I, for one, am always ready to learn. Your comments have been well-noted by me. This is the kind of thing I think we can all benefit from.
Perhaps we can start a thread of providing excellent references, our own personal experience to doing well in this business, in other words-- a thread devoted to new signing agents' needs for education in the spirit of helpfulness.
Also, perhaps so that the thread is one in understanding of the budget some of us may be forced to be bound to. Fortunately, I had the ability to use some funds to advertise and to buy information to read. I think Victoria's is the most sensible.
For new signing agents who have more to spend on education, there are some very detailed books they can buy online. But from all my reading online, big budgets do not seem to be the common theme in new signing agents. This is how I came to refer Victoria.
For what it is worth--from only my humbly and short-time accrued experience: My best advice is to someone with little or no experience is take the loan document package, read the instructions provided in the package, read your contract you have signed, and read info by the signing agency you are working for (on their site)--then, re-read it all. You will be more prepared that way. At the signing, advance carefully and attentively one document at a time beginning with the document you have been told by your hiring entity to start with (which may be stated in one of the documents I have mentioned above, and you will not know it if you do not read all of these first).
It is a very big responsiblity to be a signing agent, I agree. However, it is not neurosurgery. Our responsiblity is not to be title companies, loan officers or title company closing agents without additional authority given--some of us are given additional authority, but not usually. The responsibility I speak of is responsibility is within the realm of signing agents. This means we are loan document familiar and a bit more educated notaries who must concentrate in that case on
(1) being on time, courteous, professionally dressed, prompt and dependable
(2) correctly adhering to notary rules commissioned by our state
(3) being willing to do what we are hired to do; that is, as the hiring entities' (lenders, title companies, or signing agencies) rules dictate as long as it does not conflict with our notary commission rules
(4) learning and understanding the language of the documents so we can read through confusing parts for the borrowers with them
(5) keeping our opinions to ourselves about the loan documents
(6) remaining professional and objective
(7) refer to our notice of right to cancel included in the package to assure the borrowers and that they can cancel if they sign at your appointment and decide they have an issue with the documents or call the signing agent, title company or lender we are working for, then,
(8) returning documents as we have agreed to under our contracts with the hiring entity .
My statements on this will catch a lot of flack, I am sure, but professional common sense is a big part of what we do, and if we do not have that no amount of reading or courses or certification will ever compensate for it.
I am new by most of the notaries posting here, so perhaps I have some difficult lessons to learn, but if I find issues that go outside of what I have stated herein, I will not continue this profession for the longhaul. That would be my only choice.
I have completed 19 assignments in six weeks without a hitch since being a new notary signing agent. I still cannot see that there are so many problems to overcome if you pay attention to what you do and take your time to review the instructions and the work after it is finished before you return it.
Anyone who reads anything written by Victoria or any other author of publications on the subject will surely need to use common sense to lead them through the process of this business.
I write this for people like KLB who have gone through the process of trying to get hard facts on how to do this like I have, and who like myself, want to learn to do this as best that I can. I am enjoying this job and hope for others to benefit from anything I can share with them. I invite more experienced SA's to correct my inexperienced comments they find so that we can all benefit as we learn this business.
Brenda |
