It’s tough you need at least to make $70k a month to have a livable wage in california and even that is pretty low in california.
$70k a year excuse me, anything less then that annually and it’s best to move to a different state hahaha
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Thank you! LOL! YOu had me scratching my head at $70k/month… 
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Great share. I’m long winded so I appreciate you in depth post!
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Well you may not have been off LOL. I was thinking 70k per month that’s about right 
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Great points. I remember employers making it as though employees couldn’t discuss salaries. Same here. I agree that sharing our businesses practices including what fees we charge is one of the purposes of all being part of a forum.
True…but think of it this way too - there are many who read here but don’t post
Do you want to tip your hand to your competition so you can be undercut and have business taken away? Although, for this site, my fees are right in my profile…not sure if the rest of you do that.
I know on this post, I’m late to the party, but recently had an experience. I always print the email order as it has address, phone and instructions. It also has the offered fee. Even if you have negotiated more. Signer needed some paper and couldn’t find any. I did not carry blank paper. Gave her my email print out to use the back page. She looked at the amount and said:“IS THIS ALL YOU ARE GETTING PAID?” oops.
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I know. I am in denver, a pretty expensive and traffic congested place these days. I found from this forum, that closers in Colorado Springs with the same assignment company were making $50 a closing more than they offered me.
Wow… No home training. That’s something you think to yourself and then shut your mouth before blurting it out. Sorry she said that to you with the manners of a crab.
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Thanks for your thoughtful info! We each need to know our markets and factor in our experience and dependability factors, as well as our social ratings. It’s important to understand the industry is being intensely manipulated related to the goals of those who want to lead the herd to a one fee fits all basis of $100 or less with scans. These include SigningOrder dot com (a/k/a/ Notary Loop, Inc. in Florida).
These are software based companies who automate the loan signing distribution system making agencies, not notaries, lives a lot easier at our expense! Unfortunately SnapDocs is catching onto the trend and announcing in May, 2020 it’s now working with SigningOrder dot com. I won’t even bother to sign up with ScanDocs because they will work to lower fees to $100 or less as well.
The purpose of this alliance is to serve title companies and agencies to not have any work relationship with the notary signing agents, bidding out their work at the ridiculous fee they want to pay! They want no real contact with the notaries other than bossing us around and harassing us as if we need their supervision! An agency named Premium Closing Solutions LLC did this very thing absolutely out of control contacting me needlessly at 10:00 pm making sure I was sending the scan to them after a night signing.
If you attempt to negotiate your fee on SigningOrder, be aware their software system will blacklist you if you attempt to negotiate your fee by declining the offer and hitting their button to reach the agency informing your fee on the SO website. A law firm is currently addressing this issue preparing a letter.
Right now, the desired fee by agencies for any work is $100 or less including for scans. Including for driving 25 miles or more with $5.00 per gallon gas and a bridge toll. Including 200 pages of really trashy poorly constructed loan packages that take over an hour. These agencies don’t care anything but maintaining the $100 or less fee offer. One agency, Cloud Signings, even offered $70 for a Tiburon location purchase the most expensive property in California! Cloud Signings always offers $70 stealing our fees this way!
They seem to have a target goal where everyone should be happy with a $100 fee or less. They have no regard for our material costs and cost of living in real estate hot markets like San Francisco. This is is highway robbery! They paid $85-$100 in 2010 as newbies and after two years we all were rewarded for our experience with $150-$175 offers all of the time! Now this industry run by billionaire wannabe’s wants to pay $100 or less and fork out profits to these agencies!
Cost of living in 2010 vs.now = $120 per signing to maintain the same ratio of pay but that doesn’t include cost of paper and toner and gas at $5 per gallon. These people want us to do all of the work for them, steal our fee allotted in the loan and throw us a pittance!
