Posted by Ron Schimpf on 3/4/08 10:25am
Msg #237996

Vtial Signings

I accepted a closing with this company, got to the signing and the borrower noticed that the mortgage company was off by $24,000. I called Vital Signings immediately and reported the problem and the borrower called his mortgage company. The borrower was told that the closing was cancelled and they would resend the documents. I had spent an hour and forty five minutes from the time I left home until I returned home, had driven 30 miles round trip and Vital Signings says they are going to give me a trip fee of $40. I had agreed to do the signing for $85 and I paid $15 for copying the docs from email. I told Vital that I could not possibly spend 1 hour 45 minutes, have mileage and copying fees(Office Depot)and accept $40. He said that was their policy. I said send me the $40 and remove me from your list of notaries. How are others handling situations such as this.

Reply by Lee/AR on 3/4/08 10:29am
Msg #237997

That's Vital! Just don't work for them anymore. They are just 'too much' everything...except money. Cheap.

Reply by SShoreDude on 3/4/08 10:33am
Msg #238000

Vital pays ok around here. However, I havn't heard from them in ages. Maybe they found some cheaper notaries out there. I am sure they do a fabulous job.

Ususally, with trip fees, I feel lucky if I get anything. These companies are willing to just dissapear and never answer thier phones or email as opposed to paying you a courtesy fee for going out and doing a closing, and it sucks. If I got $40, I would take it and chaulk it up to the risks of the job. But thats just me.

Reply by CJ on 3/4/08 10:56am
Msg #238004

In General

I don't know how you organize your signings, but I show them the figures on the Note first thing. Then the TIL, then the HUD. It takes 5 minutes. If the Note is wrong, there is really no point in hanging around. They can't fix the note while you are at the table. They have to re-draw. If they needed a bigger cash out, then that means the loan amount is wrong.

Sometimes, if it looks like it is going to be a big talk on the phone, but I have a good hunch they are not going to sign (becuase the Note is wrong), I tell them that I am leaving, but if they work it out with their processor, and they want to sign THESE papers TODAY, I tell will come back for free. I tell them they have until midnight, when the papers expire. That beats me sitting around for an hour while they try to figure it out (and then they don't sign), and if I do come back TODAY, they sign quickly. I think I have only come back "today" two or three times in my life. But by SAYING that I will come back for free, the borrower relaxes, the procecessor relaxes, the SS relaxes, and I can get out of there. Ususally they call me back and say they are going to re-draw. I thought so.

But sometimes things just go badly, and you have to eat it. That has happened to me before too. That's part of having your own business. If they insist on reading, and the more you try to speed them up, the more they slow down, that's just one of those things.

I also don't take jobs too far away. ANY job can turn into a reader or a no sign, or some other kind of a mess. You can't predict it. Sometimes the SS say, "PLEASE go to this far away place, it's not THAT much farther than your territory." But I say no, becuase if I have to go back for a missed signature, or there is some other kind of problem and I have to re-sign, or I have sit there while they read, get a half fee, I don't want to include the travel in what I have to eat.

So we look at the figures first, then sign or give up the target.

That's just how I do it.

Reply by LKT/CA on 3/4/08 11:44am
Msg #238010

Great post, CJ! n/m

Reply by sue_pa on 3/4/08 10:55am
Msg #238003

the real questions shouldn't be how are others handling situations such as this but why are you in such a situation? $85 for e-docs? Nothing I have to say about that except you get what you deserve. Why in the world did you have to pay $15 to make copies? Don't you have the proper equipment in your own office? surely running 2 copies from your office doesn't cost anywhere near $15 if you've got the proper equipment. How did you spend that amount of time driving 30 miles? If your borrowers saw their problem immediately, you should have been out of there in less than 10 minutes? If it takes that long to drive that distance in your area, I really don't know how you figure your pricing. Maybe I just don't understand.

You have several choices. did you sign a contract with them that says you'll take the $40 fee? If so, you have no choice. If you didn't sign anything, your choice is to sue them or the best case, as you've appeared to do, take your $40 and learn from it.

Reply by LynnNC on 3/4/08 11:12am
Msg #238006

Did you mean that you drove 30 miles EACH WAY?

Reply by Ron Schimpf on 3/4/08 1:34pm
Msg #238024

15miles each way

Reply by Julie/MI on 3/4/08 1:40pm
Msg #238025

See, many will learn there is no $$$ in this business if you accepted $85 edoc closing for 30 miles one way. Even $85 for no edocs is not profitable at $3.09 for gas per gallon. You were negative even before you left the house.

Use this as a learning experience and simply move on.

Reply by Julie/MI on 3/4/08 1:43pm
Msg #238027

did read the 30 round trip before i posted, thought it was one way and I second what sue said and CJ.

I stand by my last sentence

Reply by SShoreDude on 3/4/08 2:43pm
Msg #238039

People who take such low prices for closings, edocs or not, hurt us all.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 3/4/08 5:06pm
Msg #238068

Is this the company in Riverside, CA? n/m

Reply by dickb/wi on 3/5/08 1:07pm
Msg #238164

my question is why did you have office depot.....

print the docs.....couldn't you have done it for far less $.......i wouldn't have done the closing in the first place for $80.....you are worth more than that,,,,i would have chgd at least $125... just my .02 worth........