Posted by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 1:43am
Msg #439453

Back in the Saddle Again

Hello everyone. I've been a signing agent since 1995, but have spent the last few years since the mortgage meltdown working bpos and REOs as a Realtor instead. Things have slowed down for me thanks to low inventory so I've been getting back in the swing of things as a Notary Signing Agent.

My question pertains to the signing companies list on here on Notary Rotary. Do the companies that have gone out of business been deleted from the list periodically? I've been in contact with several I used to work for before, but trying to take some time to get added to the databases of some new companies. I'm searching forum posts but its slow going.

Catherine Beers
Apple Valley, CA

Reply by Clem/CA on 10/21/12 2:11am
Msg #439456

Do the turtle thing, slow and easy. Otherwise do the "CHICKEN SUIT AND CARDBOARD SIGN" thing.... Just ain't gonna happen fast!!!!

Reply by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 11:23am
Msg #439500

I hear that Clem!

Reply by JanetK_CA on 10/21/12 2:39am
Msg #439459

I think I read that it's under consideration, but there are probably lots of Out of Business companies still on the list. BTW, keep in mind that low inventory has an impact on our end of the business, too...

Good luck!

Reply by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 11:24am
Msg #439502

Thank you Janet!

Reply by 101livescan on 10/21/12 9:44am
Msg #439478

Lots of luck, Catherine. Our inventory on the Central Coast is dwindling. fewer foreclosures. Your population is not as dense as ours. I'm finding fewer and fewer REOs on the market, is that just because the lenders are selling them off to private investor groups to hold until the market "improves"? There is this shadow inventory of foreclosures...

What's happening in Apple Valley? Is the economy recovering, new jobs coming available?

Honestly I hear that the housing market is improving and unemployment will sink to 7% in Santa Barbara next year, but today I do not see evidence this is true, so I think it is election hype, both locally and on the national levels.

Reply by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 11:22am
Msg #439499

If your market is anything like mine, its a mixture of standard sales, REOs and Short sales. We've been waiting for the "shadow inventory" to pop for the last couple of years. I've been reading that it has been in decline as a lot of what was in the shadow inventory has been handled as a short sale.

Apple Valley, its going to be a while before we see anything positive. Seems like folks are leaving the high desert left and right. While we are a collection of bedroom communities and have some of the most affordable housing, the price of gas is enough to make one want to live closer to where they live in the IE or LA areas. We have a lot commercial property for lease.

A lot of us Realtors here are getting their broker licenses and then working from home so that we can make a living. Then too, some are hanging their RE license with companies down the hill where the price points are higher. I just obtained my broker license, but it will be a bit before I go out on my own. In the HD, I will be working from home, and I also plan on having a branch office down in Riverside. I have my name on a waiting list for a small office space that goes from month to month down there.

I don't see any new jobs up here and unemployment here has been in the high to mid-teens. I personally won't believe that we are recovering until we start building new houses, most of available commercial space is leased. It is an election year and I think everyone in the industry is on the sidelines until that's over.

I have been seeing some HARP refis, so that's a good thing!

Reply by Marian_in_CA on 10/21/12 12:14pm
Msg #439512

I've completed all of my courses to get my salesperson license, but I haven't bothered to take the test yet, only because I don't know what I really want to do with it yet and what (if any) broker I'd want to sign up with. I know too many that I *don't* want to be associated with and that makes it difficult.

I've had 5 different brokers who handle REO properties in my area (from down below) tell me that they'd have plenty of work for me if did it. Sadly, all 5 of them are on my list entitled "Not even on a deserted island..." They were all creepy slimeballs. I know not all REO Brokers are slimeballs... but I've met my fair share.

It's true, though, the housing out here in the high desert is very affordable, but then... you have to want to be out here.

Reply by ananotary on 10/21/12 4:30pm
Msg #439562

have n/m

Reply by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 5:46pm
Msg #439573

True that!

Reply by dgd/CA on 10/21/12 1:11pm
Msg #439520

I wish you every success.

Reply by 101livescan on 10/21/12 1:38pm
Msg #439528

You're right...in the middle of a town bordering on closing its doors...sad, it's happening everywhere. I drove through the Central California Valley last weekend on the way to Sacramento, up and back, vast empty subdivisions, infrastructures abandoned. Amazing...until we realize more jobs, lower gas prices, infusion of rebuilding communities, we will not see a measurable housing uptick. The reality is lots of people starving out there, no jobs, no hope of jobs, people living in RVs in their relatives' back yards. Scary. Can't wait for CA to have the same recovery that AZ is experiencing right now.

Go for those HARPs...we have lots of them here too.

Reply by dgd/CA on 10/21/12 11:45am
Msg #439511

Apple Valley... I have a number of much beloved relatives there (as well as Victorville and Hesperia). The area is still depressed, but all the same, opportunity is there for success, and I wish you every good fortune.

One of my nieces, and a nephew, just refinanced under the HARP2 program. Both escrows were through FNT, and signed in their homes (actually, with the distance that one has to travel there, this seems to be the normal practice). Perhaps you're all ready approved by them, if not, while you need a referral from an escrow officer to get on their list of approved NSAs, I'm sure (given your background) you must know at least one of them, and should be able to get the process started fairly easily (FNT approval accommodates the Fidelity Family of TCs).

Of course, there is an absolute "wealth" of GNW to be had on the upper desert.

Reply by Catherine/CA on 10/21/12 5:50pm
Msg #439574

GNW?

I should chat with the Fidelity Sales rep! I may have been approved at one time, don't remember how to check.

Thanks DGD!

Reply by dgd/CA on 10/21/12 7:43pm
Msg #439587

General Notary Work.

The sales rep will be able to access the database. Hope you were... if not, so hope you will be able to. Again, best of good fortune, you're most certainly doing everything you can to succeed.