Good Day Folks !
It has been a while since I have ranted and raved about the bad and good things in the notary world
As you know there are many many notaries abound and it is best job done in person.
I have been in Banking and IT and IT security for many years and very very tech savvy. However making notaries virtual and creating a “SIGNING PLATFORM” is an over kill. Let me para phrase with a absurd example. How complicated is it to drink water out of a cup. 1) Bring cub to lip and sip 2) Put straw and bring straw to lip and suck and sip 3) Create an elaborate gadget to bring the cup to your lip 4) Other ideas…
So you get the idea, this is absurd right !! So why the heck would one complicate matters with signing platform ( Which takes major cut of the profit and pays you the notary a pittance ) .
There are literally 10’s or 100’s of thousand notaries willing to go out and get the job done and get paid 100 % . Online notarization is ripe for fraud and misuse and litigation down the future and other complications , time wasted on a platform freezing , and frustrations with a non tech savvy person. Yes it offers convenience, BUT !!! WE LIVE NOTARIES offer GREATER CONVENIENCE .
The only way to shut this movement down is to
Refuse and NOT register in any online platform
Refuse any online signings
Discourage such use.
I refuse any association with all forms of ONLINE notarization , especially using a platform
Eventually just like how companies are discontinuing snapdocs, this movement would also die.
Even if you do one job a day and get paid $250 or even $150, this is much much higher than what an online platform service would pay you. So why even encourage them ? Some would argue volume ??
How much ??
I would encourage you to kill the online movement and online platforms by boycott/ refusing online platforms, discouraging its use.
Notaries must stand firm and make your own decision
I thought the same as you, even testifying in front of Oregon legislators against RON…then I joined a solid platform that has been helping professionals manage documents for years, they offered their notary side for a reasonable fee and don’t nickel and dime each session. I advertise using Google Ads and have really enjoyed the increase in volume all thanks to Ron, people are looking for the convenience and they are willing to pay for it. Someone anywhere in the world can contact me and if they can jump through the identification hoops I can provide them a notarized document in less than 30 minutes from phone call to payment to final product.
I have now completed dozens and I am making more per Ron than I am for in person and I don’t have to leave my office. Find the right platform, the right customers and charge the right fee and you may feel differently. Or not, either way you do you.
I think I share the same side as @dcaldwell . I live in a very rural area where many of our population isn’t ready or savy enough for RON but I have a profile set up on a site that is free unless you use it. The site would charge the customer $25 for a one signer, one stamp GNW. I get $12 of that money for something that I normally could only charge $5 for in my state. It does and eventually will have its benefits as the newer generations want a digital world. I care for my grandchildren a lot at my house as of now so I haven’t pushed the advertising for RON much but when they go to either preschool or kindergarten in 2 years, I’m completely ready.
Check your state rules as far as fees, Oregon allows for $25 per RON act. But they can’t regulate what you charge for a Technology Fee, Doc Preparation Fee etc… I am billing customers $100+ for RONS and having no issues getting customers. “If it isn’t directly forbidden it is legal” ~ My Attorney
Does your state allow RON acts to be performed on NON Residents. Doing RON ACTS for OUT of state applicants is RIPE for FRAUD and MISUSE. For example an ID presented overseas or across your state ID might not be legit. Notarizing of a document of an international applicant , absolutely defeats the Hague Apostille act, and creates venues for all sorts of fraud / misuse opportunities.
How can a platform really assure that the notary and applicant are only in the legally licensed geography. Its absolutely impossible. With VPN, I could be in Vacay and pumping out RON certifications on candidates all across globe as though they are here in the state of commission.
Scammers are looking for new ways to exploit technologies of Convenience. A live notary is the last thing between massive scale fraud and the real thing.
WIth AI , now even the person behind a camera / voice could be fake. RON must be disbarred by states immediately , The Risk far out weights the minor benefits of convenience.
Keep in mind if you’re getting $250 per closing in your region, doesn’t equate to other areas around the country. In other words, ‘your results may very’. The $250 per each is what many Texas Notaries been sold without telling the ratio of residents to Notaries is less than 60:1.
The real problem I see with RON, besides the potential for costly mistakes and fraud, is the number of new notaries who have onboarded with the misconception that they will make a living immediately without any notary experience. Every day I read about someone becoming a traditional notary, a RON notary and a signing agent all at once. I’m angry at the platforms that are misleading the newbies. RON has been around for years in some states and has not failed yet. It offers better convenience and less paperwork. If you get enough work, it’s definitely more cost efficient. And you can have more time in a day to do them. I’m in NY which just became RON approved in February 2023. I am sitting back and learning as much as I can before onboarding. I understand your message, but I don’t foresee RON disappearing. The key is to use it to your advantage. Research as many platforms as you can and figure out which one is best suited, and more cost efficient to your individual business needs. I have been a traditional notary since 2002, and I’m also a full-time signing agent. I have loved every minute of it. But times have changed. And I sort of welcome a less hectic way of doing business.
Thank you for bringing this up. FedEx is already offering online notary in the State of California ahead of it being legal. We notaries are more than people who drive documents around, are main purpose is to verify the identity of the signer and their capacity and willingness to sing the documents in front of them. I have had several situations where the signer was clearly unaware of what was being presented to sign. Elderly, ill, not competent signers are rare but not imaginary. Opening signings to the online version greatly increases the potential for fraud and also creates one more opportunity for hackers to obtain an instrument to defraud victims.
This technology is not going away and there’s profitability to be made. RON been around since 2000 and due to Covid-19 the usage has accelerated on a nationwide basis. It’s about time our industry has caught up with other various industries. As for fraud or Elder abuse, like anything else, it’s going to happen and that why our role become more valuable with the usage of RON. It is going to be very important to know your state’s RON statutes. The “genie” is out of the bottle and there’s no way to put it back.
Getting paid that much in my region means you also play the role of the “closer”
which as you know is a different job altogether. I learned that the hard way
Personally, I love RON. I get work from a title company using their platform, the money is decent for the amount of time I spend facilitating the closing, the average time is 15 minutes as the majority presign all of the docs minus the ones that need to be notarized. I also doe IPEN’s, hybrid and paper closings for this particular company. Their fees aren’t the greatest, but for the ones that have to be in person, I keep close to home. A full paper signing takes on average 30 minutes.
I also do GNW on a platform that allows me to bill outside the platform. I have helped people in other parts of the world and across the states.
How is this really that different than esigning documents through DocuSign or secure banking portals? My youngest son is buying his first home and has found that signing the preliminary docuements via secure links to be a time saver.
In my state, estate documents cannot be done online so for those customers, I travel.
I find it beneficial to offer options to all of my clients. For example, I am doing a signing (GNW) tomorrow. The property owner is in the UK on business. The hiring entity will have the fully executed document within a half hour of the signing and more than likely be recorded in the local courthouse tomorrow or Monday at the latest.
I chose not to do RON because I simply can’t determine whether what I’m seeing on the other side of the video is actually real. I don’t want to take the chance of having a very good imposter fooling me into putting my stamp on their documents. I think this work is very serious and I hope to be absolutely certain that I’m taking every precaution possible.
