Posted by Dennis_IN on 8/24/10 10:02pm
Msg #350318

Thursday EOM filling up fast

It's 10:00 PM CST and I am still getting calls for Thursday closings. Unfortunately they all want 6 PM. I am booked from noon until 9 PM. Hoping to fill in the morning and maybe one more at the end of the day. Maybe they won't all close on Thurs and will call for a Friday closing.

Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 8/24/10 11:26pm
Msg #350323

It's crazy out in the Inland Empire: I am getting 4-5 calls every day. The interest rate is so low that in a area where, probably 65% of the borrowers are "up side down", the calls keep coming. Not too many notary/loan-signers left per capitia in CA in 2010

When I teach notary classes in CA there are usually 1-2 loan signers in the class, who are renewing, and almost no one from the mortgage industry. I am talking about a class of approx
45 students.
We have lost 62,000 notaries in 2008-2009 and that is directly because of the mortgage meltown.
Let's all make some money!
Cheers

Reply by Susan/CA on 8/24/10 11:32pm
Msg #350325

That's funny...here in L.A. county their are still a ton of notaries!! Desperate ones too!!! 60.00 for edoc fees...:o

Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 8/25/10 12:06am
Msg #350328

There are a ton of notaries who don't know how to get hired

Calif has the fewest notaries (per capita) in U.S. by half because we have a test and some other requirements that most other states don't have.

I am very surprised in 2010 how few notaries on notrot have a website! We are running a business. It's 2010 and I realized in 2003 I needed a website.

Reply by Shoshana/AZ on 8/25/10 8:58am
Msg #350348

I had a website once.

It didn't do me any good. Most people find me here or on the numbers site. I have plenty of business without a website.

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 8/24/10 11:52pm
Msg #350327

Joan,

There still must be plenty of notaries down there as they are driving up here to do edoc signings for 60 to 75 bucks a pop for an eighty to a hundred mile round trip. I keep running into them. God bless them. Me? I'm going fishing then a week at a hardware store rather than be lo-balled.

Reply by kathy/ca on 8/25/10 12:16am
Msg #350329

Joan, if there are approx 45 students in your classes then I

don't get why there are fewer notaries per capita in CA than in other states. 45 students per class still seems like a lot of new people interested in becoming notaries.

Also, if 62k notaries have left in the past year, what do you attribute that to? You said its due to the mortgage meltdown but what about general notary work? I am curious.

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 8/25/10 12:52am
Msg #350330

Re: Joan, if there are approx 45 students in your classes then I

Honestly? I don't think the reduction in California's notaries has much to do with the mortgage meltdown as much as it does with the new FBI background check requirement that California implemented in 2008.

It's fine to say that 60,000+ notaries didn't renew their commissions... but on the whole, that doesn't mean much. Those 60K+ equal 22% of the state's commissioned notaries. 22% drop in 2 years.

The new background check requirement also means it's more expensive to renew commissions -- and more and more employers are outright refusing to pay for it for their employees. Plus, more employers are realizing that they could be held liable for the actions of their notary employees for lack of training. To them, it's just not worth it.

I don't know about others... but the loan calls are not coming fast and furious for me. The majority of the calls I get are for general notary work.

Above, Joan mentioned the idea of a website... well, I have one.... and it gets plenty of traffic, much of it from here at NotRot, too.

Maybe the loan companies just don't want to pay my fees... that's fine. I have plenty of other work to keep me busy.

However, I know darn well... as Glenn said, that a lot of notaries from the IE and even further south are traveling up to the High Desert for jobs that pay $60-$70. That's just ridiculous! I know for a fact there is a woman in San Fernando Valley that takes $55 signings in Lancaster/Palmdale. She actually drives the 75 miles (each way!) for these! For $55! I have no idea how she's making any money... she can't possibly be. She even BRAGGED about how she's super busy up here because "all the other notaries in the area charge at least twice" what she does, so she gets all "their work" and laughs all the way to the bank. Really? At $55 a pop?

