Posted by LawrenceOK on 11/17/05 7:52am
Msg #77132

Guilty or not guilty?

There has been a lot of discussion on the board about this. Telling notaries to raise their minimum to $100 is considered Price fixing. So why aren't the SS's that are lowing their fees to $50 considered guilty of the same thing? I have turned away 12 signings in the last two weeks for $50 bucks from companies that used to pay a minimum of $75. Yes we are free to accept or not, but it just seems to me that with so many SS's lowering their fees to $50, they are attempting a new standard, Guilty or Not?

Reply by Roger_OH on 11/17/05 8:05am
Msg #77135

Those ss that lower fees are responding to simple supply and demand owing to the glut of notaries unleashed by the never-ending recruitment from NNA and their promises of "part-time
effort, full-time income". They can only pay $50 (or $40) as long as someone accepts it, and sadly, there will always be someone who does. Even if there were some sort of $100 notary standard, someone will always undercut to $90 to get the work.

Each of us can only control our own fees based on our own market conditions. Some SS have already figured out you get what you pay for, and there ARE a number of good ones out there.

Reply by Art_MD on 11/17/05 8:06am
Msg #77136

JMHO - not legal advice

I believe that price fixing has to have an effect of reducing competition. If 2 of the 6 big oil companies talked about pricing, they could affect the entire market.

I don't know how many members of NotRot are from CA, but there are something over 250,000 notaries in CA. Discussion of pricing for CA by 200 out of 250,000+ wouldn't in my opinion be price fixing.

I do know that surveys in which the data is "cleaned" is totally acceptable. By cleaned, I mean the name of the supplier of the data is not recorded as well as any other info which could lead to the identification of the info supplier. How else do we get info such as the average price of gas, housing, lumber, etc by state, city, etc.

Art

Reply by ColleenCA on 11/17/05 8:13am
Msg #77137

Art: I agree with you. I just don't know how we could ever regulate the 200 out of 250,000+ to fix prices to an acceptable level. I have no way of knowing if my neighbor notary is charging 50.00 or 500.00. He or she may say one thing and do another. I guess it just boils down to what each individual is willing to accept.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 11/18/05 2:30am
Msg #77322

For the record, there's a huge difference between number of notaries and number of signing agents in CA. I'd bet the majority of CA notaries work in an office and notarize misc. documents as part of their normal job function. (And I'd venture a guess that these are the notaries that are supposedly in short supply.) BTW, a quick check of this site showed 1,291 *mobile* notaries just within 30 miles of my zip code, for whatever that's worth...

Reply by SLB SIGNING SERVICES, INC. - Sherry on 11/17/05 9:04am
Msg #77139

Please dont Join em.....I for one am not lowering my pay for SA's..you know the old saying "you get what you pay for", well..I would much rather pay the SA's what they deserve in order to get the quality of work that I expect. My rates are pretty much in the norm and I have not had any of my clients baulk at the rates that I charge so I am not exactly sure why other SS's are lowering their rates (more money in their pocket maybe?).

Reply by Ted_MI on 11/17/05 9:44am
Msg #77147

Re: more money in their pocket ?

Hi,

Well, I think that may be the case in some circumstances. But in other circumstances, I think ss's are responding to market forces. Witness Vital Signing and their letter to all their notaries. Did they just decide"oh well, we want to keep more money for ourselves"? I don't think so. I think what happened is that several of their clients put the screws to them so to speak and said heh if you don't want to take our lowered payments we will take our business elsewhere. So in an effort to retain the business, VS capitulated.

Reply by Charm_AL on 11/17/05 9:47am
Msg #77148

I agree Ted!...right on the mark.....n/m

Reply by SLB SIGNING SERVICES, INC. - Sherry on 11/17/05 9:55am
Msg #77152

Re: more money in their pocket ?

You may be right Ted...When I first began researching the possibility of opening an SA, I contacted a bunch of different SS's regarding their fees so that I could set up my fee structure accordingly. Vital Signing happened to be one of the ones that I contacted...If I remember correctly, the fees that they were charging their clients were on the high end in comparison to some other companies. On the same note, they also made a much larger profit on each closing because they were still paying their closers (on average) about what other agencies were paying.

Reply by Nd_WA on 11/17/05 2:20pm
Msg #77233

Re: more money in their pocket ?...Yes!

I have a few well paid clients who already expressed interest in me as SS to handle their closings based on my business standard as an SA. This free enterprise, and the livelihood of one's business is destined by how it is managed. There are plenty of fishes in the see and trees in forest, just need patiences.

Reply by LawrenceOK on 11/18/05 9:04am
Msg #77366

Re: Thanks for your replies folks!

All good responses. It may be that these SS's don't realize that Oklahoma is 90% rural. An average signing for me is 70 to 80 miles rt and I just will not travel that far for $50. But that is onother topic that I will post for disscusion later. I refuse to RANT today.