I heartily agree with this: "...be VERY careful of what you wish for"!
Before we all jump in with both feet, let's examine this for a moment. Steven Covey ("7 Habits of Highly Successful People" author) says to "start with the end in mind". So what, exactly, type of licensing are we talking about? Do we want to all have to get a Title Producer's License" (TPL)? Who would determine what type of licensing is required and how would it be administered? All these types of things are currently state functions that the CFPB is unlikely to get involved with.
What if shining a spot light on this process leads to a mass move to attorney-only requirements? It's happened before in some states and would be much easier for a state to administer. What kind of clout do you suppose us loan signers would have against various state bar associations, if they get their claws into this issue? Or worse yet, XYZ gets their mitts into it and decides to offer the "perfect solution"? We can all imagine what that would look like!
If there's a consensus that something needs to be done, I can't recommend highly enough that before anyone starts a letter writing campaign, they should work out a plan to design what the ideal end result should look like, in significant detail. Otherwise, there will be no control over what, if anything, happens and we'll be stuck with someone else's solution - most likely a solution that will be designed to benefit THEIR interests, not ours.
Frankly, I'm thinking that the most likely scenario is that this kind of an effort might play right into the hands of those working extremely hard to promote digital doc signing with webcam notarization. They're already very committed to their agenda and have much more clout, resources, time, and connections than what I believe we could pull together. Seems to me that their premise is that the industry doesn't really need us. They're belief appears to be that loan signing can be handled better electronically by masses of notaries in call centers in states where getting a notary commission is cheap and easy. Signing loan docs could all be handled by software, with the signers just clicking through, and the notarization handled online. [Where needed, it wouldn't be that difficult for them to mail away a Mortgage or DOT until all counties are digital. We know there are still challenges with getting there, but the promoters of these services see a significant reward in overcoming them.]
If we're going to organize against anything, I would think fighting those interests should be the first step. IMO, webcam notarizations are currently the biggest threat to the loan signing profession. As much as we may wish it could be otherwise, sometimes there just aren't any simple solutions.
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