That Notary Gal

More on ID's

2012-01-27T16:33:00.001-08:00

I love it that you guys share your stories and/or experiences with me. I feel that not only are they interesting they need to be told, serve to educate all of us of whats happening out here and also make us think. This is one of those stories. I was speaking with one of our long standing notaries about their renewal and some other matters which led him to tell me this story which I feel it very important because although no fault of the notary we need to remember to do our jobs to the best of our ability. To always be on the lookout for fraud.

It seems that this notary had received a summons to court and had been going to trial for the past few days and he was not at all pleased. I cant believe it because as far as I know it rare. It seems that a loan signing assignment had been given to him which he completed with no problems but it had turned out many months later that the person that had appeared before him and the person that had signed the loan documents was not the true borrower named on the documentation nor was it his property. The culprit was the son. So, I guess it is safe to say, the son desperately needed money for god knows what and had initiated a loan in his fathers name using the fathers property using his fathers name. I thought to myself “What kind of person does this”? Did the son actually think he was going to get away with it? I mean the note would possibly be changing as well and some of the other things like maybe the lender, etc. What did he think his father would not notice? DId he think he wouldn’t get caught??? or did he even care. I guess for some folks desperate times calls for desperate measures. So now our notary had to spend precious time for which he wasn’t compensated for in court because of someone else’s crime. The notary was required to produce his journal and had to ID the son as the one who had impersonated his father.

I asked the notary how the ID looked he said it was not a fake as far as he knew. He told me that nothing was out of the ordinary. And the signing went smooth.

Now the notary did absolutely nothing wrong in this case and it was out of his control but it got me to be thinking that sometimes we can become too comfortable in our job and our duties.. So the moral of this story is that we need to be paying attention at all times because there there is always somebody out here trying to pull a fast one….check those id’s carefully and document everything in your journal. And if your state doesn’t require you to keep a journal then you should. It may save you a whole lot of trouble if a ‘situation’ should ever arrive. The notary had his journal and all of the proof that he needed so he was in the clear.

The Husband and the Stolen License

2012-01-27T16:23:00.000-08:00

A few years back when I was working full time as a signing agent. I was called by LSI to do a loan signing scheduled for the following day. I proceeded to make contact with the borrowers and confirmed time and place. There were 3 borrower’s. The mother, her son and his wife. I made sure that all three would be present for the closing and I was assured that they would be. As planned, I met with them the following day at our scheduled time and the mother and the son were present. I hadn’t seen the wife as yet but assumed she was in the other room and would appear shortly. The son gave me 3 ID’s. One for each of them and they were all current. I set up shop and proceeded to write the identifications in my notary journal. I got everything logged in and then I told the son and mother that we were ready. I asked how soon would the wife of the son be joining us. The mother looked dumbfounded. The son immediately spoke up and said that his wife was a notary in California just like me and that she had given him ‘permission’ to sign for her. I said “Excuse me! Are you serious” I continued by telling him “And If your wife was a notary as you say she would know that that is fraud and totally not allowed under any circumstances to have another sign for someone that is not present.’ He told me that was not what his wife had told him I informed him again that the wife HAD to be present or there was no signing would be take place. I asked him for the wife’s phone number so I could call her. And to my shock and disbelief, he stated that he didn’t have it…I thought to my self that although I couldn’t quite place it something was terribly wrong here. I excused my self and went outside and I called the title company immediately and they said to pack it up and they would try to get in touch with the wife and get back to me with a new signing date.

So as requested, I packed it up and went back to my office. This whole thing was so very odd to me. And I will admit it was troubling. I began to search through the paperwork, I looked at the 1003 no luck and just by accident on some junk doc’s I found a couple of numbers for her jotted down in the corners. I then proceeded to call her. I introduced myself and began to tell her about the loan and what had happened at her husbands and mother-in laws home. But guess what! She had NO IDEA of what I was talking about. You could tell that she didn’t really believe me either. It was obvious that she had no clue that there had been an appointment earlier and that they were refinancing without her. (Turns out that this was the mothers house and she had many years ago graciously put all of their names on it, in case something happened to her). She (the missing wife) told me that she had had no communication with her husband for a couple of weeks and that they were separated and she had made it clear to him that she was planning on a divorce. I went on to tell her that her soon to be ex had given me her ID and told her what he had said about him signing her name for her. She told me that was impossible and that I couldn’t have had her ID because she had lost it and had applied for a new one. So I told her that I had held somebody’s id with her name on it in my hands. I then began describing the picture I saw and then I read her the details from the license (because remember I had written it in my notary journal; that journal can be a life saver). I had even remembered her hair color. It was her alright. As as you can guess there were many expletives on her part regarding that soon to be ex-husband of hers. Now she knew where her ID was. Sheesh!!

