RON PROVIDER - Recommendations

Hi, decmartin31, are you a signing agent with Mortgage Connect LP? also Inspire. I do closings for them for years ago, and now they have every day trainnings for RON, They use Simply Secure Sign platform.
You will pay a monthly fee of $15, ONLY if you have transactions, if you don’t you will not pay.
I haven’t done any yet, but already approved with Florida State.
did you apply already?

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It largely depends on what you want to do as a RON. If you are wanting to do this as an independent notary or signing agent, you would need the Enterprise Version of DocVerify. If it is working for title companies as a notary signing agent, you would need something like Pavaso and be under a title company. If it is other general notary work, companies like Notarize and NotaryCam. All of platforms except DocVerify have lower fees but you will be using their platform and be subject to the fees they are willing to pay you. DocVerify allows you to charge your own fees because you are running your own business. For example, I am on DocVerify and Notarize. Virginia allows me to charge up to $25.00 per notarization and that is what I charge. Notarize charges $25.00 per notarization and I get a small portion of that but working on Notarize provides a higher volume of notarizations while I am building my RON business on DocVerify so there is a trade-off. Notarize provides training for using their platform and support but DocVerify only provides email support which is very good and they have training videos which sometimes do not give you enough information so you are more on your own. Hope this helps.

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Appreciate the input of someone who is actually doing this. VA seems to have the broadest law re RON. Wondering about 2 statements you made about Notarize.com. Would you care to elaborate as to exactly how much the ‘small portion’ is AND what type of documents make up the higher volume you mention. (I’m thinking these are just one or two notarizations per customer–yes? no?)

The fee portion is something that you would need to communicate directly with Notarize on because they use staff notaries and contractor notaries. It would depend which you would pursue. I think the staff notaries are on hourly. I am a contractor and yes, the vast majority of signings there are one or two notarizations per customer. They are expanding to real estate transactions where there is a higher fee that is paid because you are handling title packages and lender packages. You can do a title package in about half an hour. the individual notarizations take about 10-15 minutes to do depending on your ability to learn and navigate the platform. I am currently averaging around 35-40 notarizations and 2 title packages over a 7 hour time period so it’s worth it to me during this season we are in. If it maintains this pace, i will be considering the possibility of not moving back to paper signings and closings. My expenses are eliminated as well; car, paper, toner, printers as well as the drive time and other time wasters such as scanning back a package. Add in the fact that the real estate industry is moving toward all electronic closings and I am positioning myself for the future. And I like what I see.

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The info I have read in Google about Notarize.com says that Notarize charge $25 per general notary and pays $5 to the Notary. and $1 extra for other page notarized during the same appointment.

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Yeah, I’ve since seen that info, too. Doesn’t sound very good to me. I also think it’s probably a temporary thing brought about by the covid mess. Still think they’ll eventually go to boiler-room employees working shifts. On the other hand, if they can continue to rake in $50 for 2 notarizations and pay the self-employed notary $6…$44 isn’t bad–for THEM…with no employee benefits to pay & the s.e. notary still has to pay taxes on that $6.

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Simply Secure Sign- No fee unless you use the platform during the month- then $15 for the month no matter how many times you use the platform during that month. They provide training and support. No hidden fees or charges, no upfront cost or investment.

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Hey, I have used DocVerify so far, but they recently added a fee for having the whole session recorded. This - at least in Florida - is required by law and they charge you 7 additional credits for it. Plus 4 credits that you need for the notarial act itself sums up to 11 credits per notarization.

Since they give you 30 credits in exchange for the $50 you have to pay for the enterprise fee you can perform 2 notarizations before you run out of credits.
Assuming that you stick to the legal limit of $25 per notarization and don’t charge any processing fees you can break even after the second client and that is exactly what you get - 2 clients.
If you have more than 2 clients per month you will need to either get additional enterprise licenses or buy additional credits - 10 credits for $30.

I think that their credits system was already expensive before they suddenly decided to triple their costs for FL notaries that want to go by the book. Now you would have to be lucky to get clients that need more than 1 notarization per session in order to make a few bucks.

Technology wise I can only compare to the notarize.com platform. DocVerify is a total train wreck compared to notarize.com. DL pictures are not accepted or have to be retaken numerous times, people don’t pass their KBA that have no problem passing the KBA of other platforms, Video and Audio is cutting out on almost every notarization (even though I have pretty fast fiberglass connection), elements that you place on the appropriate line are shifted on the final version of the document and suddenly appear in the middle of the line or in the text surrounding the line, etc.

I am really upset with DocVerify and will switch to SIGNiX, while continuing to make some remote GNW on notarize.com.

I really would not recommend DocVerify to anybody!

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How much does Mortgage Connect pay you for a loan closing? Do you have to find your own Title Companies to sign for or will they contact you for a closing?
They sent me a packet to complete since I’m RON commissioned in Texas but there’s no details on how I’d get work or get paid. Please enlighten me if you have any info to share.
Thanks!

