I have been contacted a few times by a Property Data Collection company to become an independent contractor. It looks like you go into homes and take photos for real estate agents etc. This seems very different from Field Inspections which I tried and was not for me. (Low pay and don’t like going to occupied homes uninvited).
Seems like a good way to supplement some income and PERHAPS even network with real estate agents to get closings (unless the company outright asks you not to do that).
Anyone have any success/experience in this area? I did a search on the Forums but didn’t find anything.
They claim $75 a session which isn’t a lot compared to most signings BUT no printing, prepping, FedEX and potential difficult clients seems like its worth it.
They’ve sent me a few application emails over the last month (I’ve had the other things going on so I couldn’t respond) so it seems like they must be looking for people. Overall it sounds like your experience was good? Did you find it helped you leverage any further NOTARY business?
Yeah for the most part everything was good. There isn’t a ton of business in my area at the moment it seems but you get the flexibility on scheduling. It’s done nothing for notary as it’s unrelated.
They send over notifications and you accept or decline them.
I suppose I was thinking if it is for houses about to be put on the market one could at least get a jump on the open house/Realtor and solicit being the signing agent for the closing. Either way sounds like a decent way to supplement income?
I did two field inspections. It was on vehicles. Got paid for the first one. Got stuck on the second one and never paid me. The company was called Aspen inspection
I’ve also done a few field inspections, but in my experience, those were pretty low paying gigs less than $20 a time. And I didn’t like showing up to peoples houses or cars unannounced. This business seems more to take inside photographs of houses for real estate and other transactions.
Yes I work with the same company. They paid for all of my equipment & training, it’s a great opportunity. They pay weekly. Now, for Oklahoma they pay $60 but if the property is over 3000 square feet or over 20 miles away I always request more $ and 9/10 they agree because it in the contract. After a normal learning curve, I can get a home done in less than 1 hr. Once you complete the assignment, you have to wait 10-15 minutes for a quality check before leaving the property.
I completed the training but withdrew after completing the 1st phase of the training. Property Class Valuation. $75 a visit. Had to purchased some equipment - a specific tripod, about $80 investment. They provide other specialized equipment as well. Training was very in-depth and test modules through-out. You must complete the training within 12 hours for each training step and on consecutive days. After doing the training it became apparent that until I was proficient, total time would easily be two hours for each property data collection. Inspection includes a thorough walk through with the owner of the property, making notes, opening doors, closets, turning on the lights, etc. and then returning to each room with your tripod and equipment and completing spin rotations of each room, noting in the app all special/unusual things about each room, condition of rooms/property, hvac systems etc, and spins of multiple points of the external property including inside of ground buildings, garages, street signs for the property. The reason I walked was I could not tie up my phone for two hours due to the calls I have coming in from Title companies and SS for Notary Signing work. It seemed I would need to invest in a second phone in order to be accessible and keep running my Notary business, and Class Valuation requires an I-phone 14 pro or better to work with their app. Probably after 6-12 months of inspections, completing an inspection in one hour may be feasible, but again not having access to my phone to book Notary appts. was a deal breaker for me. (Your phone is attached to other equipment and mounted on a tripod.) The company was very professional; I was invited by Class Valuation to interview and apply for the position.
I’m going to continue with The on boarding process and hopefully I can get to that point where appointment is done in an hour as that is about my minimum for signing per hour rate anyway.
But again, the time to print prep and run to FedEx all adds up to and this seemingly is just you and your phone getting it done which keeps lower lower overhead
Does the Company start with an “A”? I have also been recently approached by a company with similar fee offer, and am getting set up - online training and equipment at their cost…perhaps we can compare notes privately, since I can not say anything positive or negative yet for sure, but I did like that they reached out to me and offered their equipment, on their dime.
I know this wasn’t the question nor the issue. Just want to comment on the fact that this is an end run around a qualified appraisal. Replace a $400-$600 avg. fee by someone who knows the local market with an hour’s worth of video for $75. Good for them; not so good for either appraisers or notaries who’ve replaced them for next to nothing.
