Why do companies think with the little pay they give that they can add an unlimited amount of bloat or non-signing documents, and that’s fine?? Twice in one week I’ve had companies add more than 50 pages that had nothing to do with signing. Sure, let’s add in every scan that was sent in on this file - insurance forms, title inspection reports and god knows what else?? I even had one company add in a booklet, an actual booklet. It gave all the reading material to a signer on a reverse mortgage that should have been sent directly to the signer before closing from the company! I was dumbfounded…. I’ve gotten to the point where I demand extra for the nonsense or I don’t print it. Sure we are paid to print, but to me, that’s to the limit of an average packet of actual signing docs, not an unlimited amount of scanned-in extra non-essential.
@arod.ns1004 Our printers are basically part of the job, you know? It’s a requirement for mobile loan signing. I totally get your frustration and the desire to vent about all those extra, non-signing papers! If some signing agents didn’t make as many mistakes, companies wouldn’t send so much extra stuff. Some of those documents don’t have to do with mistakes being made, but includes all types of things, tax information, surveys, insect reports, etc. It’s annoying but we’re getting paid to do the job, which includes printing what they send. I just ask for more money for the extra printing. We can’t tell them what to include in the loan packages, though – they decide that. Or, we can just pick and choose who we work with.
While it’s annoying to have to print extra “filler” pages that don’t have any bearing on the actual signing, it would be a lot worse if there were extra documents to have signed and notarized. As a very wise person once said, “Don’t sweat the small stuff”.
I’m going to disagree with @cfletcher and @steves11 - a lot of what I’m seeing posted (and what I’ve had to print in the past) I agree with @arod.ns1004 - we should print the appraisal?? NO!! Borrowers should have had that in their hand long before even the clear to close is issued. Print the Reverse Mortgage booklets?? NO! He’s right that the borrowers should have this info long in advance.
I’m sorry guys, Carl and Steve, I admire your postings and find your info very valuable, but this is not a case of “sweating the small stuff” and our printers are not for title or lender’s use.
JMO and my $.02 FWIW
While I agree with you that our printers are not for title or lender’s use, it’s often more trouble to try to weed things out than to just print it and be done with it. That’s just my opinion. Yours may differ, and I respect that.
It’s why I charge considerably more for reverse mortgages.
It’s just the job.
For companies like today that fail to respond before signing, they get those pages…. double sided. That way they can’t say they didn’t get them and i have no problem telling them that the pages were unecessary and if they don’t like it they can reprint themselves. My way of walking the middle line. Feel free to give opinions on that.
@LindaH-FL It’s perfectly acceptable to either agree or disagree with the points raised; there’s absolutely no need to be concerned about it! We are compensated for performing the job, and, as a standard component of that role, we are required to print the materials provided by the company. I can certainly understand the range of emotions and perspectives surrounding this particular issue; it’s not within our purview to determine what gets printed or excluded from a company’s loan package. My intention here is simply to present the practical reality of our responsibilities within the loan signing procedure. As @johnsonps306 aptly pointed out, “It’s why I charge considerably more,” and this underscores the critical need for Loan Signing Agents (LSAs) to master the art of accurately assessing and pricing their services. Without the availability of a printer, it is highly probable that we would not be selected by these organizations for their loan signing needs. In the current landscape, remote online notarizations represent the sole exception, where the utilization of printers is not a requirement.
It is entirely your prerogative to manage your business according to your own specific approach; I, however, would be very interested in learning about your experiences and how that particular strategy ultimately pans out for you in the long run.…
The ‘print creep’ has been going on for a long time. When I first began printing in the late 90s, the whole thing was maybe 60 pages, max. And they paid $50 (paper was about $2/ream). I have to agree w/arod…it should be brought to their attention that most of this is just added bloat and they really should stop the nonsense. As for those appraisals & booklets..they should never be in a pkg.
That against every ss and title I know of but go ahead if you don’t want to work.
You won’t get work printing double sided. You either follow instructions or you don’t. You can’t pick and choose what instructions you are okay with and which ones you will ignore.
The last time I got an extra large file I asked for an extra $25 for printing extra large and received it. When I quote I including printing up to 150 pages. Over that I ask for more. I almost always get it. When a package is 40 pages I don’t give fees back. Sometimes things average out.
That’s my philosophy….that things average out in the long run. I’m not going to make a huge stink if they put a 50-page appraisal at the end of the document package. Do I like it? Of course not! Is it worth making such an issue about it that can negatively affect your relationship with the title company or signing service? That’s up to you to decide.
Sorry everybody, to clarify, only the bloat was double-sided not the actual loan package. It was added scans only. The rest was normal single-sided. That was only done because the signing company chose to ignore my comment on the bloat. Everything was in there, every page. If the 50 pages of things like insirance coverage is needed single sided they will need to figure that out. The 100.00 I was given was not enough to warrant my printer being used on an unlimited basis.
Yikes! Maybe don’t accept reverse mortgages as they tend to be larger packages. All the “bloat” is required to be printed. You do only have to print the HECM brochure for the signer, but you should be having the signer(s) initial the insurance disclosure-at least the first page as often times this is being paid out of escrow and the lender wants it acknowledged by the signer.
printing 400 pages for 100 pay for a closing? No, not today! In a fast moving market yes, few years ago yes, but not today. No way. Better work another business. I can’t accept this work as a good business to have and practice. It is for additional income only. Such waves of pay for the notary’s efforts and responsibilities doesn’t sound serious at all. In this place we should discuss our professional experiences and competency, not how much we are paid and should be paid. It sounds low class, especially when we don’t have intention to protest the situation.
I know how it sounds, but unfortunately, it gets discussed a lot, not only here but in every other notary forum I’ve seen. This particular post was not really about that, but about extra, unnecessary pages that were required to be printed. It was a one-off situation that happens only occasionally, not on the majority of jobs that we take.
My experience is reverse mortgages are huge packages. Last one was about 305 pages and then a copy for the signer. 610 pages. That’s heavy!! Since it is 2 mortgages, I usually counter with a pretty high fee. Often 1 1/2 to 2 hours at their table. The titie company or banks might send the package to the signer, but rarely do they read it or understand it. Lenders are too busy making the sale to properly explain everything. They probably don’t understand either. Every package i get has a lot of documents that dont need notarizing. I just present each page. I answer general questions and leave more involved ones to the lender.
If they fail to respond to a counter, most will move on. Depends on the competition where you are. On extra pages, I had the entire appraisal, survey or bank valuation included. I put the signers copy in a large manilla envelope and often have to use 2.
Doesn’t matter if you consider printing an appraisal as bloat. Double sided printing is never accepted, and when you take a job, you take the whole job. They ignored your comment because it wasn’t up to you, it was up to them. In the future, just ask for an extra $25 to print.
I get that when I ask for it on anything over 150 pages.
I laugh at the irony of getting a package that includes over 30 pages of instructions to the notary. If you didn’t give assignments to the mistake prone folks that accept the lowball offers you wouldn’t need to send me the instructions. Now I have the job because they accepted my counter and will print the bloat but it’s counterproductive. Give me the work, you know it will be done properly, pay me fairly and save everyone the 30 pages of instructions. Sort of like the chicken and the egg. Low fees result in error prone work which lead to 30 pages of bloat.
Fair fees equal clean work and fewer mistakes.No?