If You Accept $50 Signings

From another forum, I thought this info clarifies what you’re REALLY making as a business owner when you accept lowball signing fees.

“If you’re a newbie and take $50.00 signings, as I did, PLEASE read further.

I log ALL costs related to my notary business and after 3 years I figured it was time to find out where I was at financially. I also include all auto expenses (mileage) in the cost.

I took all income and all costs and found that 2/3 of my income was expenses. That means that for a $50.00 signing my profit was $16.67. Not good.

Now if you figure the minimum time it takes to do a simple signing, here’s what you get. Pre-sign time: 1/2 hour minimum. Travel to site: 1/2 hour minimum Signing time: 1 hour minimum Travel home: 1/2 hour minimum Invoice/ship: 1/2 hour minimum Minimum Total: 3 hours

You’re making less than $6.00 per hour.

Go to McDonald’s, they pay more and there’s less stress.”

Thank you for the breakdown. I have accepted $50 a few times, but stopped when one day they couldn’t find someone to do the closing and called me back and offered more, so I said if it was that easy…why didn’t they offer more than $50 in the beginning. What companies do you work for?

I understand where you’re coming from, however, if the signing is overnight docs and the job is within a mile or two from me, I will likely accept the signing and I’m confident that I’m making more than $6 per hour. My signings almost never take more than 35-40 mins tops and to me, $50 for the day is better than $zero for the day. Ofcourse, we all have our own business model and mine has changed a lot over the past year. My area is very small and I’m very choosy as to who I work for. Do I get more for jobs near by? Sure! But not always and if the company is a solid payer and like I said, if the job is practically in my own back yard, I won’t snub my nose at the work. I have never, ever accepted less than $50 for a signing, ever.

I agree with Kelly, there are times a $50 signing is better than no signing at all and there are times I’ve made as much by doing a $50 signing as I have by doing a $125 when you figure in travel time and a hot-tempered borrower who is upset with the LO.

I disagree with both you and Kelly for this reason to paraphrase what someone else on another board wrote: When signing agents take $50 assigments, this increases the expectation of agencies that we should ALL take them for $50 and it devalues the work we all do.

It doesn’t matter that the docs were overnighted to the borrower who lives next door….it still devalues/cheapens the profession. I don’t believe a signing agent should accept less than $100 for O/N docs under any circumstances – and with gas at nearing $5 per gallon, that fee could be raised to $125, but they have a right to run their business at a loss if they so choose…...JMHO

I totally agree with you lkthornton! If we all stuck together and expected what we are WORTH, we would not have someone trying to pay us $50 for a signing!

I just had the unfortunate experience of turning down a job last night. Signing Service wanted me to do a job for $100. It was for E-docs and it was a rush job. I told them that unfortunately, I couldn’t accept anything under $125. I have done business with this company before for $100 but with the way gas is now a days, I just CAN’T do it!

I understand both sides of this discussion. I don’t personally accept $50 signings, however, if a notary needs to take a $50 signing, because they need the money or for other reasons, that’s their business. I definitely value my work. I am an experienced notary closing agent, paralegal and abstractor and I quote my fees accordingly. I firmly believe, in a majority of situations, you get what you pay for. I try to make it real easy for my clients. I quote my fee and tell them when they try to get me to lower my price, I understand, if you feel you can’t meet my fee, “it’s business”, however, I tell them ” it’s business for me also.” It’s really quite simple, either they pay me or they pay someone else. The decision is always theirs.

With companies popping up and NOT paying the notaries for their work, the price of gas, and the professionalism we need to portray to the public, I personally will not accept less than $100 for any signing. When asked, I tell the signing company my fee is $125 and if they have a problem with that, I reiterate the business expenses of a professional notary to them. In most cases, they will accept paying me $125 anyway because they’ve spent most of their day looking for a notary anyway. All the newbies out there: Don’t be afraid to ask for more, just because you’re new at this! If you trained correctly and have all your ducks in order, you will do a professional, efficient job which demands a higher pay for you. And that in turn, will help to keep our profession able to command higher fees.