Posted by ikando on 4/27/13 4:56pm
Msg #467462

Something to contemplate

My son owns a spa/salon in the up-and-coming part of town. One of the services he offers is massages at the top end hotel down the street. I was getting my hair cut at his place (a perk for being mom), and he received a request for a call-out massage.

I'm telling this story because I do a lot of General Notary Work. The very first question I'm asked 99% of the time is, how much? When he hung up from the conversation for that massage appointment, I commented that I didn't hear him quote a price. He said, "No one ever asks."

His is a massage service among many with a going rate in town that is quite a bit less than what he charges. Yet his clients don't even ask; it's just accepted that they'll pay his fee for the service.

Our services have a going rate, too, yet we are routinely expected to lower our fees to provide that service, rather than our clients expecting to pay whatever we charge. What is the difference? We are professionals. We provide a needed service to our hiring parties who wouldn't be able to complete their document processes without us. Yet many times we are asked to lower our fees. How can we change that dynamic?

Reply by CJ on 4/27/13 7:54pm
Msg #467473

When I started 12 years ago, loan packages were 50 pages, and usually overnighted. Now they are 100-150 pages at least, and usually it's OUR ink, OUR paper, and OUR wear and tear on the equipment. They do reimburse for email docs, but they used to print and then pay for the fed ex. With double or triple the pages, that is also double or triple the the paper, ink, and the time it takes to sign them. But no one has offered to double or triple, or even 50%-up what they pay me. In fact, I have heard SS or title people say, "Well, we are needing to cut back our overhead, so we are cutting back on what we pay notaries." Hey, notaries have overhead too. I wish I got paid $1.00 per page of the loan package.

Reply by ikando on 4/27/13 10:10pm
Msg #467484

Hey, CJ, I think you're on to something. $1.00/page printed as our fee would sure cover most of the packages that include all the duplication, special instructions and other nonsense added in. At least it might be an incentive to get back to the actual, needed documents to complete the loan process. Of course there would still need to be a minimum for travel and time, but I'd take $300 for those 150 page packages that we have to print a copy for the borrower too.