They are tedious and take a long time and much dedication to get to the point of opening escrow. the competition is fierce. In my area, at least, there can be as many as 12 people vying for the same property, due to supply and demand. The purchase price is finally agreed upon, then often the contingency is the buyer's ability to get funding,if not paying for in cash, although they are pre-qualified, there are always hiccups along the way. For example...
A property near me has been on the market for almost a year just under $1mil asking price. It finally went into escrow with first time buyers. Now the fun begins. Insurance companies don't always want to insure properties that are affected by the drought and high fire conditions, such as we are experiencing in CA. It's all in what the buyer is willing to pay. Other contingencies can run the gamut of well water testing, septic tank inspection, soils testing, etc.
FINALLY, the loan is ready to be signed. There are three buyers for this property applying for joint credit, all related, living in different CA locales, further complicating the process, and signing in three different locations.
Escrow officer needs to find COMPETENT NSAs in other counties who won't screw up the lender's tight timeline and get back to review and funding before the rate lock expires. She has no issue with her own two borrowers, but what about the uncle and the father and mother of the primary borrowers who are cosigning the loan and vesting in the Central Valley and Orange county.
If there are any errors, there will be delays and the transaction could go south. Hopefully no one buys anything other than food and gas (no additional credit/debt during this process that will throw off DTI numbers). No one quits their jobs, has a lien filed on them, etc. There are many events that can throw a wrench into any transaction.
These are the reasons why escrow needs to be able to hire the best in the business to close their transactions, rather than the NSA who accepts the cheapest fee to sign a loan package. Many of the new people coming into this business have no idea what's involved in these transactions, they are JUST THE NOTARY. They have never had the experience of purchasing a property themselves and they have no idea of the detail and work that goes into these transactions.
That is why every professional, knowledgeable NSA should be able to garner this work directly, and leave out all the middle men shopping for rock bottom fees, while keeping most of the fee for themselves.
It seems there has been a lot of focus lately on whether to work for this signing service or that signing service. I think it's vital to success to work for companies whose reputation and success hinges on everything going very smoothly to final closure so they are paid, and then pay you in a timely fashion (30 days or less, not six months).
Seems to me a lot of company's owners are only thinking of their bottom line and have lost sight of the importance of closing every transaction seamlessly and effortlessly.
I would love to see more NSA's who are skilled, knowledgeable and have the expertise to find work with the folks who actually make these deals happen and become their go-to notary for a successful closing with their clients the first time, with no critical errors like we're hearing about these days.
If you're the kind of notary that's sitting around trying to be the first to accept these paltry fees, and you're happy with that, well, I'd say you're working at 25% of where you should be working, and that's all you'll ever do unless you make changes to your business model.
How about changing up and working for 100% fees, be compensated your worth to brokers, lenders and escrow officers who've worked very hard to get these transactions to the signing table. This means you know these loan documents front and back and what every form means. You go to every signing with the after hours cell phone numbers of hiring parties, LO and EO. You never leave the table with unsigned documents unless someone before you has made some serious errors in vesting, impounds (to be or not to be), and you eagle-eye every signed document one by one, twice, before leaving the clients' home/office.
TIME IS MONEY! There is no time for errors in this business. Work for the best, ditch the rest.