Come to find out he had stolen it from her when they last met. He hadn’t paid any child support in months. And she and I after talking a bit surmised that he didn’t want to involve his mothers house in their divorce drama for fear that she would want a share of the house in the divorce. So he had took the Id and thought he could persuade me (or whomever the notary was going to be) into letting him sign for her. Ummm, Isn’t this what they call pre meditation….LOL. He had it all worked out. What we couldn’t surmise was was his mother part of the plan. My gut feeling is no but we will never know. And BTW, (the wife) was not even a notary!

The wife turned out to be was a very good woman. She didn’t want to take her husbands mothers family home. She said after all this was her 3 children’s grandmother. She said that she would sign the paperwork and gave me the times she was available for the next few days. I told her I had to call title and discuss it with them because I knew they would most likely do a re-draw and get back to her. So I called them and let them know that I had found her and they would talk to the son and mother and set a new time. A day passed and title called me back stating that the son had requested that they use a different notary. And LSI let them know that that was NOT going to happen. They were sending the same notary and if they refused no loan. It’s nice when a title company sands up for you!!

In closing, I went back about 2 days later with new doc’s with all 3 parties present this time around and although it was a little awkward and there was allot of tension in the room, all went well considering.

Until the next one, take care and be safe out there.

Notary is pushed off Stairs by Borrower!!!!

2011-09-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

Well, I thought I had heard it all. I hear allot of wonderful, interesting tales here at 123 from our members. Some are entertaining and funny while others are very sad and depressing. This, unfortunately is one of these stories and unfortunately it is the worst to date. It is nothing short of horrendous and shameful. Although I have her permission to tell her story, I promised her I would not reveal her or the area she lives in. So here we go…

This particular notary who is female took a signing from a signing company, she confirmed her appointment, prepared her docs and met her borrower at the the specified time. As she went through the documents, he saw that his interest rate was 1/2 percent more than he had been told. He then became enraged. He requested (using vulgarity) that she leave his home immediately. She packed up her things up and prepared to leave the premises. As she proceeded to the door the borrower followed, continuing to rant and rave using foul language incessantly. He was VERY angry with this 1/2 of a percent increase that nobody had bothered to inform him of (sadly, a story we all are familiar with and have heard many times) and, to top it to make matters even worse off, the loan officer had not been in contact with him and had been unreachable for several days.

So, as she walked out of the door onto his front porch there were 4 steps to go down to the walkway that would lead to her car… But, before she could take that first step — with the force of both of his hands on her shoulders he pushed her down and off the porch. She went flying off the porch, and by the grace of God she somehow pivoted her body onto the grass instead of his cemented walkway that was directly in front of her but unfortunately in trying to break her fall she broke her left wrist. In disbelief and shock she just laid there. The borrower went back into the house and shut and locked his door. However, fortunately for her, the borrower’s neighbor who was mowing his lawn at the time witnessed the whole thing. He called out to his wife to call the police and the paramedics and he came to her aid and sat with her until they arrived. (A knight in shining armor). The paramedics attended to her and after the police got the story from both the notary and the neighbor one of the officers went to the door of the borrower , rang the bell and the borrower did not answer. At that point the officer yelled out to him to open the door or else. He did eventually open the door, and then was immediately handcuffed and placed under arrest and was put in the back of the police car.

Now folks get this — as the paramedics worked on our notary to prepare her for the trip to the hospital and the police filled out their report the borrower (hand cuffed in the back seat of the police car) was still ranting and raving non stop with vulgarities that they (the police and paramedics) needed to get this you know what off his grass and property. One of the police officers obviously fed up with this behavior as well as the noise went over to the borrower and told him that he needed to shut up and slammed the car door. He then asked the neighbor if this behavior was characteristic of this man. The neighbor and the wife just looked at each other and nodded yes… I just cant believe this man and his behavior, I am still in awe of all of it.

The paramedics said that if she had fallen onto the concrete instead of the grass she would have broken both wrists and god knows what else in the process. All things considered she was lucky-it could have been way worse.

She ended up staying in the hospital of 4-5 days instead of the day and half she was originally told due to an infection she developed in her wrist.

Now it is 1 month later and she is finally back to work. She is healing well I asked her how she felt about her career now (she is a full time signing agent) and if she felt like giving it up…and she said no way. She says she loves her job and knew this was just something that happened. Kudos to her! She and DA have filled charges and he has 3 counts against him and there will be a civil suit as well. I hope he gets ALL that is coming to him….I say throw the book at him.

