I spent a lot of time watching a relationship coach in Atlanta on youtube. She was tired of working with women because they were all unrealistic. She worked mainly with black women and found that the majority of women wanted a guy who was 6’2″ or above, handsome, well dressed, made $100,000 per year or more, and had a great personality. The problem was that the height metric eliminated 97% of men just like that and the other qualifications made it difficult as well. Basically, most women wanted a guy who was the top (.1)% of guys. These women were frustrated that they could not attain the type of man they wanted. And the ones who got that type of guy often got cheated on because so many other women also wanted that type of guy. The relationship expert got so fed up with these unrealistic women that she stopped working with them altogether. My question is: what makes average women think they merit the top 1/1000 caliber of guys?

I watched a youtube interview with a black guy who drove the perfect car, made 100K per year, was handsome, tall, and charismatic. He said that there are 30 available women to 1 available guy in Atlanta due to the high gay population. He easily got women. But, once they got him they nagged him and didn’t treat him well. The moral of the story is that most women only want what they can’t have and then don’t value it when they have it. The other moral is that women who are average want guys who are exceptional and in real life it rarely works out that way.

Notaries are similar in this respect. The vast majority of Notaries do not have the notary skills or experience for them to merit the good jobs. Yet all Notaries want the $200 per signing jobs from great companies that treat them well and pay them on time. In real life, people like Carmen merits these jobs, but most of the rest of you not only don’t have the skills, but are completely against the idea of getting them as you think you are already perfect. You can’t become a better Notary if you think you are already perfect.

The moral of the story here is: improve your value instead of complaining about how little you get paid and how little respect you get. Notaries with proven value can get $150 per signing on a regular basis. I read about this in my blog comments which is proof.

Notary pricing is across the board and the people responding to my blog articles might be on the more experienced or successful side. I’m not sure about that claim though as I have no way to verify. Here are some results to my question about — what do you charge?

See the entire list of comments with what they charge for fax backs, printing, and other types of signings.

What do you charge for Notary work & signings?

For straight refinances people responding charge:
85
90
100
100
100
110
125
150-250
200-250 (must be a pro)
175-200

Summary
Of the responders who are not looking like they represent the community as a whole, but might represent a higher percentage of very seasoned Notaries, the mean price seems to be about 100-110 per refinance, but the average for them might be more like 125.

Most Notaries are complaining about being low-balled, and having to take low offers. Perhaps they are too busy working for peanuts to respond to my blog.

It is quite possible that the average Notaries get paid these days for refinances is 70 or 80 because most jobs come from Snapdocs. However, in our defense, the higher paying jobs normally come from 123notary although people low-ball using our site as well.

A handful of Notaries responded to an old article about doing some job with fax backs and eDocuments for $75. The question was, is it worth it? I also mentioned that in India people would cut off their left arm to have such an offer, but I got only sarcastic responses stating that they didn’t live in India.

Many Notaries wrote back that when calculating your fee, you should consider:

1. Cost of commission, licenses & memberships
2. Study time
3. Cell phone cost per month
4. Equipment costs
5. Advertising costs & the time spent generating business
6. Auto expenses
7. Printing expenses

The fact is that expenses from 1-5 are fixed expenses and have nothing to do with a particular job. Expenses 1-5, if too much, should influence your decision to stay in the business or leave altogether as those expenses do not go up or down based on whether or not you take a particular job.

The real cost is whether you could do something else with your time such as a more profitable job, billing clients, sleep, spending time on errands or with family. If $75 is your best offer, then take it whether it is “fair” or not. There is no fair in business — only relativity.

Additionally, if you lived in India, you would be working all day long for a few dollars and would not get to eat in restaurants hardly ever unless you had a swanky job. You would have bare bones conditions and people nagging you all day long. Don’t take for granted that you live in an affluent society because that can be taken away from you in the long run. Yes, sarcasm is good, but try to see what is going on in other countries and realize how good you have it compared to the 3rd world folks.

LINKS
You might also like:

Is $75 enough to print 2 sets of docs, notarize and do fax backs?
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=10369

$300 in 13 minutes — how Carmen cleans up in the Notary business
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=19284

Each state has a maximum notary fee per notary act or procedure. Some charge by the signature, Florida charges by the stamp if I’m not incorrect (better look that one up.)

But, if you are allowed $5 per signature, the signing has four signatures, but pays $200, then what? Are you breaking the law? Or are you being paid for mobile fees and supervising fees? The truth is that you are being paid for a bunch of responsibilities within your service:

Printing documents
Confirming an appointment
Supervising the signature and initialing of documents
Answering simple questions (perhaps)
Not answering questions you are not supposed to (unless you are a know-it-all who is looking for trouble)
Notarizing
Waiting while people read or have long conversations by phone with the Lender.
Getting the documents safely back where they belong
Availability for after service.

All of those combined definitely merit at least $125, don’t you think?

So, how do you document this in your journal? $5 per notary act. Two people x two notary acts per person is four lines in your journal each stating $5 for the notary fee. And then in the additional info section for the first notary act of the set, put down you got $180 travel / supervising fee for a loan signing. Then it is all documented just in case the IRS has any questions. Notary fees are not subject to self-employment tax but travel and supervising fees are. Look it up in the SE instructions.

But, what if you live in California and the Notary fee is $15, you have ten signatures, but the job only pays $100. You could charge $150 plus travel for that signing, but your Lender or signing company isn’t paying that. Just put whatever you want for the notary fee between zero and $15 per notarized signature in your journal. And do a reasonable estimate for what the travel and supervising fees should be — just estimate and try to be proportionate.

You might also like:

Travel fees vs. Notary fees in your journal
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22612

Travel fees if nothing gets signed
http://blog.123notary.com/?p=22578

Just out of curiousity, the market has changed since we wrote our various pricing oriented blog tutorials. Those were written from 2010 to 2016. We want to know, what do you guys charge now?

Signings
eDocuments
Extra Miles

Regular signings for general notary work.
Other

Thanks!