I listened to the webinar too. There were several sessions one could participate in, so it's not surprising that different posters came away with different impressions. The written "slides" were just an outline; all the important stuff was spoken, and might have been explained differently in different sessions.
My impression was that for the next year or so the closing using the pavaso platform will be what they call "hybrid"; the documents that just need a signature will be esigned, but the notarized documents will be printed on paper and wet signed. The mortgage will be recorded in paper form. During the year or so that they stick with hybrid signings, it won't be necessary to register with pavaso and there will be no cost to the notary. However, notaries would be expected to participate in a 20 minute webinar on how to use the pavaso platform for esigning. In the future, when enotarization becomes practical, they might require notaries to be certified by, and registered with, pavaso.
As I understood it, the regular cost to be certified and registered with pavaso would be $199 for the first year, and maintaining the registration after that would be $99 per year. Equity National has negotiated a special rate for their notaries; if the notary wanted to be registered and certified, it would be $25 for the first 3 months, and additional $50 for the rest of the first year. After the first year there wouldn't be any discount, so it would be $99 per year.
If one became registered with pavaso, theoretically that would open up the possibility of getting assignments from other title companies that use the pavaso, not just Equity National. But I have no idea if any such assignments exist, or if the pay for such assignments would be reasonable or not.
I find it quite distressing that the players in the industry imagine that notaries would be willing to pay fees to sign up for multiple different esigning platforms. It would be like a return to the bad old days when each title company had their own software for printing edocs, except it would be like having to pay a fee to download each of those horrible programs, and having to get a new version every year. |
