The Shape of the Notary Business
- 04
- March
- 2017
- By Danny
- Uncategorized
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I read an interesting post on Facebook and I wanted to share and get some feedback.
Ralph Wedertz
· January 25, 2017
The “shape” of the entire (what’s left of it) profession has changed. It used to be a group of seasoned notaries performing loan closings. A lot of notaries were hired directly by title companies. Signing companies came along, making a niche,and this was the first significant change. Some notaries started thumping their tubs and advertising they would “teach” notaries how to be Signing Agents. Even NNA would advertise “make easy money” become a notary and a signing agent today! The SigningCompanies went on a binge to find notaries to sign their loans, so they signed up anything with a pulse. This was a defining moment. Some of these notaries never took any training, using the rationale of “how hard could this be?”
A flood of untrained notaries fanned out and destroyed loans left and right. Resigns were the order of the day. Sheet after sheet of “instructions” were then placed in each loan package, making those of us professionals wonder what the heck was going on. Then, some of the Signing Companies were operated by thieves, who would not pay the notaries they hired. This really roiled the waters. Notary Rotary came up with a great lookup system, however, when some uneducated and inexperienced notary felt slighted, they would enter inane and useless comments, skewing the validity of a particular listing.
The next turning point was marketing by signing companies which offered their services to title companies now, at bargain rates to get business, and thusly, offering notaries pathetic rates to sign loans. These actions were followed closely by the introduction of Snap Docs, who merely automated what had been done manually – offering notaries garbage rates for signings. Now, the signing companies and SnapDocs were feeding at thesigning trough, leaving precious little for the notary.
In sum, I see fewer loans, higher interest rates, electronic automation, and experienced notaries pulling out of this business. Title companies want to save money, and some signing companies continue to spew out SnapDocs offers for $50 signings. Newbie notaries are slowly coming to the realization that they’re merely pawns, making money for someone other than themselves. It doesn’t take a prescient being to see that this profession is going the way of the Dodo Bird.
