When I receive a signing, through a text the price is set already. It is a take it or leave it situation. If someone calls me, I can negotiate and ask questions. Sometimes when the call comes in they say " it’s only 20 pages " and that is how they price this. If we have to supply a witness, some of these Title companies claim they included the price already and they offer $125.00.If I get a call from an Attorney for Wills/POA they are very fair and set the price $250 or better. What am I doing wrong? Not quite sure when you receive orders from Signingorders.com or other on line platforms, how do you negotiate, or you just don’t? It is a take it or leave it.
1 Like
I get what you’re saying. Title companies and signing services make it tough to negotiate fees. It’s either take what they offer or get nothing at all. This is why I only accept loan signings that pay well enough to cover expenses and allow a decent profit margin. I’m not going to do it for minimum wage. Just a few days ago, I had to spend $150 for toner for my printer. These days, gas costs more than $3 a gallon. I could go on and on. But, anyway, there are some businesses that do pay us fairly. My advice is to diversify. Instead of focusing solely on loan signing, I also accept orders for revocable trusts, annuity business, life insurance, and even referral membership business. Recently I even leveraged my insurance license to pick up some short-term work on a Medicare project. There are so many different opportunities in the marketplace. We don’t have to struggle or wait until our business goes under. Let’s help each other prosper.
3 Likes
@lauriemazza.nsa27 Good question . . .
I often express on the Notary Cafe forum many of the items presented in the post above by @cfletcher
I do ADVOCATE for this technique on a regular basis within the Notary Cafe forum ===>>> DIVERSIFY!
I often state that members should do the following & provide the reasoning for doing so:
- Always DIVERSIFY the services you intend to provide as it will “smooth out” the peaks & valleys of the income stream.
======
Often, members aren’t certain HOW to move forward with diversification of their professional services . . .
Over the years I’ve been providing these professional services, I’ve purchased many texts (more than a baker’s dozen or so). There is ONE text that have purchased & gained an IMMENSE amount of wisdom, support, & guidance from reading => “Marketing Your Non-Loan Notary Services” by Laura Vestanen. The price is QUITE reasonable. This text will be instrumental in guiding you to effectively & efficiently expanding your business while simultaneously utilizing your well-honed notarial skills!
I truly found it to be very helpful, insightful, and truly assisted me in brainstorming my way to greater success . It’s much easier to surf the peaks and valleys of business cycles if there are multiple income streams (diversify your services across varied business sectors ). 
FYI: I receive no compensation or remuneration of any type or kind as a result of my first-hand experiential review above nor from any sales of the text.
.
1 Like
Negotiating is always tricky. I’m a pretty good notary and I do 90% real estate deals. I will say that I’ve worked pretty hard to establish myself as a courteous, reliable, accurate notary and the signing services I work with (approx. 200 of 'em) know that about me. So when I find it necessary to negotiate a better fee, I seldom experience resistance. They know I deliver. And if I make a mistake or have an oversight, I correct it immediately and never ask for more $$. These practices are not hard (pay attention, newbies) and it always pays off for me.
I do think I am very fortunate because I have a lot of orders sent to me and my geographic region is jam-packed with HELOCs, Refi’s, buys, sells, exchanges, reverse mortgages, etc. Usually, the fee offered is fair enough and I take enough below-average jobs to more than justify the fees I ask for when I negotiate. The signing services know that about me and I/we figure it all works out in the end. I absolutely know I’m blessed in all this. I did 15 orders in four days this week, all at a nice margin and all for signing services that treat me very fairly. I suppose in tougher regions (rural, saturated, less affluent, etc.) it’s a different story. My advice is to build relationships everywhere. They often pay off in the end.
After reading the responses, I think that when these signing companies are seeking a Notary, they should put on their request, package is 100 pages or 20 pages, a witness is needed, what is your price? Not what they want to pay.
Used to be that way–back in the days before newbs thinking they could make a 6-figure income and platforms were ‘a thing’. Now, it’s all who will work blind and cheap. Time to exit ‘stage right’ into another field.
They don’t always know the page count and other details when they blast out the order. They price them by the type of transaction (refi, purchase, seller, heloc, etc). Each type of transaction has a standard fee attached to it. They don’t differentiate by distance, time of day, weekend/holiday, number of signers, page count or other factors that will matter to you. It’s up to you to know what you’re dealing with and counter accordingly (or not respond at all if you don’t want the job). The longer you do this work, the more familiar you’ll become with the variations and know what you need to do when an offer comes in.
@steves11 Concur 
percent!
Your summation concisely mirrors my direct experience as well.
In general, over time each business owner/entrepreneur will become fairly accurate guesstimating with various types of Signing Orders [SOs] within specific categories from individual Title/Escrow Companies [T/ECs].