Posted by Jorge in Bay Area, CA on 9/1/04 3:30pm
Msg #7152

Notary Fees

I am new to the whole game of mobile notary. I mainly do notaries for my work but I recently did some signings for my friend who was buying a new home. The real estate agent thought I did a real good job so she was going to recommend me to her lending agency and hopefully generate some work for me. The problem is that I did this as a favor for my friend since he was already paying an arm and a leg to buy the house so I don't know what to charge the lender if he calls me to do another job. The real estate agent said that typically the notaries she deals with get $5/page or signature and travel fees. I believe the rate for travel is $0.37/mile. Does this seem correct?

Reply by CaliNotary on 9/1/04 3:51pm
Msg #7155

No, that's not correct. If you're doing loan signings the standard fee arrangement is a flat fee, not a per page plus mileage situation. If you're working directly for a title company $125 - $150 is quite reasonable.

There are a lot of older messages on this board about fees, if you use the search function you should get quite an education.

Reply by Jorge in Bayarea, CA on 9/1/04 4:17pm
Msg #7159

I don't see me travelling further then a 25 mile radius for now. It seems a lot of people are saying that a standard fee of $50.00 is common. Now for my friend I had to notarize basically 2 pages, each page with 2 signatures. I had to notarize the deed of trust and the errors and omissions page. I actually had to duplicate this procedure because my friend recevied two loans. Do you think that I would have been able to charge $125-150 for this procedure. I had to travel about 10 minutes from my house. I appreciate any insight you could give me

Reply by Roger/OH on 9/1/04 4:29pm
Msg #7161

Loan signing packages are often 50 to 100 pages or more. As a signing agent, you are responsible for seeing that ALL the docs are signed/initialed correctly (not just the notarized ones), and getting the documents sent back. There may be additional requirements from the lender/ss regarding faxbacks, emailed docs, etc.

Reply by CaliNotary on 9/1/04 4:52pm
Msg #7162

It depends on what exactly you did. If you ONLY notarized a couple of pages and didn't touch anything else in the loan package and left the docs with the borrowers, yeah, it would be appropriate to charge only notary and travel fees. However, it's very unlikely that's what the title company would expect you to do on future signings.

Typically we go through all of the documents, make sure everything is signed and initaled properly, maybe answer some general questions (nothing about the specifics of the loan, more like showing the borrower the pages in the docs that answer his question), give explanations of various documents if necessary (again in a general sense) and take the docs and return them to the title company. And yes, that is what we charge $125 - $150 for

Reply by Marie/CA on 9/1/04 6:01pm
Msg #7166

I agree with CaliNotary. 125.00 - 150.00. I charge 150.00. Signing companies often pay as little as 50.00 but a lender! No! You should get the higher fee.

Reply by Jorge in Bay area, CA on 9/1/04 6:43pm
Msg #7170

Thanks for the imput everyone. This helps me at least get pointed in the right direction

Reply by Gerry on 9/1/04 11:08pm
Msg #7181

Re: Notary Fees & $0.37/mile

I believe the IRS considers $0.37/mile to be fair compensation to cover fuel, depreciation, insurance, and so on for a personal car that is used now and then for business. It does not include any payment for the time spent doing the driving. Often this compensation is given to employees by employers, when the employee is driving on company time, and so is already being paid for his/her time.

As others have said, notary signings are usually done on a flat fee basis. But if someone
wanted to pay me by the mile, and there was no other payment for the time spent driving,
I would figure it out as follows:

With traffic delays, I average 30 MPH, so each mile is 1/30 of an hour. I want to get paid $30
per hour. So my mileage fee is (30 MPH) times (1/30 of an hour for each mile) = $1 per mile.
Then I add $0.37/mile for fuel, depreciation, insurance, etc., so my total mileage charge
is $1.37 per mile.

Reply by KATHY on 9/2/04 10:43am
Msg #7198

HI JORGE,

I AM FROM DULUTH, MN. I CHARGE FOR A BASIC SIGNING $75.00 IF THE DOCS COME FED EX OR UPS. IF I GET THEM E-MAILED I CHARGE $25.00 MORE FOR PRINING OUT AND MAKING A COPY FOR THE BORROWER. IF THE SIGNING IS MORE THAN APPROX 20 TO 30 MILES FROM MY HOUSE I CHARGE $25.00 MORE.

I HAVE DONE SIGNING APPROX 60 - 80 MILES FROM MY HOME WHICH I CHARGE $150.00

YOU WOULDN'T WANT $5.00 PER PAGE BECAUSE SOME DOCS ONLY REQUIRE 2 NOTARIZED SIGNATURES; SOME MORE. YOU ARE BETTER OFF TO SET A SET CHARGE.

THIS IS THE BASIC SIGNING FOR MOST COMPANIES IN THE USA.

YOU CAN WORK WITH THE LENDER ON THE COS ALSO. THERE ARE ALOT OF FREE SIGNUP SITES FOR MOBILE NOTARIES ON THE WEB.

HOPE THIS HELPS. THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO MAKE FAST CASH ALTHOUGH THE CHECK COME IN SLOWING. APPROX 30 DAYS FROM EACH SIGNING.

KATHY