Shannon, You seem like a "Bright Ray of Sunshine", just kidding. As realtors we often drive many miles as well. With less business and more expenses, I hope that things will get better!!!

Enjoy $3.69 next year that price will seem cheap!

Shannon, As a home inspector, I drive thousands of miles a year as well. Though we are not at $3.69 here yet, I''m quite PO'd that I just had to pay $3.05 for regular. Thank goodness I drive a hybrid and get 47MPG!

Zen- always glad to help!!

Danny- That's funny, my signing fees will look cheap then too! Whatacoinkydink!?

Michael- I did the math and decided against the hybrid.  Why? because the extra six grand for the hybrid version of my car ('06 Honda Civic) couldn't be rationalized when the car will be worn out with 250K miles on it by early next year.  What a nightmare huh?

Shannon I have a Hybrid also.  47 MPG is a great investment.  Plus free parking at the street meter here in New Mexico.  2007 Tax return I received a whopping 2100.00 rebate on my Hybrid.  Which meant that I got all the money I paid in last year BACK!  What a wonderful day.  And really Shannon for my 2007 Civic Hybrid I paid only 21,000.00 cheaper that a Prius and nicer!

I wish I had a Hybrid but I have the very best car. It's a 2002 Lexus that is paid for.

If I were buying a car today for my notary/loan-signer business I would definitely buy a Hybrid.

 Gas mileage in our business is becoming more and more critical.  When I started in 2002 gas was around $.99 per gallon and I could drive  around the Inland Empire and down to San Diego or Orange County.

I filled up the tank today: 13 gallons was over  $48.00.

When I was in Italy last year gas was approx $7.00 per gallon and no one had a car that most of us in the U.S. would want to drive.

http://www.joanbergstromnotarypublic.com

Mobile notaries will be forced to raise their travel fees... That's all there is to it.  I recently raised my base travel fee from $40 to $50 and I'm still not making very much money for all the time and hard work I put into my mobile notary business.  Especially if you're a Notary Signing Agent and have other expenses, such as toner, paper, office supplies, etc.  

I just bought this "NotaryAssist" software which helps keep track of my appointments, income and expenses, mileage, etc.  It automatically generates invoices too that can easily be sent by email.  It was a little expensive (almost $200), but it's been worth it.  The Sales Department has been very kind in helping me with any questions that come up.  

For years, I did everything on pen and paper and kept a notary signing agent log -- what a pain that was!  I absolutely dreaded tax time and and now I think it will be be much easier next year. 

 With this new software, I feel much more organized.  I can see now that I'm not making as much money as I thought I was.  Seeing it in front of me definitely helps.

http://www.santaclaritamobilenotary.com

Personally, I believe there is a conspiracy!  There is some controls as to the price of oil and gas on the world market.  Too much money is involved and the industry want Americans to pay the same price per gallon as in other parts of the world.  Especially, since they know we a consumer nation instead of a producer nation.

I have a solution that I will be posting as a blog in the next week that if followed will give consumers back power in the marketplace.  I don't think alternative fuels is a solution that will make an impact in my lifetime, so I'm not prepared to accept that suggestion.

Did you know there's a site where you can search to find the cheapest gas prices in your city?  Yep! It will even give you directions!  It's a network of websites that allow motorists to share information with others about lowest priced gas stations.  There's also a link at the top that you can click on if you want sign up to join the fight against high gas prices.  I already looked up gas stations in my area and it's pretty accurate and they keep it up to date.   Check out: www.GasBuddy.com.

Happy trails to you...

www.santaclaritamobilenotary.com

I'm working on a draft letter to my legislator to increase notary fees in California.  I respectfully request all California notaries to assist, when I post a sample in the next week as a blog to support a bill in the California Assembly and Senate increase the mandates fees.  The base fees have not risen in over 30 years.  actually they have decreased.  At one time notaries administered the state exam and charge $10.00 for such services.  Now a contractor has taken that over and notaries pay $40 initially and $20 for retakes.

All  new and renewing notaries are required to re-fingerprint a cost of about $65 and take a class that cost about $40, much more if you take if from the NNA.  Is it about time state mandated fees increase to reflect today's economy.

I am so glad and thank you very much for bringing this matter up. I absolutely agree notary fees in California should be raised.  You can count on my support.  A lot of people don't realize what it takes to be a notary.  Being a notary carries with it a lot of responsibility.  There is so much we must know and laws to keep up with -- especially in California.  I recently had someone from a well-known bonding company tell me they'd never want to be a notary in California because of all the liability issues.

