They are also disorganized. They hired me through a signing service for a late signing. I took it and asked for a higher fee since it was a late signing. When I got there another notary
was there and had the same docs. She was from a different signing company. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS OLD REPUBLIC TITLE (yes I did call ahead of time to confirm, still didn’t stop this from happening) They used to be a good company, but now… I cannot recommend them at all!
I don’t now where you are located but all of my orders from ORTC in CA are always $150 for purchase/refi and $130 for Seller pkgs. I never have to scan and if I do I request and get an additional $25.
Oh lord @LindaH-FL, I can print “most” packages in under 5 minutes, scan the same in under 5 minutes. Signing time? I get it (usually depends on the signer(s)). But 30 miles to drop the package? Most of my signing locations don’t fall under that kind of trip mileage, let alone just dropping the docs with that kind of mileage. Brings us back to that old “location specific” concept again I guess. Sounds like your location/geography alone is a huge barrier on your business?
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PREACH IT GIRL!!! That’s what I’m talking about!
(Just out of curiosity here). For example, lets say your fee is $150. They decline your service. Then they hire me for $85. What are they NOT getting from me at $85 that you would provide for $150?
SAD the days when being paid a fair wage are over. Notary’s have a large $ overhead, Commission, Certifications, E&O, NSA, NNA, Bond, Printers scanners, paper Toner, drum, Car, car insurance, GAS, upkeep on car, mileage. Local, Refinance within 15 miles $ 125.00 to $ 145.00, scan back 35 cents per page. WAS A FAIR WAGE, as the coast of living GOES UP, including GAS, & Supplies they want to LOWER OUR PAY. If we ALL stick together on fee it would help. Notaries NEED a UNION, self-employed NO one to back us up. Big BANKS $$$$$$$ want us to work for FREE. UNFAIR we need to make a fair wage living, with all the above coasts US.
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PAGES, I always ask how many pages, how many Signers, Millage, scan back. If your willing to print 200 pages PLUS copy 400 pages. Drive 30 plus minutes for $85.00 you are the reason, you are not even being paid $15.00 an hour. NEWBIES make numerous mistakes, if the Notary makes the mistakes & has to go back NO PAY, U are working for nothing. If they have to hire another Notary with more experience they have pay a fair fee, so in the end it will coast MORE then the $150.00.
I hear ya, trust me. Been doing this for 11 years. But if you were trying to answer my question, you didn’t! You “assuming” that someone who took the job for $85 is a “NEWBIE” is an unproven, false narrative, leading to a stereotype that holds no verified weight. You wanting $150 to do a signing only satisfies your financial needs. It does not guarantee that you are a NSA who doesn’t make any mistakes! So based on your opinion, yes, sure, lets go ahead and set a standard in pay (like everyone is crying for), just so the “NEWBIE” NSA’s get paid the same anyway. Your competition doesn’t come from “experienced NSA’s.” It comes from NSA’s who can do what you do (with no mistakes) for less!
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Not sure - don’t know your work ethic, experience, customer charisma - actually know nothing about you at all - it would be the same in either direction if they hire me for 85 dollars which I would decline and you for 150 dollars- you don’t know me either.
Do they really pay only 50 cents for a notary acknowledgement in Kentucky? Wow Kentucky needs to get with the program.
Anyway - this is like apples and oranges - we have different backgrounds and live in different states, have different points of view - obviously - can’t compare
But we each know what we will accept and cheaper is not necessarily better and I hate low-ball signing companies.
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I get it. Without knowing you at all, your post alone “insinuated” that if a client hired someone other than you for less, they would be getting less. My post had nothing to do with any comparisons, “apples to oranges”. I simply asked a question, that you still did not answer. Don’t know where the “50 cent acknowledgement” thing came from, but to answer your question, KY does not regulate ANY fees for notaries. Wide open here! Normally, I would recommend you move here, but way too many notaries here who are “experienced-mistake free” who don’t sit back and wait for their “set fee!” So you wouldn’t prosper here. So being we are on the subject of “apples and oranges,” to enhance my point, if you sell ACME apples and oranges at $2.99 per pound, and I sell the same ACME apples and orange’s at $1.99 per pound, guess who’s making the most sales on the same ACME apples and oranges? Because I sell for less doesn’t mean your fruit is better than mine is all I was trying to say!
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No and it probably means you think your fruit would be fresher than mine because not all people would want to buy mine but if I had an upscale store and the people would want to pay a little more for my fruit, I would order less and make sure that I had good fruit to sell and I would be in business longer than you because I would not have as much spoilage. Wait - we are talking services not a product - my mistake - lousy analogy - and my services might be more desirable than yours not by what I know necessarily but how I perform them. The feedback from my customers might be better and I am asked to fix mistakes other notaries make and do complicated and complex signings. I respond very rapidly to last minute and urgent calls to duty and I am requested by my borrowers to do second and third refinance because I take a little more time to get to know my people - I see many of them in other places and somehow they remember me. I love where I am located in NC and did not move here for more business although there is less saturation here than in Florida. This is home for me and I feel that I am worth what people pay for my services. You can not be me - so that is my answer to you.
