Posted by Crystal Henning on 11/28/06 2:52pm
Msg #162560

Warranty Deed of Assumption??

I have to notarize a Warranty Deed of Assumption shortly.............does anyone know if there is anything special I need to do for this? I have never notarized any Deeds or Loan docs or any other property docs....so I'm a bit nervous and want to do everything right......also, if there are like 25 signatures and say none of them have the correct verbiage, do i need to attach an ack page to EACH of them? Thats a lot of ack pages...........and can I do just one journal entry for the whole thing??

Thank you in advance for any help....and I'm in California as well.

Thanks!

-Crystal

Reply by SarahBeth_CA on 11/28/06 3:52pm
Msg #162575

You really should know the answers to your questions before taking the assignment. You will find all the answers you need in the state handbook.

Reply by Poppy on 11/28/06 4:02pm
Msg #162577

Crystal... Are you saying there are 25 ack's in the package

that need to be notarized?

Reply by Gerry_VT on 11/28/06 4:11pm
Msg #162580

To answer one of your questions, if there are 25 acknowledgement certificates in the package, and none of them follow the wording required in your state, then you will have to attach 25 loose certificates. Just because all the documents are together at this moment does not mean they will always be together. Each document needs its own certificate in case it is intentionally separated from the rest of the documents.

Reply by Merry_CA on 11/28/06 4:30pm
Msg #162585

In addition, each individual must be ID'd and each must sign your journal.
This is CA notary 101!

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/28/06 4:50pm
Msg #162587

Oh...and I forgot to address the fact that I never had a question about ID-ing signers or whether they all had to sign my book...I KNOW this is 101...which is why I didn't need those answers...I needed to know if I had to have a separate line for EACH document....and I don't know where the ID advice came from.

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/28/06 4:48pm
Msg #162586

I think I was making a bigger deal of this than necessary....
first to address comments:

I didn't necessarily "take on the job" without knowing anything...I am a notary for my workplace and an executive basically asked me to do something personal for them and I didn't really want to say 'no'...I didn't go out looking for work.

2nd, I know all of the basic info about acks, etc....I just wanted to know if I was missing an easier way to do all of this...I hadn't realized that I could put all of the docs into one journal entry for the same person until a notary friend of mine informed me of this, so I wanted to see if I was missing out on another shortcut.........but regardless, the document creators were kind enough to include the CA verbiage for me so I didn't have to attach any ack forms...but I now know that there is no shortcut for this either.

And I completed the notary act just a bit ago and I feel that I worried myself over nothing because it was no different than all of the other notary acts I have done up to this point...I just thought that maybe because it was a property document and you have to take extra training for loan signing, and those types of docs, that maybe there was something I was missing with this, but I now see that I was fine the whole time.

So thank you to those of you who actually tried to give me some helpful advice.

-Crystal

Reply by Poppy on 11/29/06 9:43am
Msg #162688

Crystal, I wasn't trying to be a smarty pants... I really

was curious if there was actually 25 ack. in the package. That's alot for one package. The only time I've had that many docs to notarize was when I had several non-borrowing signers and many of them were jurats and not ack's...
Yes, you need to attach a loose cert to each doc if the notarial language is not exact. Yes, you can enter all the acks/jurats on one line item (per signer) in your journal.

Fee: While I don't charge for signature for loan signings... If I were lucky enough to know ahead of time how many notarized docs were in the package. I would charge more than my normal base fee for 25 acks/jurats... My base is $100.00 then I add edoc fee etc... In my area I can't get away with much more than that since there are several $60.00 notaries within 10 miles of me...

If you wan't to start taking more loan signings I would get the notary rotary journal it really is the best I've used...

I'm glad it worked out for you... What part of CA are you in?

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/29/06 10:48am
Msg #162698

Re: Crystal, I wasn't trying to be a smarty pants... I really

Poppy,
Thanks for the info My comments weren't directed at you anyways....you said nothing offensive or rude

And yes, there were 20 acks actually.........I don't even underdstand what the document was exactly.....I am not too familiar with property docs at all...but it seemed to be something granting property to someone else and there was a separate set of docs for each lot...thus 20 lots.

And since you're being so helpful....I have another question about the journal entries.........can everything go on one line even if they are completely separate docs about separate things, but are all being notarized at the same time by the same person? I didn't know if the same line journal entry only applied to loan docs and things that were all related in some way.

And I am in Torrance, CA.

Thanks

Crystal

Reply by Poppy on 11/29/06 1:38pm
Msg #162763

Crystal...

