Say what?!? 12 years a signing agent and [still] you spend 2 hours prepping docs??? Two hours scanning?? SEVEN hours for a single signing job??? While all this may be true, what it suggests to me is that this job is really a hobby and not a career. You’ve indicated that you make $150 per job… per day, really. If that works for you, that’s perfectly fine. In that case, you don’t need any advice, just reinforcement that you have a fun pastime where you make a couple bucks. Keep doing what you’re doing. No worries.
So I do direct signings for a couple of title companies by me. Meaning, I go to the office with the docs and the borrower already sitting at the table. No time for “sign here” flags, sticky notes, review, etc. It takes a lot of responsibility off of you being you didn’t print the docs, but the expectation is “you know what your doing.” The “plus” is they are right there if you (or the borrower) has any questions. I treat all my off site signings the same way (comes with education and experience). As far as workload goes, you answered your own question, interest rates go up, sales go down, especially for REFI’s. Interest rates will continue to go up until demand for housing goes down. This is obviously location specific. Nationally, the demand for housing can go down, but you may live in an area where there is a population boom or there is like massive building going on (like multiple new subdivisions). Also keep in mind, we only get business from those who don’t already have contracted notary signing services in house, or their in house notaries can’t keep up with their case load (hence the push to get title direct work). Hope this helps!
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gosh I wish you luck with that! Please post as you go with that $175. Here in Tennessee it just won’t happen. Seems notaries are paid according to their location I’m told.
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Not location… N E G O T I A T I O N !
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100% agreed. Yep ! Yep ! Needed more lines.
Absolutely, @Arichter
This is why the “BONANZA: Get-Your-6-figure-income now” program is a complete & total BUST for so many across the US . . . location, Location, LOCATION!
@FBagnato123 Surmised it perfectly yesterday:
Best Wishes 
Understoodt! Give them what their looking for and then SIGN SIGN SIGN, that first born over to the lender hahaha
The signer is being charged $375 but is is not just for us to notarize/perform our LSA duties… It is for all the other folks that touch it. In the title co, the Closing Agent, the people who work in the title company for the closers, escrow officers, etc. It is rare to have it broken down at $X for notary, $X for closing agent, etc.
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It is amazing how low the fees that we are offered these days. The reason the fees are so low is because we do not work tohether. There will always be those among us that will accept lower fees. Those notarys make it hard for us to ge better fees and and allow the signing companies to continue to disrespect us with lower fees. A lawyer who conducted my homeowner loan refinancing informed me that we should be receiving $150.00 for our services.
100% agreed with your lawyer. NSA fee should be $150 across the board.
Actually probably more than that as $150 was not an uncommon fee in 2012.
Who hasn’t had a raise in 10 years?..besides us, that is~~
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$150 should the minimum
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The shame is the client thinks that WE are getting the whole amount. It should be separated showing the Notaries amount, not everybody’s added together. I’ve had clients tell me they want my job because of that pay amount and I couldn’t blame them.
I had a signer hold me hostage for 2.5 hours as she read every singe word on a 40 page closing and told me that I shouldn’t mind the wait seeing that I was being paid well to be there. She saw on the doc the fee was $350… y’all know I professionally corrected her on her misconception.
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I’ve had that happen twice. Once was for a wonderfully nice elderly couple that I did not mind spending the time with, especially since I had no other appointments that day. They were great story-tellers, too. 
The other was some goofy lady that just had to read every word. I politely informed her that I had other appointments and that she could take her time and read the set of docs I was leaving with her at her leisure. I also gently explained that my job is to authenticate the identity of the folks signing the docs and notarize accordingly. We have about an hour to accomplish all this. Y’all know how it went from there. . . Finally, after five minutes of discussing her need to thoroughly read every document, I packed up and excused myself and left with the signing undone. I immediately called the SS and they completely understood, supported my reluctant decision to leave and paid me the full amount agreed upon on time and without further comment. That SS has been one of my most prominent feeders of work ever since.
Moral of the story: don’t let anyone take advantage of you. Be polite, be professional, be on time and get the job done.
I blame the lender for not prepping the borrowers when this kind of thing happens. Lenders need to help the borrowers gain an understanding of what the documents mean and not leave it to the notary to fill in the blanks. Too many lenders seem to forget this important aspect of their job. Alas. . .
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@Bobby-CA Definitely can see your perspective on this scenario.
When this arises for me, I let the signers know that I’ll need to reach out to the title company/hiring party to receive an authorization for the additional fee required for them to read through their documents in-depth.
Sometimes, they’ll recognize/remember that they have the 3-day Right-To-Cancel period to review & evaluate their documents in further detail than what will be covered during our scheduled appointment.
Sometimes, not . . . If the signers are adamant, I reach out to the title company/hiring party (in a friendly & professional manner), review the situation with the title company/hiring party, and request that a fee revision be implemented.
I’ve found that normally the title company/hiring party will provide the signers with the latitude of in-depth reading & the fee is added without question.
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Thank you for this… and @Bobby-CA you as well. It was the very first time that this happened to me so I was totally unprepared for it. This signing was 1.5 away from home and I had allocated 1/2 max to get it done. The only saving grace was that it was my last appointment for the night. I will absolutely keep that practice in mind moving forward. It was one of those rare days that I had 3 signings and only accepted it because it was 40 pages and I was getting paid top dollars to complete… now I wonder if the SS and the company knew ahead of time the type of signers I was to be meeting with hence the $175 price.
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@donaldsonnp Absolutely a possibility . . .
- The SS could have had first-hand experience
- The SS could have sensed it from the types of queries posed by the signers
- Or, the SS could have had a previous CNSA cancel for that reason
It’s truly all speculation without asking the direct question of the SS (usually not worth it to ask though, that is, unless you know them well).
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You’re also absolutely correct also about previously established ‘hard’ schedule constraints for required time & travel, etc. to the next signing engagement.
We business owners are flexible & multi-task to the MAX! 
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This was the first time I worked with that company. The good news is that they gave me a good snap docs review.
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How are you able to see your reviews on snapdocs?