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It all has to do with volume and percentages. What I mean by that is responding to enough offers so that the law of averages work in your favor. You don’t need to get every job that you counteroffer on. You just have to get enough of them to keep you as busy as you want to be. Of course, when the refi business is strong you will get more offers. After a while you will know how much over the offer fee you can counter at and still get the job. It can vary between companies. Choose your favorite companies and give preference to their offers…
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This is part of my concern. Appraisers and Real Estate Agents pretty much all charge the same thing and there is not a big concern about having business taken away because someone may charge a little less. I earn every penny I charge because I provide professional and a very close to no mistake signings on a consistent basis. So if we do not see value in ourselves and the service we offer, who will? I believe if we have respectful minimum fee then we ALL WIN. I’m looking to undercut and stab a fellow Signing Agent in the back for $10. There is a lot of work out there and all I advocate for is that we work together to bring signing fees up. We are not really setting fees unless we ask for what we deserve. No one on that closing statement is begging for their fee. The person or entity or service provider is stating what their fee is. Someone is telling us our fee and we either take it or leave it or haggle to see if they will pay a few dollars more all in fear of them saying oh I will find someone else to take this little money.
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I had a signing company try to convince me with the law of average spill. They tried to convince me to take their $75 for refinances. I’m sorry I am not sure how this is going to work in my favor. I can do a lot of signings but if costs me 2+ hours of my time and $45 printing, travel etc. to do a $75 signing no volume is going to have me increase my bottom line to a respectable wage. I really am not trying to work 85 hours a week and 12 hour days trying to do volume because the money is there to pay us a minimum of at least $150 per signing. If a signing company is charging $175 to $250+ per signing just to refer a signing to us…the money is there we just haven’t united together yet to say hey we need to make more money. The buyer/seller/borrower pays the fees just like they pay their broker, appraiser, agent, banker, escrow/title company and everyone else. Like I’ve said in a previous post, some title/escrow staff do not know how much we are getting paid out of the signing fee that’s why we typically get paid more if we get a signing directly from them rather than through a signing company. They are used to charging their clients $150 or more.
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So I’ve looked at most of my docs and I notice there is a Closing/Settlement fee mentioned in the Settlement Statement and CD for 375-495 dollars. But, I don’t see a specific “Notary Fee.” Doesn’t the SS and CD pay for other title stuff besides just the signing? How can we actually find out what is allocated for us in this case?
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Where I am, I always see the signing service or notary fee listed. The settlement fee is for the settlement company, here it would be a title company in Northern California. In Southern California an Escrow Company.
Well, of course. The law of averages works much better for you at $150 a signing than it does at $75. The whole issue is that they care more about THEIR profit than they do about your profit. As long as there are signing agents willing to take jobs for $75, the signing services will keep offering those lowball fees. They’ll keep telling you that they aren’t making any money on these signings because competition is so tight and the title companies just don’t want to pay more. That’s bullcrap. They’ll pay what they have to pay. We’ve seen time and again how they’ll pay more for last-minute rush signings. They seem to find the money when they have to.
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Curious, what amount is listed for the notary?
When I see the ALTA the signing fee ia typically $150+ for a refinance or purchase and depends on if this is direct or through a Signing Company. I have seen this listed as 1 fee and not broken down (if a Signing Company was involved) by how much the Signing Co. is getting and how much the Notary is actually making. I’ve always questioned if this is a RESPA violation but if it is one day someone (probably from California) will sue.
Well, here we are in September and still the same comments. I hear and understand all the comments and the laws against price fixing. But I haven’t heard any solutions on this situation. And truthfully, I can’t think of any, either. But, what I am hearing is about the SIGNING services making the rules about what they can do. It seems that if we cut out the middle man then the pay seems to go up some. Is that correct? So why can’t we start our own service. Wait, that sounds like a union? maybe. Is there a better way of cutting out the middle man with out talking about the money aspect until we can bargain? (Still a union?) Would it be done by state? by City? Community, where the local Notaries get together and form something to BE the signing company that can guarantee quality or something like that? Solutions without the middle guy? Let me know what you think. I am in Seattle.
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