Posted by Kay/IL on 5/28/09 9:14pm
Msg #290235

Nations Direct and the NNA?

Earlier this month, I received an e-mail from Nations Direct asking me whether I was a member of the NNA. Since I am currently an NNA member (but now know better) I responded yes. I wonder what would have happened if I said no.

Now I wonder whether NNA, FASS and ND are having some 3-way orgy with membership and notary assignments.

Reply by Alz on 5/29/09 12:02am
Msg #290243

Greeting!

Your message is quite interesting. Did you register as a member and/or signing agent with any or all of the companies you mention?

Reply by Kay/IL on 5/29/09 10:22am
Msg #290297

Hi Alz,

I don't recall which I did first........joined the NNA or ND. All I know is that I started with ND back in late 2003. I may have started working with ND first and joined the NNA sometime afterward.

I never knew of any connection between NNA and ND until I received that e-mail. Who knows what they are up to.

Reply by SueW/Tn on 5/29/09 4:31am
Msg #290248

NNA has always had a foot in the door as far as lowballers

delight. I haven't heard about ND going lower than $40 but anything is possible today.

Reply by Teddog/CO on 5/29/09 7:26am
Msg #290254

Re: NNA has always had a foot in the door as far as lowballers

Use the Search button regarding Nations Direct and the others. Bad news for years.

Will be very interesting reading for the Newbies.

Reply by Yowheelz on 5/29/09 9:21am
Msg #290265

Called me about NNA Certification

Wanted to know if I was NNA Certified and if so to send them copy of certificate. Not sure what that was about or if it is going to become a requirement of theirs. I do occasional work for them when they meet my fee but they are a PITA with all their phone calls, faxes and "Golden Rules."

I am (not proudly) a NNA member and have their background check and certification. I do not get any benefit from NNA itself but I do get work I wouldn't otherwise get. It galls me to be blackmailed but I'm in this business to make a living and if I get $1000 extra work by paying $90 I will do it. I can't afford to be an activist.

Reply by Les_CO on 5/29/09 9:29am
Msg #290268

Re: Called me about NNA Certification

How about if the 26000 Newbies that just ‘bought the story’ and joined up and will happily work for $50 take all your business….can you afford that?

Reply by Kay/IL on 5/29/09 10:57am
Msg #290309

Actually, Nations Direct Is Crying For Help.........

Especially during the EOM madness. The knowledgeable and competent notaries will not take any assignments from them for $60.00. Just last week, they asked me whether I knew of any notaries who will sign on with them immediately when I turned them down. Of course I know plenty of notaries, but I'm not giving them the names of notaries familiar with real estate purchases and refinances. Why insult my buddies and colleagues?

If they want to take a chance on a newbie, I say let them. In the past, if the job was not done right resulting in a re-sign because the wanted to do things on the cheap by hiring someone inexperienced, they called on me. So who's zooming who here?

You get what you pay for.

Reply by sue_pa on 5/29/09 8:21pm
Msg #290445

strongly disagree

...How about if the 26000 Newbies that just ‘bought the story’ and joined up and will happily work for $50 take all your business….can you afford that?...

Most of my clients would NEVER hire someone who didn't know what they were doing. If someone offered their services for $50 (talking a full refi) that would be the first indicator they were probably clueless. If my clients received phone calls with some of the questions I see asked on this board the notary would never receive a second order. THERE STILL ARE PLENTY OF COMPANIES WILLING TO PAY AND PAY WELL WHEN YOU CAN DO YOUR JOB AND MAKE THEIR LIFE EASIER. (of course not as many companies as there used to be and my $175/$200 client list has greatly dwindled the past several years.)

A few years ago one of my clients decided that I needed help ... I am the only person they use in my area. Fox Signing was in the right place at the right time and they gave them 1/2 my orders for the month. I received $200 per order. Fox sent this poor sap for $50 (we asked him). The poor schmuck Fox sent out was thrown out of the building within 10 minutes (too bad for him - total coincidence - he actually had the wife of one of the VP's in the room as the realtor) and I had to return to do the closing ... I got all my work back and now several years later they have never attempted again to 'get me help'.

