Posted by AnnaCA on 9/26/05 2:14pm
Msg #67395

How about changing the way fees are structured?

With all the everyone complaining about the proliferation of lowball assignments, I'm curious why more SAs don't structure their fees according to how many notarizations there are in the loan package, and then add a travel/prep fee + doc printing fee (if applicable) into their total price and present it as a formal quote to the SS or TC. Or is this an unreasonable hope that would price me out of business? If the SS's or TC's base price doesn't meet the max notary fee allowed per sig, plus a travel and preparation fee (i.e. time spent reviewing/preparing the docs before the signing, travel time, and time spent at the table with the borrowers), plus e-doc fee, then doesn't it seem reasonable that the SA should refuse the assignment? Are we newbies just not thinking about these factors when we accept lowball fees? The math is pretty basic to me.

Why don't SAs send a formal quote to the SS or TC before accepting the assignment? That way, if there are more sigs, more prep time or greater time spent at the borrower's house (based on the size of the loan package), or greater distance involved than discussed in the initial phone call, at least the SA has some legal recourse if they have to go after the SS or TC for more money. Speaking of which, I don't know any other business involved in the loan process that runs their business the way SAs are expected to. Appraisers and Inspectors are either paid up front or paid regardless of whether or not the loan funds. Why can't SAs as a group try to change the practice of being paid only if the loan funds, or as a net 30+++ subcontracted invoice?

As for those $50 + $25 e-docs assignments, based on the information I've gotten here, ther only way it would be worthwhile for me to accepting one of those assignments is if there are only 2 sigs to be notarized (at California's $10 max per sig) and I'm traveling within 5 miles of my house. That leaves me $30 travel/prep fee, which is still an incredibly low per hour rate considering the amount of time I might end up dealing with those docs from receipt to sending them back.

Random anecdote: When my husband and I bought our condo 5 years ago, we contacted a notary ourselves, not the TC (don't know if SSs were in existence then), and paid $55. We picked a traveling notary from the phone book. He broke his quote down as $10 per signature and a $35 travel fee, and said it could be more if there were more than 2 sigs to be notarized. I had never heard of signing agents back then.

What are people's thoughts and opinions on this? Am I dreaming to think it's possible to change the way SAs do business? It seems that SAs are regarded as low person on the totem pole who has to jump through hoops to get paid after providing a legitimate service. No one else in the loan food chain puts up with that nonsense, except SSs. Hmmm, maybe I've just made a case for eliminating the SS as "middleman."

-AnnaCA

Reply by CaliNotary on 9/26/05 3:16pm
Msg #67412

The signing services have no idea how many notarizations are in a loan package and I seriously doubt they're going to give us free reign to bill them after the signing without having any idea what our fee will end up being.

This method would also end up screwing us sometimes. I've done several loans where the only doc that needed to be notarized was the DOT and there's no way I'm going to spend an hour at a signing only to bill for a single notarization and travel time.

You can ultimately choose whatever method you want for your billing, but I think attempting to do this would be career suicide. If you want to be successful in an industry like this one, you have to work within the norms of the industry.

Reply by Anna Nikander on 9/26/05 3:30pm
Msg #67416

Thank you for your response CaliNotary. I certainly don't want to committ career suicide before I've even started. Of course, I'll work within industry norm--I'll have to. I'm just trying to spur discussion.

I'm curious how other SAs would change the system if they could, make it a better profession, make it easier to collect, change the payment methods, etc.

I'm also curious how the current method of paying SAs evolved versus being paid directly by the borrower and right after services are rendered, like appraisers and inspectors.

-AnnaCA