Made me laugh your term “bowl licker”. My term would not be so nice more like “b*** licker” 
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You didn’t mention what kind of loan signing. A sellers takes less than 30 minutes (I just did one that took 20 minutes), and if the notary is a mile away rather than 23, it could be worth it.
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Unless it’s a one-page deed signing, NO real estate document signing (which is always multiple pages printed and at the very least one notarization which is $10 here in FL) isn’t “worth it” for $50. Pre-closing time, travel and table time, post-closing time all need to be taken into consideration, making a $50 offer ridiculous…
OP did say it was a loan signing…and I agree with her - not worth it; any loan signing is worth at least $100 if not more, and any Seller package is worth $75-$85 if not more (my fee for these was $100 … within my own home county)
It’s the offering and acceptance of these poverty-level fees that is forcing many good signing agents out of the market. Good for those remaining but I feel bad for those folks who have to find another avenue because of what the bottom feeders have done to our industry.
JMO
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I have personal observations here:
The problem with price fixing in particular, as I understand the scope of it, is that a non-unionized organization such as the NNA, cannot collectively, legally speak about setting standardized fees nor hold any positions about it publicly. Whereas, an individual who owns his or her own notary business (or even, someone who does not own a notary business but just has opinions and observations) can speak about things with independent notary business owners as long as that ‘other’ notary business owner which you are speaking to is not your direct competitor within your immediate marketplace.
The NNA isn’t a union, which is why they had to remove all standardized fee types of discussions on their platforms.
In order to speak legally about setting a standardized fee schedule; it is ideal to be posting about fee topics on a public bulletin board/website like Notary Cafe or similar, not any owned by The NNA. It would also be presented by someone who is not a Certified Notary Public yet; someone like me, who has come from a separate industry but understands the payment/fee issues in general. In truth, someone with some general forethought about standardizing his own business baseline fees may be a position well-understood by others. We have all been there. Probably, it arose from being an individual who lost money because there was NO standard fee structure and therefore, when you’re new, more times than not you lose money 
simply because you don’t know what to charge.
I believe, it’s wise to ask other notary business owners that are not your competition “What are your fees? Would you mind sharing them with me and explaining why you have them set the way you do?” Because they’re not your competitor, you can do so without a second thought. Owner to owner or owner to newbie, is still mentorship which Notaries are to do, part of the helping hand kind of offer and participate in within all states if I’m not mistaken? Yes? Mentor others. Once you have this knowledge about fees, simply apply it and stand in your own knowingness. Set a fee that seems reasonable like others in your field. Having researched several perspectives you may discover there’s similarities across the board that seem to form almost… ‘a standard base fee’, if you will. Why? Because it makes good business sense to survive or thrive. It is business builder 101.
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@anon42300334 I agree with you. I was addressing the concept of “uniform base fee” which, IMO, as presented above, is ‘borderline’ … And that is why I said “borderline”
What I personally consider actual costs associated with service is paper, ink, and travel. I don’t consider the $6 Texas allows me to charge for notarizations a cost of doing business. My sellers was 26 pages. So if I was 1 mile away my cost would be 26 pages x $0.02 ($0.52), ink about the same ($0.52), travel 2 miles @ .0.58 ($1.16). Total: $2.20.
For tax purposes only, the $6 Texas notarization fee would be included, but I wouldn’t use it in determining if a job is profitable.
This is incredible. Most now want to pay $50 or $60. face_with_diagonal_mouth:
Question, Jack - and I mean this sincerely and not trying to start an argument -
If it was a mile away - what are you doing with the package after it’s signed…don’t you have to drop it off somewhere? Doesn’t that mileage and time (and gas consumed) count for something? For me - if a Seller package was a mile away from me, that would be travel and time to and from the signing (yes, 2 miles), time to scan back, THEN 14-17 miles one way to drop the package at FedEx - so 28-34 miles, 45 minutes to one hour additional travel time - so if you look back, I’ve got 2-3 hours invested in one closing…Many say here they want $50/hour - sooo…$100-$150 for a Seller’s package.
And btw…IRS now allows $.625 per mile as a deduction, so you should be charging more than that for your travel in determining your fee.
I’m still with OP - my travel fee for one page GNW is $50 plus our notarization fee. If it’s a hospital, nursing home or other facility, my full fee is $75-$100, as I"m accounting for my travel time, time to navigate the facility and time with the signer.
So, all due respect, but no - $50 doesn’t cut it - especially since OP said “loan signing”.
JMO and said with respect
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I’m with Linda on this one. She makes an excellent point and one that seems completely grounded in reality. I would also say she’s not being argumentative but just looking at the left and right of the situation. I would be closer to the $150-$200 price point for my own business costs to feel I have covered my bases and earned what I feel is good for my bottom line and that my marketplace will pay.
Agreed. I hope you didn’t think I was aiming my reply AT you. I did see your point and had to do some additional research thanks to you Linda. You helped inform me.
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Finding the same problem in my area. Low fees but they are getting snapped up quickly.
Yea agreed 100%. I just took an auto signing cuz it’s only 20 minutes of signing approximately. 3 miles from my house and ups to mail it back Is 1/2 mile from my house. For $70 and they send me all the paperwork. So no printing. Lower fee but this one seems fair. So it’s really all about the details of the assignment and if it makes sense.
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Agree and disagree. I factor in all costs. Divided by the number of signings in a year. So also things like the depreciated value of my printer, costs of insurance policies, bond, commission, directory subscription fees, supplies like stamps and ink, wear and tear of my car, File folders, website etc.
In order to run a business profitably you have to account for everything. So if I have $3,000 in expenses divided by 500 signings. I account for that $6 in each signing as a general expenses and cost of doing business.
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I"m not sure if you live in a rural area, but if the hypothetical notary that lives a mile away is in an urban area, there should be many fedex drop boxes all around. Plus, an experienced notary already knows where those drop boxes are, and can judge profitability including the drop off and total travel. Even if the costs are $10 instead of $2, that’s still a net of $40, and $40 comes in handy for a lot of people out there. Finally, feel free to critique my comments anytime. I don’t find people that disagree with me disrespectful, and I always appreciate the POV from anyone on this platform. Happy Holidays!
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I just feel a lot of notaries (especially newbies), pass on assignments because they don’t know their actual cost of doing business, and have a tendency to overestimate it.
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I am very rural - we have no FedEx or UPS offices OR drop boxes in our town - so I have a 30 mile round trip from my house.
To add - as for drop boxes - I don’t use them - I want a receipt for the handoff of the package. But that’s just me.
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If it was my next door neighbor, I’m not doing it for $50.00, especially when Snapdocs is collecting their usual fee from the lender/title co.
I agree that is crazy
Unfortunately many people are, and that’s why they continuously dangle these outrageously low fee offers in our faces. Trust me, I ones excepting these orders will never raise their hands to a firm I’d be embarrassed. This has been happening for a very long time. There are a lot of companies that have pulled away from Snapdocs. ORTC is one of them from what I’m understanding but the truth is many of these companies nationwide have scaled back on their fees. I am being asked to reduce my fees by a few companies to $85 from $100 in exchange for volume that is a bunch of BS and I will not do that. With the escalated cost of gas and the scaling back on work orders why in heaven’s name would I do that?
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Just a friendly suggestion here, start looking down other avenues of revenue. Really dig into researching other forms of notary work. I like the old saying: “When you do the same old thing, you get the same old results. Think something new, do something new get something better.”