Now, of course the signing service that gave her the assignment wants to know why the loan wasn’t closed. Well get this; When she called in to tell them what had happened from the hospital — the person on the other end of the line laughed and said “you could have come up with a better excuse than that”. So, in order to clear her name she had to send in the police report, hospital records etc….( and yes she did manage to call the day of the signing)

So, all of this leaves me with a few thoughts. I really feel that this could have been avoided if the loan officer had done his job. This is so often the case where the loan officer knows exactly what the numbers are way ahead of time but avoids sharing this information with the borrowers and we go out at the final hour when they know these borrowers are desperate and for the most part are stuck and cant turn back now, and they regrettably just sign. And we get stuck in middle — and in this case — pushed down a flight of stairs. Now some of you will disagree and put up a fuss but this is why when I call and confirm with the borrowers I ask them has the loan officer been in touch and have they gone over the figures with them. If the answer is yes then I ask them what are the numbers supposed to be. This way if the number con-inside with what I see, we are good. If not, I can alert the hiring party that we have a problem before I waste the borrowers time or MINE. I can avoid problems at the table-situations like the one I just described to you here. (aLthough it is rare and the first time I have heard such of a thing happing it is now a reality that it is possible). This technique does not always work but it is sure worth a try. And it might save you some trouble. I have been doing it for years. Now I know some of you will chew my head off about this technique of mine but this is my business and I run it as I see fit-just as you will run yours as you see fit. But, remember this is for the most part why are economy is shot…to many lies and games being played in the refinance word, and we are usually abandoned and stuck in the middle.

Now, most of you know I preach about your worth and the fees that you charge — this story just reinforces my feeling that you need to be paid what you are worth. I know this is an extreme case but we stick out necks out every time we take an assignment. We NEVER know where our notary assignments will take us or what we will have to deal with when we get there. We deal with bad attitudes, late documents, traffic, bad neighborhoods, filthy homes, terrible smells, pets, incompetence, etc., and sometimes bad people. So my point is you need to be paid what you are worth. If you continue accepting these low fees that they are offering nowadays not only do you hurt yourself you hurt all of us: the notary community as a whole…..Now in this case a higher fee would not have stopped his unthinkable behavior but I feel that because we deal with so much adversity in this business we need to have our pay more in line with our efforts and the things that we are subjected too. For me, without fair compensation this profession is just not worth the effort or trouble.

Until next time!! BE SAFE!!

Carmen

Tantrums of a Borrower!

2011-06-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Tantrums
In my earlier days of signing loans I was called by one of my long time clients to do a loan closing in an very influential neighborhood. I received the docs the night before (Don’t we just love those companies of ours that get us the paperwork in a timely manner) I called the borrower to confirm time and address, prepped the docs, and got everything ready for the next day.

A well dressed man
The next morning I made my way to the borrowers home, rang the bell and was met by a young, handsome male dressed as if he was aboout to go play tennis. He rushed me in the door, sat me down in the kitchen area at the breakfast island, and asked for the paperwork. It was obvious that he was in a hurry. I asked for his identification and he ignored my question and once again I asked for the paperwork which I obligingly gave him. At this point he slide his ID across the table. With me on one side and him on the other, I took out my notary journal and began doing what I always call ‘housekeeping’. As I began filling out the journal he began just signing away. I tried telling him to make sure he signed as printed. But he ignored me and just kept on signing. (I didn’t make to much fuss about the signature as it was one of those squiggly signnatures that matched his ID. I have come to learn over my years as a signing agent that if the signature matches the ID. It will not be a problem.I have learned over the years which battle must be fought and won and which ones to let go.) And after all we are not he signature police….

The temper tantrum
But back to the story; because that is another story for another blog… lol. He continues signing very quickly and is finished just as I am finished with my journal entries. I ask him for them so that I can review them. Keep in mind he didnt read them at all. He hands them to me and as I am checking them he asked me about the interest rate… so I fan through until I get to the note and read off what the terms are. And he suddenly flips his top. He snatched the doc’s from me and starts jumping up and down, throwing his hands around in the air, yelling and screaming that now the rate was incorrect and he was going to be upset when he saw his children and ex wife. (I guess that was what the hurry was all about. He was going to have them come and visit or he was going to them after we had finished) Now picture this grown man screaming and yelling obsenities, jumping up and down, kicking the chair and the counter like a child then all of a sudden he takes the back of his hand and swipes the counter clean (this is where I am still sitting by the way) of all the objects that where on the table; nick nacks, crock pot and everything else went crashing to the floor.

