Posted by Charm_AL on 4/12/05 3:40pm
Msg #31242

anyone accepting less than $50.00

is undercutting their fellow notaries. I refuse to answer the $45. post because I think it's KH
If someone's phone is ringing off the hook with $40. jobs it's because he's a chump and the SS knows it...plain and simple and one more reason that SS's are trying to lower their fees.

Reply by Jack on 4/12/05 3:44pm
Msg #31245

Whoa,

Wait a second. I never call you any names and I think you are out of line calling me a Chump and Brent also.

Reply by HisHughness on 4/12/05 8:37pm
Msg #31336

Jack complains of Charm:

***I never call you any names and I think you are out of line calling me a Chump and Brent also.***

Well, Jack, if you are accepting $40 fees -- or Brent, or Jason, or Tamitha, or Rumpelstein -- let me be the one to call you a chump, then.

Forget about what you're doing to your fellow notaries. I can understand why you might feel no loyalty to either a profession, which you have just joined and have no real ties to yet, or to individuals whom you've never met. The reason you're a chump is not because you are undermining them: You're a chump because you're undermining yourself.

Once you get the requisite experience from the $40 closings, just where the hell do you think the $75 closings are going to come from? That's about the minimum you can charge if you are a beginning (less than two years experience) signing agent and expect to make a minimum living wage. You've already cut yourself out of that market. The TCs/SSs who would have paid you that know they can get you for $40. And because you've undermined all the other signing agents in your area, other TCs and SSs are now going to be paying less. You've just cut off your balls to spite your jockey shorts. Smart. Real smart.

I'm not sure chump adequately covers that kind of mentality.

Reply by Reggie on 4/12/05 4:53pm
Msg #31269

Charm AL

I've even quit takeing less than $50.00. Now my base is $75.00 so I try not to go below that sometimes it's hard because of already taking a $50 job from a ss then they call back and you ask for $75 base they ask if you'll take $65 and you just about have to take it. Although I did get most of my total fee last night I asked for $110 and got $100 so I accepted it was not that much of a loss.

Reggie
Kansas

Reply by MaggieMae on 4/12/05 5:20pm
Msg #31276

I have my first signing tomorrow. Just printed out the docs. When they called and asked how much I wanted, I said $75 and the gal on the other end of the line went silent. She said she'd have someone call me back. The next person called to say she was confirming me as the signing agent and that she was authorized to pay me $100.

When Charm says people shouldn't take the $40 - $45 fees I can understand where she's coming from, but for people brand new to this profession and looking for experience I'm sure $40 is tempting as opposed to $0.

When I did this in NJ, I was a legal secretary and didn't charge. It was part of my job in the law firms I worked in. Negotiating a fee is foreign to me. I really lucked out on this first one that's for sure!

Reply by Donna CA on 4/12/05 7:47pm
Msg #31323

I understand that being new might tempt you to take a smaller fee but what new people should probably do is pay attention to detail and give the impression that they are not new ( or at least that they know what they are doing) so that it isn't obvious that they are new. Some companies don't ask, and there fore do not know if someone is new unless the person acts new, and even some experienced people have been known to "act new". Bottom line is pay attention and familiarize yourself with what you are doing and don't let on that you are shaking in your shoes and don't be sold out as cheap. You will want more soon enough and you will resent others who are willing to undercut you.

Reply by Mary Pierce/PA on 4/13/05 7:31am
Msg #31398

I'm fortunate that I am in an area where I am basically the only notary in a couple of counties that I cover. I am usually lucky to get my standard fee. If they are desperate enough they will pay it. I average between $100 and $150 per signing even for those SS's that usually only pay $50. When I quote my fee and they say they have to get it approved, 4 out of 5 times they call me back. If not they probably found someone further away who will do it for the $50 and if that's the case more power to em. I work FT and do this PT and generally make more doing one signing then I do working one day at my FT job. I won't quit my day job because that is a guaranteed pay check every week. This is just the gravy on top of the mashed potatoes.