I drove from my home to downtown LA this morning around 8am, bumper to bumper on the 101 Hollwood South because on the northbound side, there was an 8-car pileup, and southbound drivers exercised their rubber necks, slowing us down to 3mph for a long stretch.
Upon arriving at 300 South Spring Street, I quickly located a parking lot, $13 for all day parking. As I was trying to purchase one at the kiosk, a very nice couple drove up in a brand new black Infiniti SUV and gave me theirs, they were finished and didn't need it an more. Saved me the fee. I proceed to the State Offices, 12th floor, Secretary of State. To my horror the line of customers wound around the hall ways, I walked up and pulled take a number 230. They called 97 at that moment. It seemed like it would go pretty fast. I arrived at 11:32am, and I finally left at 1:27pm after completing my apostilles. During this time, 10 people were told at the counter they needed documents notarized, and VOILA! that would be me. I made $150 while I was waiting for my number to come up. We would take the elevator to the cafeteria on the 2nd floor and I would stamp their documents, and I was paid in cash by all except one person who only have $100 bill and I did not have change. Her nephew is a SB Sheriff Deputy, I felt okay with that. We talked about the horrible traffic and I learned her sister lives in Los Olivos, not far from me.
Any way, I don't know if it was because of MLK day yesterday and everything doubled up today, but if I lived in the LA area, I'd be camping out on the 12th floor because most people are clueless about what they need to do, and arrive without their documents being properly notarized.
Most of the documents I notarized were being sent to foreign countries.
So it was a win-win for me. My client paid me $300 for the entire process, and now we have to ship these documents off to Argentina, and she will reimburse me for the cost of the Apostilles. BTW the charge is $20 + $6 service charge per Apostille in LA.
I then drove back to Santa Barbara and printed documents for two more signings tonight.
It was a Bonu$ day, even though the trip to LA in the same day is quite a stretch for me.
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