Reply by Glenn Strickler on 8/25/10 1:12am
Msg #350331

Marian,

Fact is, they are not making any money after all is said and done. Especially with $3.20 gasoline. I have run into a few of them and they believe that by accepting those low fees at first, they will be able to raise their fees after enough notaries have left the business. The minute they try to raise their fees, the lo-balling companies will just move on to someone else.

Most of my jobs have been repos. Looks like that may have run it's course for now. People with higher interest loans cannot refinance here because the appraisals all seem to be coming back underwater. Those that do meet the LTV requirements are few and far between.

Reply by MichiganAl on 8/25/10 1:23am
Msg #350332

Guys, it's the same spin year after year...

...after year after year after year. It's just her way of trying to drum up newbies for her classes (which, if you haven't noticed, get plugged in just about every post). Business is up!! Notaries are down!! Sign up now!!! Sound anything like the stuff XYZ feeds us?

Reply by SueW/Tn on 8/25/10 10:10am
Msg #350365

Amen Al n/m

Reply by JanetK_CA on 8/25/10 2:43am
Msg #350334

Re: Joan, if there are approx 45 students in your classes then I

If you just figure the $.55/per mile (or whatever it is the IRS allows this year - which is probably a low figure compared to reality), she is losing $27.50 per assignment just on travel costs and making nothing for her time. That also doesn't even factor in the materials cost (paper, etc.). Clueless!!

I think you're right on target about why people aren't renewing. I've done a few refi's in recent months for people who "used to be" a notary. Many did it just to notarize for friends or for on-the-job convenience, but now say "it's just not worth it". Let's face it... we're talking somewhere between $200 and $300 for the whole process anymore.

Reply by Calnotary on 8/25/10 9:14am
Msg #350350

Oh really Joan? Hidden agenda? n/m

Reply by JanetK_CA on 8/25/10 2:37am
Msg #350333

Re: Joan, if there are approx 45 students in your classes then I

Don't forget that the 78% that remain (based on post that there are 22% fewer) all have to take a class when their commission is up if they want to renew, regardless of whether they do loan docs or repetitively notarize one type of document all the time on-the-job.

Reply by James Dawson on 8/25/10 9:30am
Msg #350353

Now hold on a minute...Joan has the opportunity to field...

...some pretty smart notaries. She can explain Msg 33325 in detail so the newbies won't post here say, "....I'm a newbie, how to I get to do a notary?".....or "Where can I get business?" Go Joan!

Reply by 101livescan on 8/25/10 9:56am
Msg #350361

I'm over the top, busier than I was before the mortgage bubble burst! I hear all the time that great loan signing agents are rare to find!

Reply by Joan Bergstrom on 8/25/10 11:30pm
Msg #350486

Notary classes in CA

In 2004-2007 approx 20+ vendors gave class instruction, now there are 4-5 who give classroom instruction. Everyone else does homestudy or orline.

During those years 2004-07 we would teach 40+ students at 3 or 4 sites on a Saturday. Now we teach 45 students once or twice a week and I am for the most part the only teacher who has taught for the last 3 years.

The school, I teach for, has added one more teacher on some dates and we might need another teacher in the future and that teacher is Janet.

I spent 2007-2009 teaching to 12-14 students and no one wanted to become a loan signer and really no one seems very interested in becoming a loan signer today.

The majority of my students are in class because his/her boss paid for the notary class and don't seem interested in becoming loan signers.

I had 3 calls for loan signings today (I was teaching in San Diego) and the last call happened about 30 minutes who wanted me to do a loan modification tomorrow.

This call was interesting because it was EDT and she said she had 1500 modifications she needed to assign in the next month.

I am teaching tomorro in San Bernardino and couldn't do the modification

I am teaching tomorrow

Reply by CopperheadVA on 8/25/10 6:24am
Msg #350338

For me it's Wed 6-8 PM! Had at least 5 calls for that time! n/m