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Posted by Donald Brett Bryson, LPA, LLC - Brett on 1/13/18 9:57am
I'm a licensed attorney as of September 2017. I did my first signing services as a "mobile closer" for a local title agency in 1996. I worked for 6 years in title and escrow and 7 years in residential and commercial loan document preparation and loan funding for a community bank. I've done many loan signings throughout my career-- more than I can count, certainly more than 100.
I still do signing services to keep some income coming in as I try to get more legal work. My understanding is that when I do signing services nowadays I get less money and I wait longer for it. It's just the way the blind market here works. So I know sometimes I'm going to wait 60 days for a check that's a little smaller than I would like to get and smaller than a check I might get from a local title agency I work for directly. In this particular envelope I am the tail not the dog. My options are do this work and take my chances or don't do this work and do something else.
My options DO NOT include contacting title agencies or lenders diectly for payment for services, generally. The vendor agreements I have signed, at least the ones I've read, foreclosed that right for me. That's just how it is. I don't like it. When I get more legal work I'll phase out the signings more and maybe just do the ones that are very close to me and pay the most.
I was paid late a couple times by NAT USA. The payments went to my home address instead of my business address and the post office returned them to NAT USA. Eventually I got my money, along with a fancy pen with a stylus and glowing logo that you can turn on and off. One of my 7 kids is just enthralled by this pen. Perhaps small consolation for having to wait for my money.
I can say this about NAT USA. When I was signing up with additional services and needed a reference, NAT USA was quick to contact me personally and assist. I really appreciate that.
Maybe they are deadbeats. I have no idea. They could just be a small business struggling with challenges that I can understand or with challenges I have no way of understanding because I don't have the facts. There could be health problems. There could be a very severe case of ADD. A horrible divorce. Or they are the root of all evil and the ground should open up and swallow them. I just don't know.
I do my signings through snapdocs and I work for so many different scheduling sources that pay different rates and make me wait different periods. Some pay as quickly as a couple weeks; some pay in 60 days. Waiting to get paid is a bummer, but it happens.
Doing this for a living has become less and less tenable as the technology has changed and as the guidance to signing agents through the NNA suggests I should not rely on my copious knowledge and experience very much and should instead follow instructions very narrowly--including giving a very very narrow limited explanation of the documents and the process to signers.
I sometimes joke to my friends that this is monkey work I do for a little extra cash. It's not that I don't think I'm worth more even at this job. It's just that I have to face facts that this is what the job has become. This job is no longer a "big deal". Based on changes in the federal regulations borrowers show up to signing appointments more prepared and more aware of what's going on. I don't have to be such a fabulous Problem Solver and no one expects me to be a Salesman. Without much industry experience I could rely on training materials and do this job sufficiently to meet the certified signing agent standards.
If I'm not satisfied with NAT USA or with some other company that hires me I have options. I can stop taking their jobs. I can violate the terms of my agreement and go directly to NAT USA's client companies. I can bad mouth them in forums. It's a better fit with my personality and values to just choose to use them or not use them and spend as little time and energy as possible on that. Others go a different route. |
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