I always keep the loan signing docs together on the same line...
Regarding other docs notarized at the same time, yes you can also keep them together on one line in the journal provided you have the space to name each... Another reason why I love the notary rotary journal...
Torrance, I think there is a notary network in your area, you may want to do a search. I'm in northern CA...

Best wishes and Happy Holidays!

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/28/06 4:57pm
Msg #162592

Oh yes...I do have another question though if anyone would like to be so kind as to offer their knowledge..........

I know that basic charges are $10/sig. But I'm confused because do loan docs usually only have one or two sigs to notarize? The documents I just notarized had 20 sigs altogether and I cut them a deal because it seemed outrageous to charge $200 for something as simple as it was................but I read about people doing loan signings for $50 or under.....is that even charging the basic $10/sig without the travel expenses? Or maybe loan docs only have a couple of signatures to equal $20 or $30 and that's why people charge so little? It would just make sense to me to charge for at least half or a third of the per signature costs if it's over 10 sigs or so.........people could easily ask for $75 +..........I asked for $100 for 20 sigs and got it no questions asked.

Am I missing something?

-Crystal

Reply by MikeC/NY on 11/28/06 7:04pm
Msg #162612

Loan docs usually have one or two signatures; there could be more, but I think it's safe to say that in most residential loan situations you won't see more than two per document.

The number of signatures to notarize has nothing to do with the fee for the signing; whatever fee you negotiate includes notarization of however many documents are required, and you don't get to charge extra for each notarization. It's sort of a value-added thing - you're being paid to ID the borrowers, present the docs, witness the signing, notarize whatever has to be notarized, and send the docs back on a timely basis. What you CAN do is calculate what your notarization fees WOULD have been, and then exclude that amount from your self-employment tax (but not your income tax), up to the amount you were paid for the assignment - so in your example, if you were paid $100 for the signing and there were $200 worth of notarizations, you would declare the $100 as income but could also exclude $100 from self-employment taxes.

Not all states are as generous to their notaries as CA - here in NY, we get $2 per sig, so if we were doing this on a per sig basis, your $200 signing would get me $40 here... Thankfully, we're not doing it on a per sig basis, or I would quickly go broke....

Reply by BrendaTx on 11/28/06 8:01pm
Msg #162619

**Loan docs usually have one or two signatures; there could be more, but I think it's safe to say that in most residential loan situations you won't see more than two per document.**

NY is light. Texas usually requires 20 signatures...15 notarizations.

Reply by MikeC/NY on 11/28/06 10:32pm
Msg #162647

*NY is light. Texas usually requires 20 signatures...15 notarizations.*

I was just referring to signatures per document - could be a dozen documents, but each would usually have a max of 2 sigs (BO and spouse). Sorry for the confusion.

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/29/06 10:54am
Msg #162700

Ohhh, ok, I was thinking the other way as well..........because if it was only 2 sigs for the whole thing I can see how companies would try and get away with only paying notaries $50 or something.........but if it's 20+ sigs then you should charge at least a $100 base.....common sense says that if they tried to go to FedEx or other places where they have a notary, they're gonna charge you $10/sig right? So anything you charge under $200 is going to be a deal....makes sense to me (at least in CA).

-Crystal

Reply by Crystal Henning on 11/29/06 10:51am
Msg #162699

It's only $2/sig in NY? Wow....I mistakenly thought that the sig fee was national.....hmmm, well then I'm glad I'm in CA because it might not be worth my time otherwise.........I haven't ventured out into loan signings yet so haven't really had the opportunity to make any money there....and I don't really do very much personal signings, most of it is for my company that I don't charge for.

Thanks for the info

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 11/28/06 8:01pm
Msg #162620

Re: Fee/Signature

I thought the charge was per notary certificate, not per signature.

Reply by kathy/ca on 11/28/06 9:27pm
Msg #162634

Nope, its per notarized signature. n/m

Reply by PAW on 11/28/06 9:52pm
Msg #162638

Re: Fee/Signature - depends on the state

Different states - different fee structure: CA = $10/signature FL=$10/seal

Reply by Patti Corcoran on 11/28/06 10:20pm
Msg #162644

Re: Fee/Signature - depends on the state

PAW I always trust your info. Here in WA it is $10 per notarial act. (this has just been changed from $5). Would you think that would be ONLY per act and not per sign.. notarized? Thanks.

Reply by BrendaTx on 11/29/06 7:12am
Msg #162665

Re: Fee/Signature - depends on the state

http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/notary/newNotFees.pdf

That's the link where your new fees are listed by your state laws. It spells it out pretty clearly there.

Reply by MikeC/NY on 11/28/06 10:35pm
Msg #162648

Re: Fee/Signature

*I thought the charge was per notary certificate, not per signature.*

Might vary by state - here, it's per signature.