Reply by Les_CO on 5/30/09 11:57am
Msg #290500

Re: strongly disagree

My comment was in reference to Josephine’s comment that she felt that she needed to be a member of the NNA in order to continue in business. I was a member at one time, but no longer, and I have no intention of being forced to join some IMO shoddy club.
May I say I’m happy to hear that you have a good, steady client base that has come to trust and rely on your performance, and is willing to pay you accordingly. Some of us (even I) have a few such clients, but it’s not the business it used to be. It’s my belief that the thousands of “Certified Signing Agents” churned out by the NNA willing to work for $40, have had a devastating effect on this industry, and done nothing but encourage many SS’s operators, and Title Companies to continually lower the fees that they pay. In my opinion the NNA has caused more harm to the “Signing Agent” (for want of a better term) business than anyone, or anything else. By their marketing procedures, and claims that anyone without any knowledge of the real estate, lending, legal, or title business, can become a “Certified Signing Agent” by signing up with them, and taking their ten minute online course. The notion that these people will then be set to go and make thousands of dollars as a “Professional Certified Signing Agent” is ludicrous. Their ‘signing agent mills’ have turned out thousands of “Certified Signing Agents” some of which are not even notaries, that have been let loose on the public, and are out there trying to compete with thousands of others in a market that it totally saturated, with business declining on a daily basis. If you “strongly disagree” with my view that is certainly your right. May I suggest that you call the NNA and sign up now…they can always use a few more dollars.

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 5/29/09 9:36am
Msg #290273

Josephine, I hear what you're saying...however

I WAS listed with NNA for my first two years - got some business but not enough to write home about...I got much more business from this site and the "other"site - business and clients who pay more - I picked up more direct title company work from these two sites than from the NNA site...

That, IMO, is another very important consideration - do I get $150-$200/signing clients OR am I getting $75-$100/signing clients from my listing. Sorry, but the first one wins hands down.

MHO

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 5/29/09 10:20am
Msg #290296

On the nose, Linda - people should keep track

of what business comes from what site, what site brings how many dollars, and what site correlates with chasing those dollars. That just makes good business sense!

That simple analysis - and also taking your profit from last year and dividing it by how many signings you did - is critical data for making better business decisions.

Reply by KimWmsVA on 5/29/09 9:34am
Msg #290272

Re: NNA has always had a foot in the door as far as lowballers

I got my first call from Nations Direct just the day before yesterday. They wanted me to drive an hour and 15 minutes for $60. When I told her that I could not do the closing for that price, she said "I really want to give you a chance, and everyone else is quoting me this price, are you sure that you won't do it?"

I know I am new to the business, but $60 to drive in total 2 1/2 hours and spend who knows how much time with the BO. I don't know what she was thinking???

Reply by Kay/IL on 5/29/09 10:09am
Msg #290291

Re: NNA has always had a foot in the door as far as lowballers

Kim, I'd been working with them FOR YEARS and only fairly recently learned that I had been ripped off BIG TIME. Just earlier this week, like you, they wanted me to drive over an hour away to Timbuktu for a signing and only wanted to pay $60.00. When I told the young lady that I've provided EXCELLENT service for them and have worked at that price since I started working for them, she told me that other notaries are willing to work for that price and that I just happen to be first on her list of go-to notaries. Well, I told her that there are plenty of other companies whose lists I'm on top of, that are paying me considerably more and fairly without their hassles, and to be my guest.

This is why I'm so grateful for sites like these. When you share and network, you learn things that you never knew existed. And when you know better, you do better.

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 5/29/09 1:06pm
Msg #290328

I love the "everyone ELSE is doing it ..." *stuff*

Old and rather juvenile sales tactic. It didn't work with me when my kids tried it, either.

However, if I were CEO of some huge deal like this, and I wanted to bring down the prices across the nation, and I knew my schedulers were making hundreds of calls every day .... I'd script this pitch and have them fill every single minute of their day using it. Obviously, it works often enough.

Reply by MikeC/NY on 5/29/09 3:08pm
Msg #290350

If everyone else is quoting her that price...

... why was she calling you? She could have stopped at the first person who quoted it and saved herself some time.

Reply by LynnNC on 5/29/09 9:52am
Msg #290279

Re: NNA has always had a foot in the door as far as lowballers

I have had ND agree to $100.

Reply by LynnNC on 5/29/09 9:54am
Msg #290280

I forgot to write that I didn't take the closing because...

...I am not willing to fax back an entire loan package.

