I was recently told by a realtor that all title companies in my area use their own notaries for their loan signings. Everything I have read says that this could be at the very least looked upon unfavorably in courts should these signings be brought into litigation. Is the red flag going off in my head warranted? I thought the “triad” of the loan industry was Title Insurance, Escrow and Lender. Any one of these shouldn’t be using their own employed notary for any loan going through them?
I know that Capital Title requires that notaries send them all their information regarding certificates, surety bond etc and must be on their approved list of notaries but you are an independent contractor. However once you get on their so-called list of approved notaries that is supposedly sent out to ALL escrow officers, I never get a call from ANY of them. They inform you to market yourself to the escrow officers.
It is very difficult to market to the escrow officers on Capital Title, I don’t think they call any notaries on that list (they never called me) I was lucky to get 2 escrow officers in the 6 months that I marketed myself as a LSA to almost every escrow officer and now to date, NOTHING. It was a waste of my time.
Wow. Sorry that happened to you and thank you for sharing your experience.
Did the realtor say for closings with the homeowners? It is common here to use mobile loan signing notary for closings. I was only aware that escrow notary notarized persons at the escrow or the escrow entity if needed or corrections typos post closings. Another scenario I’ve heard is when homeowners pick apart notary fees or refuse notary fee request to come in to sign.
Another small escrow near me has their own notary. Technically that notary isn’t a neutral party since they’re an employee notary of the escrow. Im honestly not too sure on the rules of notary being completely natural to the homeowner signing requirements.
The realtor said to me,”Title companies around here use their own notaries”. This realtor has been around for a very long time and is well connected. I didn’t have suspicions that he wasn’t telling me the truth. I have been very skeptical in regards to this revelation especially when I initially got very few responses to my inquiry and when I did; it took 4 months posting here. It’s made me feel that I accidentally let out an industry dirty little secret.
Not unusual at all for title companies to use their own employee notaries for their in-house loan closings - many are attorney-owned and the attorneys are also notaries - not unusual and nothing illegal about it at all.
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Yep! Very Common for Title Companies.
When he said title companies use their own notaries did he clarify if it’s employee or long time person they contacted with or do they specifically hire an “in house notary” or their escrow officer/assistant?
I know a few time a mobile loan notary came out to my home (it’s how I started to want to get into this work) I’d assume they some how belonged to title or the lender. I had no idea they were independent.
To put it in perspective, this real estate agent is a member of a business group that I joined to help promote my business (as an LSA). There are Title company owners as well as Escrow officers in this group. When we came to the discussion of my best client, this is when he bluntly stated that Title companies in my area use their own notaries. This came across to me that he was just as a courtesy- letting me know that despite my membership in this group, that he saw they had already established notaries WITHIN their employ to do their loan signings.
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I could see that for your local base. Many title companies might not have a presence in that state or no close location/escrow officer. Not always homeowners’ or commercial transaction can come down to escrow office where it is close enough or cost effective for them to send their own notary 2 or 3 hours away. Would not make much sense to me to do this. I have had to sign in banks where there are notaries for the customers but they still use outside NSA for loan notary signings. Even with a local lender if they use a distant or out of state title company for the closing, a mobile notary will be sent out for that.
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I have a similar arrangement with a lender that has their own in house notaries. They want an independent NSA rather than rely on their in-house notary making a mistake. I’ve been asked to “coach” some of their new notaries on how general notary engagements are done in here in Texas, such as not recording biometric data or the DL number in the Notary Journal.
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