Posted by Scriba/NM on 7/19/13 12:42am
Msg #477394
NNA Magazine - You are CRUCIAL to the loan signing process
I nearly barfed when I read this article. For better or worse, here's my response:
Dear Editor -
I read with great interest your article entitled "You are Crucial to the Loan Signing Process." I could not agree more. We are crucial. Unfortunately, no one else seems to really believe that. It's one thing to go to a convention and hear these speeches, but in reality they are simply a bunch of words, in my opinion.
The people who are making these speeches are the same people who are NOT paying notaries what they are worth when the notary accurately performs the services they were engaged for. Additionally, notaries are put through numerous hoops due to all of the new regulations caused by the "financial crisis," as they like to call it. This crisis was created by lenders in great part, and some of the same people who also conveniently own title companies and the subsidiary "signing services" they have created.
The company-owned signing service is merely a stricture in the pipeline to make additional income from the loan process by taking a share of the funds that should go to the notary, the same person that is supposedly so "crucial" to the loan process.
Independent signing services were created for title companies who did not wish to bother obtaining notaries to perform signings. These companies, many of whom, are never, ever vetted by the people hiring them, are often run by people who have no idea of how to run a business. As a result notaries are paid slowly, or not at all. They take a share of the money that should go to a notary, and at times keep it all. Often they go out of business as fast as they appeared, the owners then re-opening other companies with other names and the cycle continues. When non-payment occurs, the notary calls the title company and the complaint falls on deaf ears. Title will continue to use the same signing company.
Notaries have had to take protective action by joining websites such as this site, (the numbers site) and Notary Beware, to list their pay (or no-pay) experiences, both good and bad, for other notaries to view in hopes they will keep them from becoming victims of these criminal enterprises.
The notary is crucial, as he or she makes appointment calls, prints 2 sets of documents (often 300 pages at a time due to increasingly bloated loan packages) drives to the signing (gas, tires and general maintenance on the vehicle), spends their time with the borrower, reviews the documents, takes them to FedEx or UPS, drives back to the office and maintains records of every transaction, including collection of unpaid fees by signing companies, including fixing errors made by these companies in fee calculations. Yet, for all of this "crucial" work, they only wish to pay a notary $100 for the entire signing including e-docs. Some companies are currently offering notaries $45 to $75 for a signing, including e-docs, which is borderline absurd. This is not proper pay for a "crucial" part of the loan signing process.
If we are to believe everything that these panel officials state, including your keynote speaker, then it becomes obvious that the notary is not getting paid what he or she should be, while these very companies they represent, bring in millions in profits. If these people believe that a "recognition" speech regarding the notary's role in the loan process is going to inspire all of us to proudly march onward into the future brave new world, they are wrong. The notary needs to be paid for his or her work, but only if it is exactly what they were hired to do. Notary errors need to be dealt with harshly.
All companies have to immediately stop hiring unqualified "notaries" who do not know what they are doing. In short, these companies hiring notaries have to get it together themselves first, and a lot of the problems they experience will diminish. The very companies represented at the conference are the same ones that need to be part of the cure.
Many times assignments are made by people who speak English as a second language and are often unintelligible over the phone - primarily because they work cheaply and often are not even in the United States. This has to stop as well. These companies constantly try to escape properly compensating people involved in the final loan signing process.
Simply stated, what notaries want to hear is what is going to be done in the face of all of these new regulations, and how (and when) is the notary going to be properly compensated? I am talking about the notaries who are out there, that are supposedly so "crucial" to the loan signing process.
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Reply by 101livescan on 7/19/13 4:45pm
Msg #477466
A great many new notaries signed up to get commissioned, then take the loan signing class on the hope and prayer they would soon be making six digits in no time and be able to recover say $1000 in upfront $$ to achieve these professional designations. However, unfortunately the huge door has slammed in their faces due to market slow down and the time it takes to develop marketing strategies and get connected with hiring parties. So yes, those of us who are so crucial to the entire process, we're still duking it out for a fair fee for scope of work. If we're so danged crucial, pay us what we're worth, getting the paperwork properly, accurately and timely signed and returned to escrow for closing, tying up all the lose ends.
What a bunch of crap! Good on you for writing the letter, but of course it will not be published and likely round canned before the staff can lay eyes on it.
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