Posted by Marlene/USNA on 5/19/06 9:02am
Msg #120982
ATTN: New Signing Agents, Read This First!
The veteran posters of NotRot become impatient when so many new folks appear on notary forums and message boards exhibiting some sense of entitlement because they completed a signing agent course. Many come to the boards asking basic knowledge questions that should have been learned by studying their state's notary law.
You must be a Notary FIRST and a signing agent second. STUDY the rules of your state, read the boards, and take a training course before you take on the rather large responsibility of someone's home loan into your hands. If you screw it up, you can be SUED!
Understand, we were all new once, have seen our share of weird docs and unusual situations, and do not hesitate to help with a legitimate question. However, we've also earned the right to expect some semblance of professionalism from others who would share our title. Don't just explode onto the boards asking questions that someone with the title of Notary Public after their name should be reasonably expected to know. If you don't know the difference between an ack and a jurat, or which name goes in the "sworn before me by.." blank, then you have not earned the the title of Notary Public, and you certainly should not be conducting loan signings until you do. But we do this for a living and don't have time to answer the same questions over and over and over. . .
If you think you are being treated rudely here, it will pale in comparison to how you will be treated by companies and their borrowers after you have butchered someone's $300,00 loan docs and caused them to lose their rate lock. What you may perceive as rudeness from us is, in reality, something that may prevent you from making a colossal mistake in the future. Take the responsibilty of learning all you can about the laws and exactly what it means to be an officer of your state. Don't view this as just a hobby for extra money, it's a serious business,and should be treated as such. You have to have the proper equipment, licenses/state registrations, etc, to operate legally and professionally.
You expect the mechanic who works on your brakes to know what he/she is doing, and they are not turned loose upon customers until they do. The public, lenders, and SS expect a similar standard of professionalism from us as notaries, and it's YOUR responsibility to meet that standard. It's not rudeness to be told to do your research first, it's an attempt at re-educating you before you do some real damage by not knowing something your title says you should. Failure to do so will only lead to the continued lowering of the notary bar, and it will be just a matter of time before incompetent notaries lead to the establishment of more attorney-only states in which notaries may not perform loan signings.
To view the "newbie" recommendations of experienced notary signing agents, use the orange Search button on the Notary Talk homepage and find message #33325. Read it, including all additional posts to it, print it, study it. Use the orange Search button to look for answers to questions you still have. Then, if your questions have not been answered, post a message on the board and ask us - but not before you've done everything you can think of to get the information yourself.
With thanks to Roger/OH, Brenda/TX and many other contributors.
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Reply by Bruce Johnson on 5/19/06 12:00pm
Msg #121053
Maybe when someone signs up, the content of message #33325 could be emailed to them. That way, everybody starts of with at least what is expected knowledge. There is some VERY VERY VALUABLE INFO there that I wish I had when I very first started! (I am still a newbie, so I am still learning)
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