Posted by 101livescan on 6/24/13 8:15am
Msg #474483

New Signing Companies' low fees and no pay policies

It dawned on me this weekend that the reason there are so many signing companies emerging on the horizon and other's who have been lowering the bar on fees who've operated for last several years, they have high overhead because this is a service business requiring lots of working hands, people to answer phones and coordinate scheduling, rescheduling, etc. The software required to monitor this "volume" is expensive and they've had to compete with so many other new signing services, their "volume" pricing has made it difficult to be competitive. I wonder if this is why notaries are offered extremely low signing fees, and then have difficulty getting paid for those. Then, they calculate how much they can skim off the top for "failure to check in, failure to confirm receipt of the docs, failure to report closing took place, etc." This is a new business model that is causing a lot of stir among notaries who accepted $75, but then are dinged for $5 to $35 for each signing! This would be dismally disappointing for me as a new notary signing agent. This business is simply just not what it once was. There are so many new guppies in the water, SSs have their pick of notaries to take huge advantage of.

I did do a signing last week for $125, the SS's invoice was $250 and stated on the HUD. Not all SSs are getting that big fee.

Hence, notaries are having difficulty getting paid even after climbing all over it with the SS because the fees they do garner are going to pay for office space and other overhead line items, making it impossible to pay their notaries on time, if at all. This makes a strong case for not working for some services who are new on the horizon and they themselves are working for cheap, thinking we should too.

Happy Monday, EOM last day to sign. Holding on...knees hugging this bronco today. Promises to be another wild one.

Reply by ToniK on 6/24/13 9:57am
Msg #474494

I just did a signing on Friday for $125 and I get an email completion status update with the guidelines that if you dont update the status by a certain time EST they dock $10 per day you don't update them. Then it also says you forego your whole signing fee if they send out 2 reminder emails. Really?

Reply by 101livescan on 6/24/13 10:00am
Msg #474496

They'll use any ole excuse to keep more of the fee they agree to pay in the first place.

I went in to the PD to pay for a parking ticket. Didn't have the paper ticket with me, they wanted a dollar to print out hard copy. I said I'd be back once I located it at my home office.

Just because their parking enforcement department manager embezzled $609K a couple of years ago, they want to make it back like this? Irking.

Reply by Yoli/CA on 6/24/13 10:18am
Msg #474498

After the fact notification? Don't think that's enforceable.

Reply by JanetK_CA on 6/24/13 2:36pm
Msg #474533

I think you nailed it.

Either they're not doing a business plan at all or their projections are unrealistic. And as business slows, they're trying to keep their clients by getting into bidding wars with other signing services (and the same applies to title co's with their lender clients). They figure it'll be worth it to them to get the "volume", and that's an easier decision to make than reducing their overhead (e.g. letting someone go) or doing some serious marketing. Then they try to use that same reasoning to get us notaries to work for less, but that doesn't apply to us in the same way because we can only do one signing at a time.

Some of them are going to go out of business and we all influence who will survive by who we decide to accept work from. Every time someone accepts a lower fee from one of the less than satisfactory companies (or get them to pay you in advance...), they help them stay in business a little bit longer. And that is at the expense of the better companies who are trying to hold a line on fees with their clients so they can continue to pay US more reasonable fees.

We need to think about that whenever we get a call from one of those border line companies... Personally, I'd like to see the good guys be the ones who make it, while the low-balling scumbags go out of business because they can't get anyone to accept their assignments.

I know, I'm dreaming but why not?! We're either part of the solution or part of the problem!

Reply by 101livescan on 6/24/13 3:58pm
Msg #474545

I hope everyone digs their heels in and sticks to their guns when it comes to fair, appropriate fee negotiation. Let the low fee paying companies go by the wayside, especially those who take 60 days to pay, then ding the notary fee originally agreed upon.