Sorry, I can’t tolerate this behavior!
In disbelief and awe, I got up and start to put my stuff away. I’m thinking to myself this man is a slice or two short of a full loaf. I tell him that I must go at this point. And I will not tolerate this sort of behavior. But as I hastily began putting my stuff away he begins to calm himself and start to ask me whether he can keep these docs and I tell him that these are the property of the lender. He then immediately snatches the signed ones from my hand and tells me to bad but he’s keeping them irregardless. I let him that at this point this is fine with me and as I move to the door to let myself out he says to me to my shock and disbelief and that it was a pleasure to meet me and could he possible have one of my cards.. I did not even turn around….but I did answer him calmly and say;”" Are you kidding me!!! I will not be leaving my card nor would I be returning under any circumstances. He didn’t say a word. and I let myself out, After I got back to my office I wrote title a long detailed email regarding the closing and I never heard another word about it…..and of course I did get paid.
All I can say is that it takes all kinds…..

Until next time….be safe!

Price Fixing What Is It Really About?!?!

2011-04-19T14:22:00.001-07:00

Many new notaries call into 123notary with questions regarding what fees should be charged for their services.(it is is by far the number one question asked) They have no idea and are lost as to what to charge. They find it very confusing due to the many different services that are asked of us. This is a new business venture for them and they are searching for answers and certainly most want to be competitive but are also concerned that they will be paid fairly for the services that they will provide. I usually start by telling them that the first rule of thumb is to know what their state allows per signature per notarization as each state is different. Then there are the fees charged for our other services such as regular notarizations for the general public where travel is involved as well as jail visits, a loan signing which will include doc preparations, travel, mileage, and printing costs such as paper, ink, etc. These fees in MY experience range from as low as 25.00 to 300.00 and will depend on many factors. But having said that It seems that there are some of you that you feel that if we share prices then we are engaging and practicing in ‘price fixing’. I disagree. But first off what exactly is price fixing? I did a quick search on the internet and you can read what I found as examples on different sites below:

Price fixing is a practice in which the prices for goods and services are manipulated in a way which is designed to benefit specific companies or individuals. In a simple example of price fixing, two rival gas stations could meet and decide to offer their gas at the same price, creating an artificially high price for gasoline which consumers would be forced to pay through lack of choice. Usually, this practice is illegal, and in some nations, it comes with severe legal consequences.
“If two companies happen to sell competing products at the same price, it is only considered price fixing if collusion can be proved. In other words, if two supermarkets both sell packs of a dozen eggs at the same cost, this would not be illegal. If, however, someone could prove that the owners of the supermarkets held a secret meeting in which they decided to sell their eggs at the same price, it would be considered price fixing.

“Often, price fixing results in price gouging. In a free market where businesses adjust prices to meet supply and demand needs, prices can fluctuate a great deal, but they are generally considered fair. When people collude, they usually elevate prices significantly, creating a price discrimination situation in which prices rise well above a level which would be considered acceptable. Many people believe that this practice hurts the economy as a whole, which is one of the reasons it is frowned upon.”

Now none of us are banding together in a back alley or secret meeting place practicing collusion, price gouging, or anything of the sort. We all just want to paid what our services are worth. It is not unlike any plummer, dentist, maid, etc wanting to be paid a fair price for the services that they provide. And my take on it is just because we give each other a ball park or share personal pricing information does not mean that we are engaging in any thing illegal or involved in this ‘price fixing business’.

IMO, when we share information on fees we are providing examples, not recommendations. I have many ask what I charge personally for regular notary work and I freely let folks know that since I am in California and I charge a minimum of 50.00 for travel and 10.00 per signature per notarization (10.00 is the standard) and I limit myself to a 20 mile radius for this price. In fact many notaries in other parts of the US tell me that they can hardly get 20.00 for travel..let alone 50.00. When it comes to a loan signing there are many more factors for me to consider. I will want to know from the hiring party how many loans there are (in other words is it a refi with a second, piggyback or straight refi,etc), distance, fax backs required, etc and whether I will have to print or will they be overnighted to the borrowers and available at the signing location. All of this information will be key in determining what price I am going to charge. I never ever ask a company what they are willing to pay. This is my business and although much of what we provide is considered a community service I still need to know that I am going to recoup my costs and make a profit so that my family and I can eat.

So I think it would be fair to say that when we share fees with each other these are ment to be for informational purposes only. Every notary will have to access what their operating costs are and then determine a price that they can get in their area and in turn live with and of course they must stay competitive by knowing what others are charging in their area. This is no different than any other business .Don’t think for one second that other business of like kind don’t keep up with their competition.

