Notary signing (online)

I just read there is a new law that allows for Notarizations to be done online.

What does this mean for the mobile notary? are we out of business?

There are a few websites where they will arrange for your electronic document to be notarized online by a Virginia notary. These companies are using all kinds of publicity channels to advertise that these Virginia notarizations are legal in all 50 states. And according to Virginia laws, they are. But there are some big issues.

A lot of the work for mobile notaries is for real estate transactions, especially refinances. Many lenders, and companies that buy mortgages from lenders, are not yet accepting enotarizations of any kind, let alone remote notarizations where the signer communicates with the notary by webcam.

Unless the signer and the notary are both in Virginia, it’s possible these notarizations might violate the law of the state where the signer is physically located.

The notarized document is electronic, and all the security measures only work if it stays in electronic form. As soon as you print it, it isn’t a notarized document anymore, it’s a copy of a notarized document. If the person you’re giving it to requires an original document, it’s useless.

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I was reading the same thing and couldn’t get a straight answer online as far as my state of California. I had to call the Secretary State office to find out. California is a NO for online signing. Check with your Secretary of State before you notarize anything online.

Well said Ashton, you raise some valid issues. Speaking for myself, I would like to see the day when we can notarize remotely AND securely with acceptance throughout the all jurisdictions. This is certainly the future but it will be a long hard grind akin to the game changing company Uber, one obstacle at a time.

Of course when this does come to fruition it will have an impact on American notaries similar to what globalization did for the world markets. Any notary in any state will be able to notarize most, if not all, documents. There will not be a demand or need to engage a notary from any particular state.

In either case I can only hope that NSA’s will become organized and led by an assertive organization that will address fee structures and enforce them. To those who do not think this is likely or possible I defer to the real estate industry…try and sell your home with a full service realtor for less than 6%! Realtor’s have established this fee and protected it like their first born for many decades. Further, it is ironic that the realtor’s fee is dependent on the notary. Without a notary, either in-house or an NSA, the closing cannot take place. No closing, no realtor fee. Somehow the notary industry is blind to it’s own importance in the real estate transaction and we continue to plod along.

New world commerce norms dictate new business models. Our current model of a very loosely affiliated group without structure and the ability to negotiate through the strength of numbers is failing the NSA industry. We are prey to the fees
and whims of the signing companies. While I respect the NNA, I feel they are conservative and not moving us to a position of a united front. Perhaps we should be in contact with leaders of real estate industry? Can they do for us what they have done for the real estate agent?

Your thoughts?