It will take everyone to stop taking the lower fees these companies are offering - once we all take a stand - things should get better - as far as companies who don’t pay regardless of the fee - report them - make it known to the IRS as well.
1 Like
Unfortunately with business slowing down, we may have to take lower fees or don’t do any work at all. The market has slowed again and perhaps we may want to engage in some other type of business until the market strengthens again. Meanwhile we have to weigh each assignment and the specifics that go along with it and may be low balled!!!
I’ve noticed when there is a slow down, fees drop, especially with signing agencies as they also feel the crunch. I for one won’t accept them. I refuse and let them know what fee I’ll accept. If they don’t agree to my fee, I move on and don’t look back. In the last few days I’ve had offers of $45.00 for a HELOC. ( 40 mile round trip ). The lowest I’ve seen. Of course i refused, and provided them with the fee I require. Evidently somebody accepted it as I never heard back. So the question is …are we that desperate to accept $45.00 fees???
Today really took the cake. An offer for a refi, 152 pages plus a copy for the borrower…$40.00. Client is 18 miles away one way.
My expenses, 4.70 for fuel, 2.50 for paper, 1.50 for tolls. and 1.50 for toner ( based of amount of pages printable on 1 cartridge. So my over all expenses would be about 10.00. And that doesn’t even account for wear and tear on my vehicle.
That leaves 30.00 of which the govt ( Fed and State ) will take about 8.00
One hour spent driving (1/2 hour to and 1/2 hour back) and an hour with the client. Total 2 hours.
That leaves 22.00 profit for 2 hours of work, or 11.00 per hour.
I would make more if I actually charged the legal amount for each notarization in the package !!!
Well someone evidently accepted the fee as they did not get back to me on the fee I proposed.
As in the previous posts from other fellow notaries… Wake up and stop working for peanuts !!! Refuse these ridiculous fees.
3 Likes
I personally don’t care how much money they make on a job. All I care about is how much money I make! They are in business to make a profit. So am I! It is my job to negotiate the best price that works for me. Businesses are in business to make a profit, period. My fee allocates my overhead appropriately to the job. Every job must stand on its own. If I can walk there and have overnight documents, obviously my costs are much lower. The more profitable a signing service is, the more able they are to weather the market turns and have sufficient cash flow to pay vendors on time. So, go ahead, make money, and I will ensure that I make money.
2 Likes
I agree, and what do you think about companies paying you only a travel and print fee when the borrower refuses to sign? I went to a signing and the borrower refused to signed because the numbers were a lot higher that expected and when I called the signing company I was told that I was going to get paid for travel and printing only. The borrower called me today stating that he agreed on signing after he was offered a better deal with the same loan officer and when he requested that they call me to go do the signing the lender told him that I already got paid for the day I went to his house so he didn’t have to feel bad for not signing that day with me. So I’m thinking even though he didn’t sign the signing company still got paid and they only paid me a small amount. Not fair.
If my full fee for a signing is $100 then I am ok with a $75 travel and print fee if the borrower refuses to sign. However, I always start out with the CD and I DO NOT stick around long if the borrower is refusing to sign. I always let the companies know that I have another appointment scheduled right after this one (even if I don’t have one, they don’t need to know that) and I MUST leave no later than X time. I let them know that I do not have an hour to sit around a borrowers house while they decide what they want to do. IF a company wants me to sit around while they try work things out with the borrower then they have to agree to pay me the full fee, and I require that they send me an email stating this and I let them know that I still must leave no later than X time. And if I leave and they want me to go back later (as was the case for your signing) then YES, I am absolutely going to charge another trip fee. And if I have to print a new set of documents then YES, I am absolutely going to charge another print fee. I require that they send me a new email confirmation verifying this BEFORE I print anything and BEFORE I go out to meet with the borrower, if they don’t like it and won’t agree to it I don’t go back out. No offense, but if you went back out without demanding additional payment from whoever contracted you then that’s on you, companies are always going to try to pay you as little as possible, you have to DEMAND fair pay.
