Oh, such drama — lies, deceit, treachery, and more. Yikes! Here are some things that Notaries BS about. See if you see your own behavior anywhere here and then fix it!

1. Experience
When I ask Notaries how many loans they have signed, the answer normally comes in years. That is a bait and switch. I ask one question I get an answer that is completely unrelated to the question. 16 years of notary experience doing one signing per year is not much which is why I want number of loans. But, when I ask a Notary on Monday how much experience they have and then again three months later, often the number goes down, not up. Doesn’t # of loans signed mathematically have to go up with experience? It is kind of like age, most people I know don’t get younger.

2. Familiarity with the docs
If you are so familiar, then why can’t you pass our certification test? You say that you are a Realtor and therefore you are familiar with loan documents, yet you can’t explain more than 20% of them. This is a snow job once again.

3. Bragging
If I ask a question, most Notaries have to answer the question and then insert a lot of unasked for additional information which just sounds cheap and cheesy. If you are from Wisconsin, I can understand cheesy, if you are French, then perhaps a Brie, and if you are from Nebraska I can understand corny. But, the rest of you have no excuse. Just answer questions as they were asked.

4. Saying you dropped the package.
Some Notaries claim to have dropped the package at one time when they really did not. Hmm.

5. Drama
Sometimes a borrower will be rude to the Notary and then the Notary will be rude back. When the complaint comes in, sometimes the Notary will discuss mainly all of the terrible things that the borrower did and not be honest about what they themselves did.

6. Certifications
Many Notaries who are not or who are no longer 123notary certified will say that they are in their profiles. Hmm. It’s hard to prove your 123notary certification when you don’t have the green icon, isn’t it?

7. Error Rate
Bragging about your 0% error rate is stupid, because anyone can claim it and there is no way to prove it. We all make mistakes. The same people who brag about their perfect performance are the ones who make spelling mistakes in their profile.

8. Vagueness about their Mortgage experience.
It is sometimes a bad thing to be a Mortgage Broker as that can indicate that you are a competitor. So, many just claim to have been in the Mortgage Industry for ten or twenty years. This is really beating around the bush. It is better to state what position you had or leave it out.

Summary
Notaries are notorious for snow jobs, smoke screens and all out blatant dishonesty. In a profession that is based on integrity this is really outlandish, but reality. Trying to pass yourself off as an expert when you know very little or hiding information about yourself is just not honest or straightforward. Very few Notaries can just stick to the facts, but those are the ones that buyers like. So, try to think of how they feel on the other side of the table.

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Coffee places are a nice place to meet for a variety of reasons. You can meet friends, have a first date, a last date, or just hang out by yourself and browse your iPad while drinking frappachinos. Here are some reasons why coffee places are nice:

1. They are easy to find compared to finding the address of a residence in the dark.
2. They have easy parking normally
3. It is a comfortable atmosphere to talk to people or even sign papers.
4. They have really good espresso although I have mixed opinions about the biscottis.

Coffee places also offer neutrality. No, not gender neutrality (I think I’ve beaten that horse to death.) But, you can feel safe there as opposed to going to someone’s house at night. After all, what if they are in a bad neighborhood, or what if you are some paranoid woman who is afraid to go to someone’s house?

Also, if you have to wait for the other person to show up, a coffee house is a nice place to wait around. After all, you can have a latte while you waitte. I think I spelled wait wrong — but… what.. ever…. In theory, you could arrange appointments all day long and just hang out at that spot. It might get boring, but you would be on a first name basis with the various barristas.

So, go meet a Notary at a coffee spot and have a caffeinated notarization. Your signature might be a bit jittery, but that adds character to the signing.

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Have you ever been tempted not to go into a borrower’s house?
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Many Notaries get strung along and not paid simply because they offer loans (in the form of accepting delayed payment) to lots and lots of signing companies.

My question is, how much credit should you offer? If they have a good payment record, perhaps $300 of credit, if they are new to you, perhaps $200, or bad reputation perhaps one job at best?

The bigger issue is that Notaries really need to spend more time thinking about this issue. Because, the #1 issue affecting Notaries at least in the past is not getting paid. If you stop lending lots of money to people, getting paid back will become a much smaller issue.

If you got paid up from Paypal style from half your jobs, that would cut your billing issue in half. As I discussed in another article, the labor of billing and the risk of not getting paid justifies a 10% or more discount if someone pays up front with Paypal. Do the math.

The real problem is when Notaries who are desperate to work rack up a $3000 bill with a particular company and then the company goes out of business or runs into financial issues. You really need to decide where to draw your line and then stick to it. Non-paying companies are only half the problem, the other half is non-line-drawing Notaries. You can only get ripped off if you let people rip you off.

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Most of the more experienced Notaries out there have done clean up signings. It is amazing to see what types of errors the initial Notaries made. Forgetting to have borrowers sign, forgetting to have acknowledgment wording, or forgetting to cross out the pronouns. Sometimes it is missing initials, or missing pages. Many Notaries do not know how to date a Right to Rescind, and I find this out when I test them.

No wonder so many companies want you to fax every page to them. There are so many careless and sloppy Notaries out there. Notaries used to do better on my testing 15 years ago. Things have gone downhill and so have fees. This gives more work for people I call, “The cleaners” — sounds mafia.

What are the sloppiest errors you have seen while doing a clean up job?

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