Posted by Leon_CO on 3/9/07 5:12pm
Msg #179249

If you could start all over ...

We have all made mistakes as notary signing agents. No one is perfect.

There's not much we can do about mistakes from the past except learn from them, and make an effort to never make the same mistake again.

One of the mistakes I made in the beginning was not paying enough attention to various details. As you gain more and more experience, a lot of those details become second nature. I once dropped a package in a FedEx box on a Saturday morning. I'll never do that again. Nowadays I take it directly to Kinkos. It's much farther out of the way, but it makes a huge difference as to when the documents reach their destination.

When you're just starting out, I think it's better to do a small number of closings so that you can take the time to pay attention to all of the details. Yes, even the small details. I go over the closing instructions for specific information. In the beginning I didn't realize how much relevant information there was in those instructions.

Anyway, that's what I would do differently. There are a lot of other things, but that's the main thing -- pay more attention to the details.

What would you do differently, if you could start all over?

Reply by MistarellaFL on 3/9/07 5:32pm
Msg #179252

I probably take a day job as a TC closer, then only work evenings as an NSA for a year.

Reply by BetsyMI on 3/9/07 5:45pm
Msg #179254

I would have started this career a few years earlier when things were booming!

Reply by marlindog on 3/9/07 6:44pm
Msg #179261

NOT ONLY THAT WHEN YOU GO TO KINKOS ITS ENTERED IN THE COMPUTER .I NENVER USE THE LBLE THEY SEND I ALWAYS DO A NEW TICKET THAT WAY THEY HAVE TO PUT IT IN THE COMPUTERS

Reply by christiSocal on 3/9/07 11:18pm
Msg #179305

Also start alot sooner . Start reading Notary Rotary first BEFORE getting into the biz. I would of been lots smarter ,sooner, that way.

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 3/10/07 6:23am
Msg #179319

I'd have copied my Rolodex and printed my Contacts lists before leaving Plan A for Plan B. When I left my corp. job, I didn't HAVE a Plan B yet - other than to go home and have that thing other people called "A Life". As ironic as it seems - my only intention was to stay as far away from mortgages as possible. As is often the case, I failed to do something that I ALWAYS advised others to do whenever someone left, because of the often unknown value of contacts, and because WE NEVER KNOW what the future holds.

When Plan B was formulated - I began my initial marketing to those former contacts by virtue of memory. MY memory - not someone else's memory, which might actually have contained data! Huge regret there.

Reply by PJM/MI on 3/10/07 1:13pm
Msg #179395

I wouldn't change a thing!

Reply by CJ on 3/10/07 3:49pm
Msg #179411

I think about that a lot when driving. I am 48. I wish instead of becoming a notary, I had become an appraiser, but now you need a Bachelor's degree to do that. For every job we do, an appraiser was there making $350 a pop. I know an appraiser making 10K a month. But now that market is flooded.

Instead, before becoming a notary, I spent a whole year (and thousands of dollars) at vocational school to become a paralegal. The only thing good about that now is that I can decipher the leagalize in the mortgage docs.

Two years of off and on unemployment later, I went back to night school, wasted another year and more $$$ to become a computer programmer. Again, only sporatice secretary jobs (at computer firms). If I had gone to appraisal school way back in the paraleagal days, I'd be sitting pretty now.

After getting fired again (I never could figure out why, except maybe I was no good at office politics), my stepmother suggested becoming a signing agent. It was cheap compared to those other schools (a couple hundred dollars in classes and equipment), no office politics, and the harder I work, the more money I make.

I have been doing this now for 7 years. I have paid off the 40K, that an old boyfriend stuck me with (stupid me, I co signed for him), I paid off my mobile home, and paid cash for a nice wedding. Now I am socking it away for retirement.

I see what people make on their applications, and people with Bachelor Degrees make less than me. But they get to be home at night and on the weekends. I think if I could do it ALL over from the very start, I would have gone to college, (instead of marrying out of high school) and become an art teacher. I would like that the best. It doesn't make as much money, but it would have been steady and I would have enojoyed it.

HOWEVER, since I cannot go back, I do think this is the best thing out there for someone with no formal education and a willingness to work hard. So I don't tell ANYONE about it, because they all want to chisel into my paycheck. There was a time I was homeless and suicidal, (no drugs or alcohol involved) and I know how my friends abandoned me. I am in no hurry to give them my money.

I tell my kids, "Go to college, so you woun't have to be a workaholic to survive".