When signing up with some contracting companies, they ask for your prices up front. I’m curious as to what other Texas Notaries are charging?
Do you go directly to contracting companies or do you just use listings to get assignments?
1st Mortgage Refi
Home Equity Signing
Loan Modification
Piggyback signing
Reverse Mortgage
Purchase with buyer & seller
Purchase with either buyer or seller
Deed only
witness fee
??
Many times I receive notification for $40 signings and it’s crazy to me how fast they get booked.
These all vary greatly by Lender/TC’s Pkg. Size and table time. And travel time/mileage is a big factor, too. So until you have a few of each under your belt, you’re pricing blind. As only you know your costs, all anyone can do to help is give you an ‘average’ pkg. size and you take it from there. But pricing anything as a ‘flat rate’ is really NOT a good way to do business, so hit high. Pages given are a very loose range for 1 copy, but 2 copies are almost always required.
1st Mortgage Refi 100 to 200 pg.
Home Equity Signing 75 to 150 pg (note that in TX, these MUST be done in a lawyer’s office, which can be a problem)
Loan Modification 30 to 50 pg
Piggyback signing - really does vary. These are too rare in my area for me to give an estimate.
Reverse Mortgage usually 150 - 200
Purchase with buyer & seller - pkg size depends on Lender/TC, but there is usually a LOT of table time.
Purchase with either buyer or seller, 30 to 50 But a lot of forms they have to complete take much time.
Deed only… whatever your minimum base fee is PLUS time/mileage
witness fee – honestly, after 25 years in this business, no idea what this is but have always assumed it was intended for those few states where a witness is required and what your charge would be to drag your own witness along.
To the OP - please keep in mind your Texas regulations - some of your loans MUST be signed in a brick & mortar building - attorney’s office or title company. This means you’ll need to have space available to comport with this requirement, which will cost you a fee for use of someone else’s office space. That will impact the fees you charge for certain loan products.
As Arichter stated only YOU can determine your costs to decide how to price your services.
However, I am a Texas notary signing agent, I trained two other NSA’s and I taught them to focus on working directly with title companies (not signing companies) and to START their fees at $150 (that’s what I charge to do a signing in a title office and I don’t have to print any documents). If you are getting business directly from a title company $150 is not unreasonable and is more than likely what they would pay a signing company anyway. Now, if you are talking about pricing for a signing company (they are basically subcontracting a signing to you when they get a request from a title company) they usually won’t pay that much because they are splitting the money that they are getting from the title company with you, and the signing company wants to keep as much of that money in their pocket as possible.
I think the general consensus is that on a request from a signing company for a small purchase or refi package (around 100 pages or less) with no fax backs, close to you (I consider “close” to be no more than a 15-20 minute drive and no more than 15 miles door to do) a low / fair fee is $100.
And, as was also stated, Texas Home Equity loans, by law, must be closed in a title office OR an attorney’s office OR the lenders office. In my experience, I’ve found that you will end up paying $25-$50 for space to do this type of signing, and generally, you will have to pay for that space the day that you do the signing so be sure to add that fee to your pricing for this type of loan. You will need to call around and find a location(s) to use ahead of time because it can be a challenge. Because of this I personally DO NOT do a lot of Texas Home Equity loans unless the title company or signing company sets up and pays for the signing space. It’s really not worth the hassle to me and the last thing I want is to have to pay $50 up front and then have to wait for the title / signing company to pay me back.
I NEVER do a TX HE loan for a new company that I have never worked for and received satisfactory payment from before. If that company ends up not paying you then you not only lose the money that they were supposed to pay you, but you also lose the money you spent renting the conference room for the signing.