“Probably’s” aside, and without “thinking” for me, let’s get back to my question, again: of all the things you stated you offer in your “your services,” why would you think someone accepting a lower fee than you doesn’t offer the same services as you, if not more services for that matter? There is no difference from a product or a service when your “expected” fees outweigh the actual need? Just because you may “think” your service is better than your competitors doesn’t make it factual. One has no clue about their competitors abilities or inabilities outside of the fact that there are people out there offering the SAME services you offer, for LESS!
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Sandralea is on the right track. If anyone on this forum is in fact accepting the “Refis for 62, 75, 85 game” challenge, Please Stop, you are only hurting yourself in the long run (regardless of the market slowing down). If you did stop and hold your breath, you would often see the higher counters 30 minutes to an hour later,( when everyone else held off, or immediately countered higher), then jump on those when they are reasonable and you would see your pay increase, in the long run, and your value too to yourself and our industry, assuming you are in it for the long run. How many times have you (the collective you who might be accepting the low offers), accept one, only to be offered another at higher pay at the same time, you can’t take because you booked a low ball one (yes, I learned that lesson years ago)
This is a “hypothetical” and broad, opinion based quote, especially you not knowing other NSA’s business structures, financial needs, location/saturation, and many other etcetera’s. You are basically relying on others to not accept such offers to get what you want (fee wise), which will NEVER happen IMO. And although you are not alone, it’s just not realistic, ESPECIALLY during these times. If your hurting, so are your clients.
Sitting and waiting for what you want (fee wise)? No different then buying a lottery ticket IMO.
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It’s not just the price of gas. You have to factor in the other expenses to operate your car (tires, insurance, oil, licensing, etc.) Right now, the IRS mileage deduction for 2022 is only $.56 per mile. It was $.58 when gas was $1.99 per gal. Go figure!
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It’s 58.5 this year; in 2021 it was 56
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When I see a fellow Notary/SA challenging colleagues advocating for higher fees I always wonder if they are in fact a fellow Notary/SA but instead a BOT desguised. When I advocate for higher fees it serves to benefit ALL of Notary colleagues not just me. So I assume when others advocate for a higher fees they too do this so that it can benefit our profession. So my question is what is so wrong with wanting Notaries across the board to get paid better? Typically those low fees are offered by middleman Signing Companies. The title companies who are actually hiring ARE paying the fees already that Notaries are advocating for…$100+ (check the CD and ALTA) it’s just that signing companies keep a bulk of the fee to refer the signings to us. So vvs.notary.services…it really is not about comparing you and your service at $85 to another Notary who wants $150 because the title company is paying the $150+…it’s just that the Signing Company took most of it. My opinion is that if Signing Companies want to make their referral fee they need to charge the title company not the Notary. What business charges the people who do the labor and not their clients? Then the power shifts. If a title company doesn’t want to pay the referral AND the Notary fee they can contact the Notary directly. The signing companies know this and why they keep their fee structure as they do. We are not competing with each other we are technically competing with the Signing Services.
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I don’t think there is a “BOT” out there that can put out the info I do (whether one agrees with it or not). Also, I NEVER said there was anything “wrong” for “advocating” for higher fee’s. All I said was it was an unrealistic, high expectation for one to expect one business to not prosper so yours can. I “advocate” for no taxes, but I also know it’s an unrealistic, high expectation that will NEVER happen! BUSINESS is BUSINESS! It doesn’t matter who or why one offers a “low fee” because a “low fee” means something differently to each individual on here running their own businesses. Its none of yours or my business how much our clients get paid to do a signing, or why a Title Co chooses a SS Co to push the job out. It bears no weight on what, why or how a fee is offered to us when it comes to deciding on whether to accept it or not, other than make you angry as you stare in gloom at the CD and ALTA. So to answer your question, you don’t compete with anyone involved in the transaction above you in the transaction. Yes, a SS company is a paper pushing business, but it’s still a BUSINESS! Read my previous posts. I have my POM POM’s out advocating for higher fee’s along with you and the rest. What I don’t “advocate” for is expecting your peers to starve so you can eat steak? Now that’s BOT talk!
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(CA) Advocating for higher fees, eh? Well, I’m an advocate for free beer and hot dogs at baseball games. And, I advocate for that, HARD, too. After all, seems only fair, right? It’s the great American Pastime, baseball. Beer and hot dogs are just a part of it. I’m really quite upset when I go to a game and I have to pay for my beer and hot dogs 
.
Imagine how I must feel when I advocate for higher fees as a notary and then, don’t get them. Not fair, I tell ya!
Wait a minute. . . I live in the USA. Business owners charge what they want and the buyer can pay it or not pay it; the choice is theirs. One can advocate for a different price until they are blue in the face and what will it get them? Nothing.
Advocate all you want notarybe, if it makes you feel like you’re doing something good. No argument from me. But if you’re really expecting results, I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. Better you should join a union. Complaining on Cafe may soothe your anger for a short time, but what steps are you willing to take? What ideas for fee increase achievement do you have? Who are you complaining to? How much time are you going to put into your advocacy? What results do you expect to see?
Come back when you got something to offer besides simple advocacy and I’ll sign up with you. Incidentally, I have no affiliation of any kind with a signing service or related entity. I will say that I have four signing services that treat me right and give me lots of hard-earned assignments for which I am very grateful.
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