Posted by kate_nortca on 6/19/06 10:50am
Msg #126797

Default ink color?

On Saturday I went out to a signing (E-docs) for a refinance. The signing was for a company I have worked with before but it has been a long while. Printed out docs, no problems except one or two small questions that I ultimately answered myself. The one issue that was not addressed in my one-page instructions was what color ink to use. The lender was a company called Direct Funding who I am not familar with. Normally I simply ask the scheduler what color they prefer but since it was Saturday I could not reach anyone. I called the "emergency" phone number several times to no avail. Ultimately I went with blue ink but I was really at a loss. What's the barometer for ink color when not specified?

Just as an aside, although the borrower's were generally agreeable when I arrived I was swamped by the many family pets and inundated with LOUD Saturday morning cartoons and cigarette smoke. After we began signing Mr. Borrower felt the need for a soda and retrieved a can from the fridge. He immediately dropped it. After picking it up off the floor he shook it up a bit more (god knows why) and then proceeded to plop down at the table and open it. I had just enough time to cover the docs but Mr., Mrs., and I were all sprayed with soda pop. After a moment of stunned silence I continued with the signing, left hastily and came home to hide in my garden for the rest of the weekend. I still love this slightly nutty line of work but sometimes question the mental fitness of my clients and mine for continuing to enjoy working in this field.

Reply by Ernest__CT on 6/19/06 11:05am
Msg #126800

Default ink color: Black n/m

Reply by PAW on 6/19/06 12:19pm
Msg #126805

Re: Default ink color: Blue

Most companies that I have worked with request blue ink. This includes most title companies as well as lenders with a few specific exceptions: one being CitiMortgage.

Reply by HisHughness on 6/19/06 12:51pm
Msg #126812

Re: Default ink color: Blue

No more than one out of 30 of the title companies and lenders I serve require black ink. The remaining 29 either insist up blue ink, or simply say that whatever color is used should be used throughout the packet by all signers.

Interestingly, I got into a long-running discussion over the past few months with National Pen Co., from which I buy all my promotional items. NPC makes a pen called the Regal that is quite elegant, with a bushed steel barrel, a chrome clip and broad mid-level band, and a black rubber grip. It only costs me something like a dollar a pen, but over the past couple of years I have received more comments about it than any other promotional item I have ever distributed, including small Swiss Army knives.

Unfortunately, the Regal comes only in black ink. That really throws a monkey wrench into what I would like to do, which is hand the borrower a blue-ink pen for the signing and, at the close, tell him to keep it. I finally bulled my way to the top to the sales hierarchy at NPC, demanding that they offer the pen in the now-industry standard of blue ink. They refused. None of the NPC metal pens are offered in any color except black, I was told, because out of 50 customers, 49 will request black. Strange, when both legal and real estate professionals nowadays gravitate so heavily to blue ink.

Incidentally, as I have in the past, I would heartily recommend NPC for promotional items. The product quality is higher, the prices lower, and the range of available items greater than any other promotions company I have encountered.

Reply by PAW on 6/19/06 1:02pm
Msg #126816

Re: Default ink color: Blue

>>> ... I was told, because out of 50 customers, 49 will request black. Strange, when both legal and real estate professionals nowadays gravitate so heavily to blue ink. <<<

But, you must also consider that typically the government, the medical profession, most engineering firms that I know of and I would submit, most colleges and universities, require the use of black ink, if any preference is expressed. I think the legal and real estate professions are in the minority when it comes to wanting/requiring blue ink as a default.

Reply by MrEd_Ca on 6/19/06 3:05pm
Msg #126837

Re: Default ink color: Blue

I had a non-loan document rejected last month by the LA County recorder because, said the survey company that I had to re-notarize the document for, requires BLACK. I had used blue ink.

Reply by TitleGalCA on 6/19/06 3:18pm
Msg #126839

Re: Default ink color: Blue

Someone is pulling your leg Mr. Ed. Documents record all day long in LA County with blue ink, whether it's on the document or within the acknowledgment.

Reply by DogmongerCA on 6/19/06 3:58pm
Msg #126848

But yet National will sell most of their less expensive pens

with the choice of black or blue. Never understood why if you spent more money, you got less options?????? PS: I use the Contur Translucent in Casino Pin over Holographic Foil with Black Rubber Grip and they can be ordered in blue or black ink.....

Reply by HisHughness on 6/19/06 5:08pm
Msg #126861

Re: But yet National will sell most of their less expensive pens

Dogmonger relates:

>>PS: I use the Contur Translucent in Casino Pin over Holographic Foil with Black Rubber Grip<<

The "Contur Translucent in Casino Pin Over Holographic Foil With Black Rubber Grip"? Does that fold out into a four-passenger LearJet?

Reply by LynnNC on 6/20/06 3:39pm
Msg #127058

I am curious why . . .

. . . you give promotional items to borrowers. Other than it being "nice" to do so, do you feel that you get a return in some way by doing so?

I would think that a greater return would come from sending promotional items to your sources of business.

Reply by Anonymous on 6/19/06 6:29pm
Msg #126872

RED INK

I hate it when they do not specify clearly the ink color. I fear mid way through a package I will discover it is the other color.

So often I call to ask. When they say use what ever color ink....the little devil inside me thinks...hmmm...how about red? After all they said whatever color.

I have never done it. Tempted. But not yet.

Reply by BrendaTx on 6/19/06 7:53pm
Msg #126891

Re: RED INK - You wild and crazy notary, you! n/m

Reply by christiSocal on 6/20/06 3:22am
Msg #126933

80% of my signings ask for black

I wonder why the difference?

Reply by hcampersFL on 6/20/06 7:32am
Msg #126942

I keep 3 boxes of blue pens in my briefcase each hold 12

pens. I have 4 black pens total in my briefcase.
I used to only keep 1 box of pens on hand until I went to use them and the whole box was dried up. I had to dig in my purse to come up with 3 blue pens to do the signing. I was really embarrassed when that happened.
I then had to return to the same br's house a few days later and had a new box of pens, guess what? they were dried up also. Now I have 3 working boxes of pens in my briefcase.
I guess I'm following the Boy Scout motto...always prepared.

PS I know it's overkill but until it has happend to you don't judge me! J/K

Reply by BrendaTx on 6/20/06 8:14am
Msg #126949

No judgment here.

**Re: I keep 3 boxes of blue pens in my briefcase each hold 12...PS I know it's overkill but until it has happend to you don't judge me! J/K**

Pens do fine for me until they get *hot* from being left in the car. Shopping can make you forget that pens will burst. Then, they get ink everywhere or they stop writing.

Reply by christiSocal on 6/20/06 3:22am
Msg #126934

Re: RED INK - You wild and crazy notary, you! n/m

Reply by christiSocal on 6/20/06 3:25am
Msg #126935

oops n/m