Think about it... If a company lowers their fees but has no more difficulty getting orders filled, what kind of conclusions will they draw? Perhaps wondering what would happen if they lowered them a little bit more, and a little bit more after that. It helps their bottom line right away, so if they don't care who does their work, the obvious question for them is "How low can we go?" The more of the fee they get to keep, the more worth it it may become to take on the risk of increased numbers of mistakes, lack of professionalism, having to write long lists of instructions, reminders, reprimands, etc.
Sound familiar? It becomes a vicious circle. And once they're used to keeping more of each signing, instead of considering going back to paying more, they're thinking about how to use technology to reduce mistakes, maybe even eliminate notaries from the process altogether. As we know, this has been brought about by a combination of new people coming into this field (for a variety of reasons) not knowing any better and others deciding that they had to go with the flow to keep working.
Just waxing philosophical here... It may be too late to try to hold back the tide, but it's more important than ever that we know our limits and what makes financial sense to us and what doesn't, and to keep eyes and minds open to all options.
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