, you’ve stated the oft-mentioned problem, for which, incidentally, there is no actionable solution unfortunately. I, too, live in [Southern] California and my region is absolutely saturated with notaries competing for the same orders I’m after. When an order drops, as you’ve undoubtedly experienced, you have but a nano-second to grab it without any idea about the particulars (pages? fee sufficiency? number of notarizations? number of signers? etc.) and only a fleeting idea of where you’re going location-wise. Bummer, huh?
As you gain experience and learn more about the signing services habits and fee reasonableness, you’ll get better at accepting and declining jobs. Occasionally, you’ll make an error like I did yesterday and take a job waaaay out of your area and break even or lose on the job. It happens, but less often as you go.
I wish I had some tips and tricks for you as others who respond to this thread might have, but be prepared to live with the realities of this line of work. And, keep in mind that many of the notaries out there operate in geographic regions that pose dramatically different challenges than we in California have to deal with (weather, road conditions, daylight, etc.). That aspect affects the acceptance of and payment on orders being offered. I’m sure there are more issues that don’t come to mind.
You’ve posed a good question for you and all newbies and it’ll be interesting to read other’s insights.
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@mjbusiness2015 Excellent Query (as noted above by Bobby-CA).
You’ll benefit by Reviewing this Notary Cafe thread.
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@Bobby-CA I concur 
percent!
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@mjbusiness2015 Also, just wondering if by any chance were you able to locate the immediately available information found within the Notary Cafe database on this topic?
This information is a GOLDMINE!
Most members express that they find it difficult/NEARLY IMPOSSIBLE to locate the Search Function in order to access the wealth of information available within the database that has been generously contributed by your sagacious fellow business owners over the years . . .
To be helpful, I’ve inserted an image for you & others [see below] to help members locate it to unlock the wisdom & knowledge of other members on the forums.
I’ve performed a cursory Search on your behalf and the results show ** 11 separate** threads (in addition to yours) about this particular topic. There is a plethora of data immediately available on the threads within Notary Cafe. 
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Rural Eastern WA state here.
I don’t quote based on how many notarizations I do.
If I get a package over 150 pages I ask for a small bump. Because when you quote you should be counting on printing a document up to 150 pages. That’s my general rule of thumb. Others may disagree. Works for me because I don’t give a discount when it’s 40 pages or less.
There’s a title company whose document preparer sends packages out all legal size. I contacted them and explained why I was requesting an additional printing fee since legal paper is at least twice as much as letter size right now. I did receive the higher fee.
What I have noticed is I know by service and by lender/title about how many pages I’m going to see and I counter offer based on experience.
Townsgate packages are very large the last one was 196 pages. But that same lender does hybrids that are only 100 pages. So rules of thumb aren’t always good rules either.
I go by lenders. I know from experience who has the mega huge packages and I counter almost all offers.
It’s a quandry. I was contacted today at 5am because a notary refused to print the package for 8am without getting paid more. The signing service dumped them. And when I got the request at 5am for 8am an hour away I asked for a time crunch bonus and got it.
It gets easier with experience and you have to develop your own guideline really.
If all else fails and you think you’re going to lose money unassign yourself.
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Yeah, actually, that seems to be the nature of the beast though. I’m out in Maryland and what I typically do is assess the fee and the location, if it’s feasible, I take it, I don’t worry about the particulars in that sense. However, if it is general notary work where I can dictate that type of stuff, then I do, otherwise, just take the fee associated with the job.
Hi I’m in Texas, I have my fees set at $15X.00 for a refi that is unless its with Penny mac, or LoanDepot, w/scans it’s $18x.00. but that’s just me. My sellers are $10x.00, or w/scans $1x5.00.
I hope this is not in violation!
You need to assess the time of day also. There are areas that I will drive to in the morning but not in the afternoon, because of traffic patterns. I very rarely take a signing that starts after dark, and if I do, I will counteroffer for a higher fee on it. I hate having to look for addresses in strange (to me) neighborhoods in the dark.
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Thanks Bobby, I agree, I have been coming to this realization but hoping that someone out there had a solution. I wish there was some set standard for the title companies. I does get very frustrating.
Thank you for sharing. It’s unfortunate that we have to accept the fee they quoted before we even see what is entailed, but I will start pushing back and cancelling if I need to. I know as I get more experienced and familiar with the lenders I will have a better handle on this. Thanks, appreciate it!
I have been doing signings for almost 5 years now. I do have a good sense of how many pages are in a typical refinance package, sellers package, second mortgages and helics. As such I accept jobs based on these norms. If I get the documents and they are significantly larger than the standard for these type of packages I always contact the signing service and let them know that my fees are based on 150 pages or last for a refinance and that I have a $25 up to $50 surcharge for those that are extremely large. Most of the time they pay it and if they don’t I asked him to please remove me from the signing. This works out really well for me. There’s nothing that says you cannot negotiate after you accept assigning and you get thrown in curveball with a package size. I’ve been fortunate that these signing services understand that fact and agreed to my additional fees. I didn’t do this in my first couple years as a notary but again with the cost of paper and stand back sizes I feel this has become necessary in a few instances and I’m okay if they were to say no but I’m finding that they mostly say of course. My approach within is that the package is oversized
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I base my fee on loan type, I always assume that a refi is 150 pages+ though rocket is usually 100 pages or less. In town I am not doing a refi for less than $150.
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The only problem with your approach is that you risk alienating the signing services if you keep trying to renegotiate after accepting the assignment. If the package comes in at 90 pages instead of 150, do you tell them you’ll do it for $25 less? I don’t think so. In my experience, these things even out over time. You win some and you lose some.
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It’s a good thing that I work with specific vendors. They have never had an issue when I have to ask for an adjustment. My pricing is set on certain criteria that I’ve used for years. My profile does state what they are with each vendor for up to a certain number of pages. It does state that anything above my set thresh holds will require an additional fee. I’ve set my expectations from the beginning with them and I absolutely have no problem asking for more, up and above my normal fees. If they chose not to use me that is certainly their right. BTW most of them don’t even know the packages will be oversized until the package comes in. I love the relationships I have with my signing services and title companies. Thus, the fact that they actually call me in many instances rather the putting me on blasts says a lot about how they value me. In return I give them the best service I can. I consider my relationships with them, even when I have to ask for more, a win-win.
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Not sure where you even got the idea that “I keep trying to renegotiate after accepting the assignment”. That is not at all what I said. I only do this when the packages are oversized and I manage these expectations in my profile where oversized packages, beyond 150 pages will require an additional fee.
I’m 30,000+ closings in. You have to get over how many notaries there are. Some have 1-2, some have 20+. So what, its a package price. Where ever I have a profile or price sheet I list a $25 up fee for packages exceeding 175 pages. So I don’t have a problem asking for it. You have to ask for it and often they say no. Eat it. Make a note of it for next time and move on. You’re still making d____ good money.
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