It seems lately Signing companies are dropping the dollar amount they are offering certified NOTARY signers.
First allow me to outline your expenses to pull off a successful signing.
Your cell phone charges
Land line and fax line charge
Copy paper, legal & letter
4.Toner
E & O insurance
Membership fee to NNA etc.
Bonding Insurance
GAS
Auto insurance & upkeep
Clothing expense, dressing professionally
Continuing Education
Office Supplies i.e. Clips, Manila folders, PENS, stamps, briefcase, forms,
Office machines
YOUR TIME, yes you should charge a fair hourly rate for time away from family & home
Mileage, every time you start your car you put wear and tear & oil requirements on the Eingine & if you live in your car a general cleaning from time to time is necessary
If your thinking is “well If I work 7 days a week at 50.00 for each deal then I’m making 450.00 a week and that’s better than minimum wage” then think again, as that kind of volume will lessen your quality & spirit.
There is plenty of work to go around as most Signing companies average 3,000 closings a month. They also on average charge $ 400.00 for your work and more or less in some cases. So accepting a small fee is an insult to the service you offer and hurts us all.
We are sent into dangerous areas plus homes infested with roaches & fleas and the company that hired you never left the comfort of their office.
Blessings to you all & be safe out there
Charotte you are absolutely right! But! There are those out there that just gobble up all those under priced signings leaving most of us very little time to negotiate a better fee. I’ve been trying to network with other agents in my area with little support. Hopefully more agents will get it.
This has been an ongoing problem for the over 13 years I have been doing this. It won’t go away, unless Notary loan signing agents stop with the employee mentality and realize they are running their own business and understand what it means to make a profit with all expenses you’ve listed.
Usually what happens is, at the end of the year, they add up profit and expenses for taxes and find out they paid more out than they received back. Then they quit and another huge new batch comes in and it starts all over.
I’ve never been afraid of competition, I know my worth. I have put in countless hours to build my business and to only work with companies that know my worth and pay my fee. What takes most Notaries 4 signings to do, I can make that amount of money in one signing. Today I have only one signing so far, but it is $200.
So True
Ive set a minimum of 85.00 no matter how easy the signing is I simply say I don’t start my car for less than 85.00. Then depending on document count and type the price goes up. I.E.: a reverse mortgage is 200.00 no exceptions, hope this helps.
We have to unite and stick together these Signing companies are a dime a dozen and they are getting the big bucks while we are closing the deal on the ground. Without us nothing would happen and we are not respected at all in the signing industry and only us can change that.
I had a few seller sides that I could walk to I did 20 pages, 5 minute walk for $80, otherwise keep the fees up. They get what they pay for, the want cheap, they get cheap work.
I think the fees you will accept is reflective of the type of work you do. Like others have stated, I price my work depending on the type of assignment (seller signing, refi, HELOC, reverse mort, etc), how many pages are in the packet to be printed (<50 or >150), and the distance I have to travel for the assignment. I start my negotiations at $100, but will accept down to $75, if only a few pages and close proximity. I rarely accept reverse mortgages because they are so voluminous and can often be time consuming (for some reason these borrowers have lots of questions). I charge extra for fax/scan backs and I charge a courier fee if I am required to drop the documents at an office rather than a shipping location. (I will sometimes make exceptions for schedulers I have a relationship with – which tends to be with those companies who pay well and promptly.) Some weeks the work can be a little thin, but by the end of the month I have always hit my goal by staying true to my core values. If you do great work, the schedulers will keep you high on their rolodex, and they will call.
I agree 100%. I have watched the rates go lower and lower over the past couple months. I try to negotiate but they are not budging so obviously they have notaries who take them that low. I have seen refi’s from companies that use to pay $100 now for $45, that is insane! I have actually gone 2 weeks with just 3 closings when I use to do 2 or 3 everyday. It’s very upsetting, I have bills to pay and need to put food on the table so I’ve been advertising GNW and etc. to bring in some $$.
I have too but younger notaries that live in the city are willing to accept less money and can scoot around town fast enough to handle several signings a day so price is irrelevant
I think that depends on what the standard is for your location. I consider scan backs a second job, as some can be quite voluminous and can take quite a while to scan and upload/send. Personally, I start at $25 and will go up to $35. I base my courier fee on what they will have to pay a courier to pick up and drop off from me. Most charge between $30-$40. Again, I will charge an additional $25 for this service (a little less that hired courier), but I will not do it for nothing.
Hi, I am in the San Francisco Bay Area and became a notary two years ago for my employer. To make ends meet, I just started my mobile notary business as a side gig for evenings and weekends. It is really difficult to get started. Do any of you have advice? I would really appreciate some mentoring! Thanks!
I Expect To Be Paid Like the Professional I Am -
Assigners, lenders, and title companies are putting the professional signing agent out of business.
The insistence in cutting fees paid for our services is driving the professional, caring, and efficient notaries out of business because we cannot meet our cost.
Gone are the days I could schedule two to five appointments per day because I got documents the day before the appointments. I was being paid an average of $135.00 per signing within 25 miles of my office. Today, I’m afraid to schedule more than one appointment as documents are not getting to me until I should have left for the appointment.
My cost are as follows:
A. Printing – paper, toner, amortization of printer, and seal 5.9¢ (average package 187 pages twice total 374 pages) = $22.07.
B. Car expense 50 miles round trip = 28.25 plus $15.00 amortization of the vehicle = 43.57.
C. The total is $65.64 excluding additional costs for fax backs and trips to FedEx or UPS.
D. When the fee is $65.00 I’M TAKING $0.64 OUT OF MY POCKET TO DO THE LOAN. Not included is the “cost” of my time to contact the client to confirm the appointment, time to print docs, travel time, time on site, and time for trip to a drop box that is usually way out of the route.
I’ve not included the costs of insurance, bond, background check, business cards, clothes cleanings because of the dog/cat hair, urine, house hold odors, etc. we incur.
If you are still reading, I am amazed how everyone else in the equation is more amply compensated for their time. Attorneys still make $250.00 to $350.00 per loan package. Title companies and lenders are making this or more.
As a consumer, when I request a service I expect to pay for it. Borrowers rarely take time off work to close their loan since we go to them on their time schedule. There is very minimal loss of time and convenience for them. Our fees should be, at least, the level of other professionals and paid by the borrower.
Nearly every package I receive (as well as do my notary friends) there is a statement that says something such as “Please note – we have been incurring a lot of notary errors and we are losing clients as a result. It is very important that you go thru ALL of your docs’ forwards and backwards, make sure all docs are stamped….” Guys, it’s blatantly obvious where the majority of the problem lies. A lot can be solved by a few simple steps such as
Get docs to us the day before so we can review and tag the potential problem areas.
Get the pay up to bring the truly professional notaries back to the business.
When extra services are required (i.e. fax backs, trips out of our way to drop docs, etc.) pay for these extra expenses.
At the NNA meeting in Austin, Texas, everyone I was in earshot of was angered and insulted how “our” association allowed the title companies and lenders to get away with the responses of what was being done to improve the way we do business. It was disgusting and appalling. We left that meeting convinced that NNA was not our advocate and would not stand up for us with the title companies and lenders.
In summary, you want a professional job, you have to pay a professional fee and allow adequate time for us to get packages in time to really review them before we go out.
In the Job world everyone gets a cost of living raise.