In closing, for us as traveling notary publics…we should never really be accused of price fixing by sharing information. There are just way to many variables in what we do. Every area and situation will be different…but it never hurts to have a point of reference and then do your homework and map out a price point that you and your clients are comfortable with
Until next time….

Carmen
'that notary gal'

Certification; Is It Worth The Trouble?

2011-04-19T14:14:00.001-07:00

Certified by another agency?
To get certified or not, that is the question!? As of late I get many questions regarding certification. Many of you have been certified by another company before you came to 123 and you feel that that should be sufficient and you wonder what the benefits would be in obtaining our certifiaction or any other certification for that matter. And as most of you come to find out just about every site that you list your services on offers some sort of certification.

Certification is NOT a necessity
Now I will be the first to say that while I do feel certification is very useful and has its advantages (which I will go into to depth later) I want it to be clear that it is not a necessity or mandatory for any notary to be certified to do a closing. Keep in mind that this is is not to be confused with training because you can recieve training in many ways without being certified. Jeremy can tell you that in my early signing days before I began my work here at 123 although I received adiquite training it was not until he gave me the oral exam that I became ‘certified’ with 123 and I had done several hundred closings prior to him giving me the test. In fact, he gave me the test orally via my cell phone while I was traveling to a signing. LOL Many new notaries are of the mind set that they HAVE to be certified in order to be a ‘closing agent’ or conduct a closing. They feel it has some official capacity or is a mandatory requirement of their particular state. Let’s be very clear: It does not. It is purely elective and a personal choice. All that is technically reguired to conduct a closing is that you are a commissioned notary in your state in good standing and have some knowledge of what is reguired of you to facilitate the closing of a loan. There has been many a notary that have never been as they call it “certified’ by anyone and they do an exceptional job. They were fortunate enough to have mentors and/or material that provided them the necessary information they needed. And in the early days before such training existed they had to ‘wing it’. It was the doing, hands on (and mistakes) that really made them great signing agents. Then there are others that are so called ‘certified’ and have no clue as to what they are required to do. Can anybody say NNA newbies!? So my point is that although certification can be quite useful for educational and marketing purposes it is not pre requiste for a signing agent.

Certification; Its critical for marketing
IMO, certification IS however a necessity for marketing yourself. Lets face it the whole objective is to stand out from your competition. With most sites offering certification testing and have certification icons which rest next to your name it is my firm opinion that it is imperative that you get certified with whomever you advertise with. It says to your potential clients that you took some extra steps toward excellence in your field. The marketing benefits can be staggering. Here at 123 we have ran the statistical data and find that the notaries that have the certification logo next to their name get 78% more clicks on their profiles than those that don’t. That is impressive data. And so it behoves all of you to get certified sooner than later. It only takes a few minutes of your time and the benefits can be enormous. Many notaries have reported back to me that their business has doubled even trippled due to the certification. And with the economy being what it is, this can only help give your business a boost. And it could make all the difference in the world in the successes or failure of your business. So come on guys and gals…don’t delay, GET CERTIFIED!!!! You have everything to gain and absolutely nothing to lose!!

Until next time…

Carmen
‘that notary gal’

Notaries in the Crisis

2008-10-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

Notaries have their finger on the pulse of the crisis on Wall Street. After all, many of us call ourselves "Loan Signing Agents," and so we saw the corruption of the sub-prime lending racket first-hand: the bad loans, the irresponsible borrowers, and the devious loan-officers who trick their clients. We notaries know how this non-sense began, even if we don't know how it ends. Right now we need to know how this will effect the Notary business and what we can do about it

What's going on?

Personally, I have noticed that a large amount of work in Loan Signing has disappeared. This is natural since the smaller lenders (even a few of the larger ones—goodbye wamu) have been dropping like flies. Fortunately enough for us, many of the larger lenders are still keeping the loan business in alive—if only on life support. Loan signing is not dead. As we approach what most have dubbed an economic crisis, I've seen many more Reverse Mortgages than other types of loans. This is no surprise; we're all looking to build a nest-egg so we can survive a second depression. Loans aside, regular notary work seems to be in heavy supply.

What can you do?

Take more of that regular notary work you used to pass up. Some work is better than no work at all. Gas is expensive, but a $50 travel fee (or whatever your state allows) should cover your expenses. At least you will not have the overhead that comes with signing loans (paper, ink, etc).

Advertise more! Customers cannot hire you if they cannot find you, so get your name out there. Order more business cards and don't forget to hand them out. Do what you can!

Stay optimistic.

Until next time, hang in there and keep working.