I’m curious…
How do notaries in CA get away with charging different fees for different documents? I got dizzy looking at your pricing. Travel consent form $85; Adoption paper $200; Certified Copy $85; Healthcare Directive $150; Business paper $85. How is it acceptable to charge different rates for different documents? In most states, there is a maximum notarization fee, not matter what kind of document it is. It’s not only lawful, it’s ethical. Does the public pay those differing rates in California?
Hint: if you have to pay to be on a platform, it’s not for you. The platform doesn’t care if you get closings, only to get your money.
The platforms that are free to notary generally charge the fee to the title company. It’s in their best interest to have closings running thru their system….the more closings from title, the more they make, the more closings to offer notaries.
If you are a traveling notary, you can charge whatever the market bears. The price per notarization doesn’t mean anything when you’re a loan signing agent.
I suppose veterans charge based on type of closing because some are much more complex than others. For myself in Washington State, I have a base fee I charge for just about any type of closing. A higher base fee applies to Reverse Mortgage because those take forever. It’s acceptable to charge what the market bears. It’s not just California notaries who vary fees based on type of closing.
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Maybe they shouldn’t pay $300, but they shouldn’t pay $75 either (especially when out of pocket expenses are incurred by us).
I agree all day. I think it’s interesting I took a out of the way location for today late and charged $200 and got it. Because no one goes there. Then I got a request for a same day signing about 35 minutes from the out of the way location so I grabbed that one too at $150. My published fee isn’t that high, but I didn’t tell them oh gee, that’s too much money. I did one this morning that was 12 pages at $100 I didn’t say oh wow only 12 pages and no scan, I can take less. Didn’t say that.
It evens out sometimes. Today is rather red letter it rarely goes this well. And everyone who hired me knows when they are getting scanned and when these will drop for shipping. No push back at all.
I’d be living large if every day was like today. Knock on Wood.
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Which platform do you get your signing order?
Of course you never tell them that they’re paying you too much….because they’re not! They’re paying what the market will bear. I’ve received $100 for 12 pages, too, and I certainly never told anyone that they’re overpaying. I tend to agree with the theory that it all averages out in the long run (some deals are more profitable than others). I think the key is that we recognize which are the good deals and which are the bad ones before we say “yes” to them.
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I’m on multiple platforms. I’ve taken some this month from signingorder notarygo snapdocs signature closers JOT ORT and bancserv.
I discovered I was locked out of Mortgage Connect because they needed credentials. But for today it’s bancserv JOT and signingorder
We sort of do the same thing then.
It’s kind of funny about the “we” that you mention. I have to chuckle when I see ads from people who I know for a fact work alone, yet advertise “we” in the promotion for themselves. I do understand the reasoning behind it though. It makes customers feel more secure that they’re relying on a company that has more substance than just “you” to take care of their needs. This applies to any business, not just signing companies.
I do pay for here on Notary Cafe as well as SigningOrder and a couple other sites. I did all the training and even the interviews for NotaryCam who uses Signature Closers. But I have not yet received anything from Signature closers. I get more work than I can handle with all the other platforms so I have not pursued the why as of yet.
SigningOrder is bout 1/4 of my signings. Sometimes about half when they get rolling. But I have usually only 2-3 signing orders in my que the past couple of weeks. Still coming in, but slowed down a bit.
My experience has been that you pay for more recognition in area codes. So for me this has increased my business this past year. The signings tend to be farther away than my normal route but more. so that works for me.
You’ve actually received business from a pay-to-play site? Which one, if I may ask?
SigningOrder, @360inc, and here on Notary Cafe. Those three off the top of my head.
Signing Order is a platform. I get a lot of work there. Notary Cafe isn’t really a site where you sign up to get work. You might get something from time to time, but that’s not the main focus. I’ve never heard of @360inc. What is that all about?
Just keep trying. Even if your not available for one, make sure you reply and mark not available. It counts towards your rating.
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It clearly says Signing Agent at the top so it doesn’t look like a signing service to me. If I were a title company, though, I wouldn’t be interested because there is nothing personal about you on the home page or anywhere that I saw. There is no About Me section showing your training, skills, or specialties. I do see a very cluttered page though. I would make it easier to read and tone down the animations. Customers don’t want to get dizzy looking at it.
So you’re saying that if a customer calls you to notarize a will and you say it’s $185, that’s acceptable by law? Not in our state. I don’t recall any laws stating that different documents can have different rates. I have to go by state law, no matter what type of document it is.
When did I say I do GNW? And I can charge whatever I want to travel to someone’s location to notarize something for them. But I rarely do GNW. The last one I did turned into a screaming matches over a PoA for a guy. I had to have the nurse call security. Not my cup of tee.
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