Good luck with your purging! I keep threatening to do that, but haven't made much progress.  [I'm not planning to sell any time soon, though, but the thought is mighty tempting...]
As for loan apps increasing, we're entering the summer season when activity normally ticks up, but I'm not holding my breath that it'll be a long term trend. I agree that "this slowdown may last a good while". In fact, some might want to think beyond notary related work, when it comes to exploring other income streams.
I've been warning for probably a couple of years now about this slowdown coming eventually and I'm gratified that some of the efforts I've been taking seem to be paying off. Lately, I'm getting a fair amount of GNW (and some other) referrals, including from people I've never met. It's the result of lots and lots of small steps taken over a very long period of time. But if you haven't done that in the past, there's no time like the present to start!
Also, Yoli has been constantly reminding readers here to market, market, market for as long as I can remember. The survivors of the coming slowdown will be those who've taken that advice to heart, have made the connections, and/or diversified enough to keep the pipeline flowing. To those of you who haven't done that in the past, I highly recommend doubling down on your efforts - or consider a full time job with benefits. There seems to be a ton of them out there...
Lots of us remember how difficult it was for so many of our peers in the last downturn some 15 years ago. A good number left the field back then and it seems like very few made their way back. The difference now is that there are so many more choices available to those whose notary businesses no longer keep paying the bills. Unfortunately, I also expect to see another resurgence of people formerly employed in various other real estate-related fields try to jump into the notary field. It's going to be an interesting ride one way or another!
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