You have probably seen many advertisements urging one to become a notary public or loan signing agent. These ads proclaim that the field is lucrative, work when you want, choose your job, have time for the children, etc. While this may initially sound appealing, there are currently many considerations one should consider before taking the plunge.
While at one time, being a mobile notary signing agent was a great idea, times have changed dramatically. This is primarily due to our failing real estate market and economy. The housing industry is in serious trouble. Many of the companies that build, sell, service and offer mortgages for the housing industry are facing closure. If you know of any mortgage brokers, just think for a moment: “Are they working and doing well?” “Have they moved on to another profession?” If you know any of those people, you’ll probably answer “Yes.” What does that indicate?
Well, the same problems that these people face are also faced by mobile notary signing agents. With the housing market drying up, few people are buying properties and almost no one is refinancing. As a result, mobile notary agents are suffering because there are no loans to sign. Existing mobile notaries are lowering their fees to encourage business at a time when gas prices are at an all-time high. Spend more to earn less.
Loan firms have become quite rare. The payout for available transfers is quite low, many offering $50 per transfer. When you consider the time it takes to download and print the documents, two copies of the loan package, make the appointment, sign the documents with the borrower, prepare and send the documents to a courier service, invoice the escrow company, and then wait for the payment, which usually takes a month, for many, it is no longer worth the effort.
Another consideration for becoming a notary is the annual cost. If you decide to promote your own website, consider the domain charge, the annual hosting fee (about $100), cell phone usage, annual errors and omissions insurance ($150 or more), and then there’s advertising that needs to be ongoing. Because business is slow for most, many notaries fall victim to the “notary directory” company. These companies promise more exposure and therefore more business for notaries public when they register with their directory. Costs associated with listing in a directory can be anywhere from $19.95 per year to $100 per month. And it doesn’t stop there, as listing in a directory never seems to be enough. There is a public notary near us that is listed in almost every Internet directory. This author is amazed at how much money this girl has to spend each month! Probably at a minimum of $300. This author used advertising on a prominent notary directory site for a year as an experiment. The cost of advertising in that directory in the first position was $600. They promised a lot more business calls. It never happened and the $600 was spent. Yes, there are many companies that will accept your money in exchange for the promise of more business.
One particularly irritating directory site has the customer posting there offering the price for a specific notary job. That creates a general email for all the notaries in the area so they can bid on the job. What this requires is you to be at your computer and waiting, and then use your cell phone to call the prospect only to hear that your price didn’t beat the previous notary’s price. How irritating for the client, not to mention the loss of time and money for the failed notary. There is another site where the client can press a button that will automatically call up their listing on that notary directory site. If you don’t answer the phone right away, you may actually be with a paying customer, that potential customer is still on the site, and you can go through the list to the next notary to find someone who will answer right away. Oh! What nervousness for the notary and the client.
Another false assumption associated with the notary public job is that you can choose your hours or jobs. Well… that’s not exactly true. If you want to work as a mobile notary public, you have to make the assignments when the client needs it. This means 9:00 am, when the kids are at school OR 9:00 pm at night, when you normally put the kids to bed. If there’s a time when you’re not available for that client and you have to call someone else, guess who you’ll call the next time you need a mobile notary? Your right….the notary public you can count on to be there when you need them.
Now this author doesn’t want to be totally negative about the mobile notary public firm business, it’s just sad to see people so excited about the prospect of entering a new career with high hopes only to be sorely disappointed by the realities that the vast companies promoting the promise of lucrative notary work don’t tell you.
If this is your heart’s desire and what you aspire to be, then do your legwork and determine the costs, amount of time, and what other notaries have to do about business in your area. Be realistic. If you don’t intend to spend an hour a day on your notary’s website, or don’t know how to design and optimize a website for search engines, don’t expect a website to bring you business. If you expect notary directories to only bring you business, then you are in for a huge disappointment. The only people making money in this industry these days may be the people who run notary directories.
In general, notaries who do not work their websites and marketing daily, and do not answer any calls that come regardless of the time or day, are not working these days. If this remains your heart’s desire, proceed with caution, eyes wide open, and the best of luck to you.