Hi new notary here been applying everywhere I can with some advice from some experienced notaries now one thing I come across with certain applications/profiles is setting your fees for certain Loan Docs, Scanbacks, etc. I know this is something that can vary for everyone and you will learn with time (note: I’m new, but do have respect for this industry and the hard work thats done and truly don’t want to drive prices down. I’m really going to be pushing to get into the $100 range early so please know your advice here will contribute to that at the very least), but I’m just looking for a general idea of which things should be set higher or lower. Now I have done enough training to know a typical Refinance fee and I know Reverse Mortgages can be priced higher since they take a lot of time. I’m just looking for a ballpark reference to set the rest. Just imagine you just got your commission and you’re being asked for your fees, can be hard to gauge when you’ve yet to encounter each of these scenarios and I don’t want to confuse these companies I’m signing up for with random fees. The ones I’ve been asked for are as stated:
Loan Signing/Refi:
HELOC:
Full Purchase:
Seller Package:
Reverse Mtg:
Extra for EDOCS:
Loan Modification:
Loan Application:
Cash Deal:
Scanbacks:
Always consider travel TIME & MILEAGE…and ADD. New or as old as the biz…no difference. If you’re not making a decent profit you’re doing nothing but hurting yourself and everyone else. $100 is good ‘low base’
Here is a post I created on a previous thread here within the Notary Cafe GOLDMINE database. This post contains a plethora of pricing information & structures.
You can Search the database yourself directly to receive helpful insights & immediate answers to many of the common (and not so ordinary) questions by accessing the elusively nearly invisible Magnifying Glass (see image below).
It’s hard to imagine anyone doing all it takes to enter into a new business venture (becoming a notary, in this case) without first doing some analysis of the costs involved (training, equipment and supplies, hard costs, soft costs, etc.) and then figuring out what the revenues must be to support those costs to make a decent margin. Then, asking competitors how they price notary services. All in a severely declining market.
New notaries would do well to calculate their potential income (based on market analysis) and expenses and decide if there’s enough $$ in it to even bother getting certified and licensed. Whilst I know that Notary Cafe is a kind of fraternal organization where one can seek help on such matters, asking other notaries for proprietary information that was very hard to come by and expect to receive it all for free seems a bit over the top.
I’ve expressed those exact thoughts previously on numerous occasions especially your thoughts in the above excerpt . . .
I’ve also advised that it’s important to remove one’s ‘employee’ hat & place the “Business Owner” hat firmly in-place, because it’s going to take ALL they’ve got (& then some) to succeed in the current environment within this business sector.
Many who call posing the query as identified within your post above are still in employee mentality. To view the opportunity as a business owner, there would be different questions asked.
There’s a previous post of mine that is nearly all-encompassing on the matter of endeavoring to consider all associated expenses regarding this type of work:
With the upward push on Interest Rates, the current pressures in this business sector probably won’t be seeing any positive changes in the short-term . . .
This business is NOT a sprint - it’s a MARATHON! One must prepare accordingly.
There is no such thing as standard fees. Your fees should be based on your cost of doing business [fuel, time, paper, toner, operating your vehicle, insurance, reinvestment, marketing, advertising, time, etc.] From this base line you’ll determine how much profit you want to make on each type of activity. You’ll also need to figure out how much your competition is charging.
I have a minimum that I charge for any form of advanced notary service [loans, closings, legal engagements, etc.] Be careful sharing your pricing structure as your competition is watching.
Hey yall I guess I should’ve have clarified more when writing this post I wasn’t trying to ask for anyones specific costs/pricing or any proprietary info. I thought it would be implied that would be rather forward, but being new I can understand the assumption. I guess I was trying to understand based on document types, which ones are worth more relative to others based on the average length of time/doc sizes. I am aware of drive time, print costs, insurance, etc. and would factor those in independently. That being said I’d like to thank @cNsa5 for pointing me in the right direction. Im all ear for the business mentality insights as well. In other words something like reverse mortgages can take quite a bit of time so I’ve seen its common practice to price them higher. Loan mods can be shorter so they are priced less. Much like how @Arichter responded which was perfect btw thank you. Just the general idea thats all.
