That's a really tough part of our business, which is very cyclical and depends a lot on what is happening with the economy. Learning as much as possible about the real estate market can help. Other notaries often post interesting links here on this forum, which can be very helpful. Reading here every day is also important. You never know when you might pick up a little tidbit. You may also want to see if you can find a mentor (e.g. someone from SCORE) who could help you with that question. (Don't ask another notary - especially in your area - to mentor you. If they know enough to train someone, they're too busy, and they don't have any incentive to train their competition.)
Lots of what has been keeping notaries very busy in the past year or so is the low interest rates. It's made it very favorable for people to refinance their homes to lower interest rates. But most of the people who wanted to and could, have already done so. I've been warning here for a very long time that when interest rates start going back up (which is already happening to some extent) that business could slow down for us. Frankly, I believe this is a very tough time to break into this field and it could take a very long time to get established enough to make a profit.
One thing that could be an asset for you is speaking Mandarin, depending on where you live. I can recall more than one situation where I had to leave an appointment because one of the signers didn't speak enough English, so we needed to find a Mandarin-speaking Notary. I didn't know anyone to refer them to, so I just referred them to Notary Rotary. (BTW, checking the Find a Notary tab above is one way to get an idea about your competition - but they only list the first 25 in each category, i.e. Premier members and free memberships.)
Be sure to create a decent profile for yourself here and wherever else you decide to list yourself - but don't copy anyone else's. (And since English isn't your first language, it may be a good idea to have someone proof-read if for you for grammar, etc., so you can make the best impression.
|