You set your fee; if they offer less, negotiate or decline. I’ve received $125 local & more for travel…highest is $210. They will contact you with closings for their clients. You must invoice them at eom to get paid. Also, they frequently want full pkg. scanback, so take that labor into account when negotiating fee. I know nothing about RON (except it seems to be an unprofitable trainwreck everywhere for one reason or another).

I just did a YouTube Live video today talking about a new RON Platform. It is a combination employer style platform and independent style platform which means that you can notarize documents for your own clients AND they also funnel clients to you. They do not charge any upfront annual or monthly fees to get started with them and they pay more per notarization than most of the other employer style platforms out there. You can get details by watching the replay of the YouTube Live video:
New Remote Online Notarization Platform

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Hello! Thank you for all your great information! I just got my certificate for my ron and I’m considering different platforms. Notarize.com was the one I was considering first, are you still using it and would you recommend them now?

Hello Kayla,

My apologies for the delay in responding. I was on vacation and had to get things flowing again on the business end. I still recommend Notarize, even though the business has slowed down a bit due to their getting to the level they need to make sure they are covered with notaries. But this is the same as the mobile notary business, which everyone experiences, depending on the season or the market. One upcoming perk with Notarize is that they will be allowing notaries to bring their own their transactions onto the Notarize platform so there will be opportunity for additional business there.

I am still making enough to keep the roof over our heads, bills paid, and food on the table. I could always use more business as I am in the process of setting us up financially so that when I can’t work anymore, my family will be taken care of.

Notarize isn’t the only vendor I use. I am also on DocVerify for clients and customers who call me directly for notary work. Finally, I have existing clients that ask me to handle their real estate transactions electronically yet are on a platform they prefer so I have been trained on that particular platform.

My normal business day looks like this. I schedule 7 hours on the Notarize shift board and work those time slots unless I get a request through one of the other platforms I mentioned. I then sign off from Notarize, handle the other signing request, then finish the day on Notarize. Since my business plan calls for a certain level of income, I have gone back on Notarize outside of my normally scheduled time in order to pick up extra income. That means my day can be will average 7-8 hours, depending on making my business income goals that I have set. I also work 5 days a week and will take an occasional Saturday request.

I hope this helps you as you think and plan for what you want you own business to look like.

I’m assuming you’re in one of the 4 states that allows notaries to be independent contractors. Is there a reason you are so intentionally vague about any/all earnings? “I am still making enough to keep the roof over our heads,” “a certain level of income,” etc. Is it a secret? I ask because everyone’s roof is different. Could be the roof of a trailer, a house, or a villa. I think it would be helpful to everyone to understand what the actual potential earnings are for Notarize. I would, at least.

I’m in TN, so Notarize is pretty much useless for me until they open up the IC aspect. We are BYOT (bring your own transaction) and I’ve never had a single person ask about RON work or even know what it is. But, I agree with you that it might become the future, eventually. Especially with Rona back for round 4, 5, 6, and 7…

In your opinion, how easy is it for signers to figure out the technical aspects of the system in order to sign properly? What’s the learning curve? I deal with signers now who can’t even write the correct date on a piece of paper after I’ve just told them what day it is. I can’t imagine walking them through something via a screen. What do you think?

I am in Virginia. They were the first state to do electronic notarizations. If you look at my prior responses in this forum, you can get a picture of what the RON business is like. I usually don’t quote fees because everyone is going to have a different income level. However, I will let you know that I have done over 4500 notarizations in the past year on the Notarize platform. I have also done around 50 notarizations and closings on DocVerify where I collect the full $25.00 per notarization. Some transactions have been one notarization while others, like wills, trusts, and closings, have had anywhere from 6-15 notarizations. All of this has been while working part time.

As to how signers do with the technology, once they are on the audio/video sessions, I walk them through each step in the process so they have as smooth of an experience as possible. The biggest challenge would be when they are getting set up to come onto the platform. The instructions are fairly clear but, just like any technology, someone will occasionally experience enough difficulty to make it not the best fit for them. But the overwhelming response I have heard the entire time I have done this is the convenience and ease of the process is enough for them to prefer making any future notarizations they do to be electronic notarizations.

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hi Richard. Like you I’m with Notarize.com. I’m new so I’m having a hard time actually getting any business and was wondering if you had any recommendations as to when to login to take calls and what days are best to take phone calls. any advice?

Your best option is to experiment with different times. If you have access to the Shiftboard feature, you can try a number of different time slots to see which ones are the most fruitful. Notarize is open 24 hours a day so you should be able to work out some type of schedule.

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yeah I haven’t got access to shiftboard as of yet. i sent them an email so I hope they can set me up with that soon. how do the weekends normally look for notarize? do any calls come in at all?

I haven’t worked the weekends yet. At the time I started with Notarize, it was shortly after Covid hit. Notarize was looking for 1000 notaries so I was an early adopter of their platform. It may have positioned me to hit the ground running as they were short on notaries at the time so I was able to take on calls almost back to back and have progressed to using all 4 queues. Each queue that I qualified for meant the ability to take on more calls. I don’t know which queues you are allowed to handle yet following up with the people at Notarize will give you the steps needed to get qualified for using Shiftboard. It will all come in time for you so continue to do your best.

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@miamisigningagent I haven’t applied as yet.