Some notaries guard any “proprietary” information like it’s a state secret and others will happily tell you anything that you want to know. At the end of the day, you can get plenty of information just by reading these types of forums and digesting what everyone has to say on a variety of topics. People tend to give away a lot of information without really intending to…especially if you’re good at reading between the lines.
If you are signed up with several scheduling companies they might ask for your fee schedule, others simply offer jobs according to what they are willing to pay. If you are just starting out, your focus will be more on getting assignments than maxing out the fee. There are many notaries ahead of you that have years of experience, excellent skills and have already established relationships with the companies that offer work.
The $100 refi is gone with rare exception because there simply aren’t many refis nowadays unless they are cash out. The market, I’m finding is more for Buyer, Seller, Heloc and Rev Mortgage with the occasional Loan Mod and Corrective Deeds. My advice is for when a company calls you and asks if you are available for an assignment, you ask what they are offering. Then you ask if there are any special conditions you should be aware of, like multiple signers, same day drop, scan, time, location. These bits of information should all help you price your service. If they ask you to take an assignment but they don’t already have their documents, you can accept their fee as long as the package doesn’t turn out to be a jumbo (in my world that is over 200 pages). At this point you decide if you want the assignment at what they are offering or you provide a counter-offer based on the conditions.
Many companies nowadays will start you low if you are not working for a Title Company and many of even those have also started to fine tune their fees with lower fees for some assignments or asking you to come in for the signing at their office. It’s no longer the flooded market where there were many notaries and many jobs. I like what the others said about it being a marathon and not a sprint. You will have to put in your time and learn by focusing on the work instead of the money. I would also recommend that you try to have a standard for your fees because once you agree to lowball fees ($75 for a Reverse) you may not be able to climb out of that hole.
“At this point, you decide if you want the assignment at what they are offering or you provide a counter-offer based on the conditions.”
That’s how it used to work when business was booming. Now it’s “take it or leave it” and you’d better click that “Accept” button fast if you have any chance of getting the job before another of the starving signing agents clicks ahead of you.
I’m finding the take it or leave it to be more and more true. I’m in rural PA and most of my counter offers were accepted until about the last 6 weeks or so. Now most are just moving on. I do suspect there is a new kid on the block though as some signings I’d normally get are not given or gone before I reply. I still have a few snapdocs vendors that I work with on a regular basis that seem to accept my terms. Most of these places dont seem to understand or care though that being so rural here we are driving a great distance and they dont want to compensate for such.
One scenario that creates the problem in costing is receiving a text about an assignment. If you are lucky enough to get the assignment it is only then that you have the opportunity to negotiate. There are others that get the assignment, and you never know if they negotiated or not. All you know is that the crumbs coming your way are what they are. If you go to negotiate are you negotiating yourself out of future assignments. What I have found is that by contacting the company before the assignment and personalizing the experience has been helpful. Questions regarding the assignment or not, actually touch base to make it clear you want to do the job correctly. I’ve actually seen increases in the fee even before the signing. It’s not always as cut and dry as some make it. I don’t believe anyone is trying to lowball. I think they are trying to get their foot in the door. Some areas have more competition than others.
It’s important to avoid talk figures to price services, or going rates, as you risk getting accused of ‘price fixing’, and getting prosecuted as per the Sherman Act.
@elle.a.3300 Clearly @Bobby-CA didn’t suggest/recommend/state/infer in any way that everyone should charge a certain price. Nor did he mention a particular fee to charge.
It appears you meant to reference a different post from his . . .
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FYI: The fees for services provided by Professional Signing Agents [PSAs] vary from State-to-State and even from region-to-region. As such, the activity you reference would be difficult to implement within this particular business sector.
When taking into account the fact that most PSAs have very independent natures, one simply cannot even imagine agreement on ANY topic within one locality let alone across the US.