Reply by parkerc/ME on 5/29/09 9:59am
Msg #290285

Got a call the other day from ND asking if they could send me a sign up package. Had read all the requirements and fax-back issues you folks discussed here and politely said "sorry, I am not accepting new clients right now". Sure don't want to get into the whole fax-back mess!

Reply by Stamper_WI on 5/29/09 11:45am
Msg #290317

I may be off here but my feeling is that the fax back requirements are primarily the result of shoddy work by notaries, especially if asked to hold the doc's until they have seen the fax back. Inevitably it is the lowballers that require this. So yes, they get what they pay for. It must be financially beneficial paying for all the paper for the faxes and the extra step of reviewing primary doc's.

Reply by Jess/CT on 5/29/09 12:06pm
Msg #290320

I charged $125 for the last 2 signings I did for Nations Direct.
However, I had to first refuse their fee of $60 and let them know I wouldn't go any lower and that this included thier "faxbacks."

Hopefully, if we stick to a required rate companies will comply.

Reply by jm on 5/29/09 12:28pm
Msg #290321

Re: Nations Direct

I received a call from Nations Direct this morning and wanted me to travel 1hr. 18min. (one way) the minimum time to travel to a very populated city who knows what the traffic is like. I told them I would call them back in 2 minutes because I wasn't in my office at the time and I wanted to google where the borrowers lived to find out the distance. When I called them back I gave them a quote of $150 due to the traveling time involved. Well they contacted another notary (which is about 57 minutes away) to see what she would charge in the mean time which she quoted them $100 and the guy told me that he was hoping that I would be lower than her then continued to tell me that this other notary does alot of work for them. He then told me that she is giving them a deal because of all the business that she gets from them and that at least she's making money.

Reply by jojo_MN on 5/29/09 12:48pm
Msg #290322

Re: Nations Direct

Okay, so if you believe that, why did they not just give the closing to the other notary? That's an old ploy that I fell for only once. Whenever I hear that now, I just say, "Well, hopefully I can do another one for you in the future since you already found someone else." If they call back again, you can either raise your rate because they are wasting your time or give them your original fee you quoted them.

Reply by Linda Juenger on 5/29/09 1:19pm
Msg #290330

Re: Nations Direct

They must be hurting in my area because they called me twice for the same closing an hour apart. Then another company called for the exact same closing. I was already booked solid and just could not do it.

Reply by Kay/IL on 5/29/09 3:07pm
Msg #290349

They Are Hurting

Hey, if they called me asking whether I knew any notaries to do closings on the spot, you know they must be. (See my prior message on this thread.)

It does not pay to be cheap!

Reply by ReneeK_MI on 5/29/09 4:38pm
Msg #290368

Perhaps the point is made here ...

Those that are being called by ND - all members of the NNA, correct?

I have NOT been called, am NOT a member, and am quite busy regardless. Those that say being an NNA member brings you "business" ...

...define "business"?

Reply by Stamper_WI on 5/29/09 4:45pm
Msg #290372

Does that mean....

That the scheduling dept is no longer outsourced to India? Big turn around for them to be requiring BGC now.
Didn't someone say awhile back that an Indian sounding man called a TC and offered access to FASS data base?
Oh by the way. The NNA emailed me in response to my question. Took them 10 days. And with in an hour or so of me saying they hadn't responded to my question on here. They called me "Dana"

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 5/29/09 5:26pm
Msg #290382

Re: Does that mean....Hey Dana!!!

and the answer was???......IMWTK

Reply by Stamper_WI on 5/29/09 7:16pm
Msg #290417

Re: Does that mean....Hey Dana!!!

"The background screening is part of our Notary Signing Agent Certification program. It is not provided as an individual item. To sign up for that service, please visit:" .....etc etc

Reply by Linda_H/FL on 5/29/09 7:25pm
Msg #290426

grrrr n/m

Reply by Stamper_WI on 5/29/09 7:26pm
Msg #290427

Re: grrrr

Well at least I wasn't called Dana Sparrow. Thats one version that pops up a lot

Reply by Mamie on 5/30/09 8:44pm
Msg #290544

Re: grrrr

I know all of you have gone past this topic, but I joined the NNA when I first became a Notary.I belonged to them for more than 4 years and do not ever remember anyone who called me with work stating they got my name from NNA. I ask almost all where they got my name and they state Not Rot and the numbers. A few people for general notary work did find me on the internet.