When I look over notes sections of our higher level members, I like to make suggestions that can help them appear in a more positive light to the users. There are a bunch of common mistakes people make. I want to go over those mistakes.

1. Real Estate Experience
It is common for those with Real Estate experience to claim that they have real estate experience the therefor they understand the documents. In real life, people who I quiz with Real Estate experience do not know their documents that well. If you want to prove knowledge, then please pass our certification test which is really hard. Another mistake people make is to put lots of information about their Real Estate career in the top of their notes section. This is a Notary directory, so please put notary achievements at the top of your listing and mention your Real Estate experience in the middle or bottom of your notes section as an additional point.

2. Mortgage Experience
Many of our members have some type of Mortgage experience. If you are a current Mortgage Broker, you might be seen as competition and people might not want to hire you. However, the mistake many Notaries name is to claim that they have “x” amount of years in the “Mortgage Industry.” They often do not disclose what job titles they had in the industry or what their tasks were. People who use our site reward those who give specifics and give you a clear idea of who you are, what you have done, and what you know how to do. Additionally, using the “x” number of years is a bad idea, because you might have a listing with us for ten or twenty years and you have to keep updating your # of years every year. It is easier to say, “Notary since 1986.” or “Mortgage Appraiser since 2009.” You could say, “I was a Mortgage Broker from 2004 to 2015.” which clears up when you did it, how long, and that you no longer do it which might com as a relief.

3. Business Experience
Many Notaries have run a business before. They put, “Former business owner.” In their notes. This is horrible. It doesn’t say what type of business you ran, what position you had, what your responsibilities were, or what time period you did it. Be specific and understand that the reader doesn’t know if you had a business collecting hub caps or if you ran a fortune 500 company. You need to specify!

4. Types of Loans
It is common for Notaries to say, “I know how to sign every type of loan.” This is bad, because there are so many types of financial packages that few notaries have signed them all. Just make a detailed list of the loans you have signed, i.e.: I have signed purchases, sales, refinances, FHA, VA, conventional, unconventional, conforming, modification, reverse mortgages, and debt consolidations. I suggest having another list of common documents that you have signed. If the user has one of the types of loans on your list, he is more likely to hire you than some other character who makes vague claims or no claims about their loan experience.

5. Number of Loans
Some Notaries who are smart keep their number of loans signed statistics up to date regularly. Others say that they have signed two hundred plus loans. Two hundred plus is not a number by the way. Two hundred is a number. Since the information is not date stamped, (hmm, perhaps I should add that as a feature to my directory) there is no way to know how accurate the information still is. Number of loans signed is a good indication of how much experience you have, and is much more helpful than how many years of experience you have. You might have one month of experience and have signed 200 loans, or you might have twenty years of experience only having signed one loan per year which would be 20 loans. Think about it.

6. Omitting to read through our thorough guides
123notary has published many point by point tutorials on how to write a good notes section, what buzzwords to add, which to omit, what to say and how to say it. By not spending at least two hours reading our comprehensive guides, taking notes, and writing a well organized and thorough notes section – you are losing business. We will even clean up your notes for free upon request, but we get very few requests.

7. Unique catchy phrases
It is hard to teach someone how to write a catchy phrase. I created some articles with the best phrases I could find. It takes time and thought to create a one liner. However, readers are so bored reading through notes sections that if you can write something spicy, they might like it, and they might call you first. So, put some time into thinking up something catchy to say, and see how people react. You might need to modify what you put at a later date.

Some Notaries have mastered the art of writing an amazing notes section while others resort to cheap imitations. Using the wrong buzz words can backfire on you and I have seen this happen many times. A good notes section is about being unique and informative and not about making baseless claims.

Responsible
Don’t be reponsible — whatever you do. Show that you are responsible, but don’t claim it. Make them say how responsible you are in your review page. You will get less clicks to your listing if you claim to be responsible.

Dependable
Claiming to be dependable is as bad as claiming to be responsible. Just don’t!

Error-Free
It sounds too good to be true if you have signed 2000 error-free signings. Even if you claim 99.5% accuracy, nobody will believe it. Save it for the birds. You can’t prove it.

Detail-Oriented
The most sloppy people write that they are detail-oriented in their notes. This claim almost works against you.

Punctual
Prove it to your customers, but don’t claim it in your notes. This word just takes up space.

Professional
It is not bad to claim to be professional, but it doesn’t make it true either. This is more of a neutral non-buzz word. It won’t help you.

Modest
We use the word modest in our tutorial. But, don’t boast of being modest. Just be modest — or don’t just be modes.

Experienced
This is a neutral word, but it takes up space. It is better to say how experienced. Number of years is not as useful as number of loans and what types of loans. Be specific about your experience.

Personable
It is good to be friendly, but you need to back this up with some professional experience as a waitress or customer service experience. Make it sound believable and something people can put their finger on.

Flexible Schedule
Tell us your hours instead of saying flexible. Be specific.

I have a mentor
If you have not signed any loans, but your mentor is an expert, tell us how we can contact your mentor to hire them instead of you. Please keep the notes section about you and what you do, will do or have done.

You might also like:

Clarifying vague claims in your notes section
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=4675

How to write a notes section if you are a beginner
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=16698