4 Likes
My fee is also $100.00. If the closing time is during the day I may cut it by $5. or $10. I like daytime closings. I cut my costs by refusing any assignments outside of the City I live in. If I have to travel to the next City or get a call for a weekend assignment I ask for more. Signing Agents will never get the full closing/Notary fee as indicated on the Closing Statement.
I totally understand the fee market. Once I was getting like $90 and a Bank employee at the closing mentioned how the fee being paid was $ 299.00. I was shocked. You are right they always tell you there is no room to pay more but it is because whatever they don’t pay us they get to keep. I can see them getting paid something for calling us to make the appointment but We are the ones responsible for getting the assignment completed with the client. We are important to them but they even say they will have to call me back after I tell them my fee. They search for a cheaper notary. Well I tell them I won’t work for less than $ 100. But I have even asked for $ 150 and without even a sigh they pay it. I have seen some companies just officer $ 150 right up front ! Keep your prices up because we are worth it.
3 Likes
I always remind fellow NSAs that the people pushing the paper (i.e., lender and title) are sitting safely in their offices drawing a salary. We, on the other hand, are dealing with not only our business expenses, but weather, traffic, animals, time and all sorts of potential hurdles to leap to get the signing done for them. My perspective is if they are earning on quantity of business while sitting snug at their desks, we need to be paid fees equivalent to charges by print shops, taxi/delivery services, animal control officers, traffic cops, and sales counselors combined, all of the jobs we actually regularly perform for them to be able to push the papers.
4 Likes
SigningTRAC will not pay me AT ALL. How do I get paid?
Anyone not being paid by SigningTRAC you can file a complaint with the Licensing Bureau. The more people that file the quicker they have an investigation against them, and start to pay people their money.
Have you sent a demand letter yet? If not send one. In that demand letter give them 24 hours or you will report them to the State Attorney General, if they hold a title license you will report them to the State Insurance Commission and last, but not least, you will file a formal complaint with the CFPB. See if that works. If you don’t get payment overnighted to you with that threat, then go on and file complaints with all of the above referenced folks and carbon copy Signing TRAC on each one of the correspondence.
1 Like
Well, I just did a closing for a company, Avenue365. Great company who pays my fee…so I thought. I went out to the borrower at a local McDonalds. No show. So I went to their home. Wife answers the door and says “Oh, I am so sorry. Didn’t they tell you? The amount was wrong and my husband says he will not sign that so I guess they are working on it.” When I commented to the title company (Avenue365) that I would bill the Trip and Print fee, the person I spoke to said they don’t pay that. However, he would add a little something ($15) when I go back. So, I printed and drove 30 minutes one way on their whim. Nice!
I’d have told Avenue 365 that I wasn’t going back without payment of my full trip/print fee, as well as payment of my full amount for the second trip, and some respect for me and for my profession.
I’ve done quite a bit of work for Express Notary in the past. Fees on the lower side, but never a faxback, their system is easy to negotiate, and pay is consistently 30 days from the signing (though 45 days once or twice). However, lately the schedulers are vague about package size (which means HUGE, BTW) or documents aren’t available until the last minute. They don’t increase their fees if the package is larger than expected. Late docs mean an extra trip back to the office to print at the last minute, if it’s possible at all. Either way, I lose money due to the extra prints costs, or the extra travel costs, or by declining assignments because Express was booked into the time slot. I don’t think I’ll be working for them anymore.
I hear you. But rather than generate additional animosity, I will just not accept any more of their work……unless/until it suits me.
Business is hard enough to come by so I don’t burn bridges!
Good point! Express does pay regularly, their platform is okay, and they offer some really good free training. But the size of those packages make it difficult to schedule them into an hour appointment slot, and they do not pay enough to rate two hours.
Call them at 559-408-5456. I don’t work for them anymore take to long to pay you $40.00
This is the same experience I had with SigningTRAC. They want to take two to three months to pay $40. I GLADLY burned that bridge.