I strongly agree that notary fees should be increased to reflect the economy.  Notary costs have risen and fees should be mandated to reflect the economy.  It's certainly not going to get any better

I will look for your post for the sample letter.  Count me in!

I am definitely in favor of a fee increase.  I didn't realize we hadn't had an increase in $30 years.  30 years $10 years ago was very good money.

needAnotary will lead the way in being a activist for notaries nationwide, but especially active in California as we are commissioned here.  Joan - Liability was less back then as fraud was at a minimum (no computers to manufacture documents) and bonds only cost $15 - $20 for four years.  There were no signing agents or signing services. Nevertheless, many notaries earned livable wage being mobile. 

It had been well over 30 years since notary fees was increased.  If anyone dates back that far, we would like to know as it would be helpful in this endeavor.

Thanks for the support.  Keep you eyes open for our updates.

Shannon thanks for giving me this forum to lobby for higher notary fees, I don't take your kindness lightly.  We appreciate you much.  Shannon is a new needAnotary member.

NAN- Sure, why not?  I'm all for us as notaries and NSA's making more.  One word of suggestion if I may...I advise us NOT using gas prices as an argument.  Since travel is a separate charge, I believe we should focus on the responsibility angle (a la perjury) v.s. trying to claim gasoline prices are a necessity and somehow tied to the per signature fee.

Shannon, surely gas is not an issue for discussion.  The increased fess, responsibilities and liability are the issues.  We will have our attorneys review our document before posting to the web.  That is why we will not mention NSA as that is not a term the State of California recognizes.  NSA is a creation term by probably the NNA for notaries who travel and include loan signings as part of their business model.  

We would also strongly suggest that notaries refrain from accepting work from signing services or signing agencies as this will be counter productive to raising the standard of living for ALL notaries.  Build your own networks and client bases.  The same way the signing companies get business, notaries need to follow the same strategy, 1) hit the streets and 2) ask. 

If notaries continue to be passive I their efforts to generate their business, they will continue to get exploited.  For some this will be hard, as they were never trained to build or generate their own leads.  That is precisely what real estate agents do.  You don't see them opting for third party lead generators.  Notaries need to use the same zest and zeal. 

It is time to wake up and smell the biscuits. Forget  which signing company pays or don't pay and also raise your level of what pays well means to you.  Growth will be painful, you will break some long-standing relationships, you'll experience a lost of a little income (not much, as most assignments through signing services are not PROFITABLE anyway), but in the end we'll ALL be stronger and more profitable in our businesses. 

Then maybe a few  other notaries could afford the fees for marketing in a  network that promotes market prices for services rendered and the better interest of notaries everywhere.

NAN - I always enjoy your comments and your dedication to being an activist for notaries is admirable.

I have been trying for 5 years now to get a "foot in the door" with title companies/lenders, without much success.  It seems if you don't "know someone" in the business, it's very difficult to get work directly from them.  I  operate my own mobile notary business in Santa Clarita, CA and have worked very hard to build a client base so I don't have to use the "middle man" signing services. I do a lot of my own advertising, but as another AR member recently commented, I too have done just about everything except hand out cards from a hot-air balloon.  I didn't go and pass out Krispy Kremes doughnuts though... Now that's a real go-getter!

I have been keeping busy with loan signings, etc., but I have already had to cut some costs.  I also have to consider cutting out some of the pay-to-advertise notary sites (Not you NAN).  The top ones are great, such as needAnotary :) and I do get a lot of business from them, but some have become costly, and it does add up over time.  So I will have to do some "weeding out."

If I turned down assignments from signing services right now, I wouldn't have much of an income.  I am, however, starting to increase my fees and will not work for less than what I feel I'm worth.  I'm learning! :) 

I have already started refusing work from the small signing services that often times are slow in paying or don't pay at all.  I've been pretty lucky so far and have only had one that didn't pay.

Keep up the great work NAN.  You have my support!

Denise, that for your encouragement!  We feel responsible to being an activist for notaries, as our business depends upon notaries and it is just the right thing to do.  When our notaries are successful, we become successful.  We’re notaries also, but not as active as we use to be when we operated our signing services.  We have an exclusive list of clients we still service on our terms.  We are able to do this because of customer service.

We operated a small signing service with about 8 notaries for about 5 years and found it relative easy to get business from business builders, granted economic times are different.  Where we differed from other signing companies is we paid our notaries 75% of the fee we collected from our lender and escrow partners.  Yep, 75% and ran an open book company.  Meaning, at any time a notary could ask to see the invoice from the company that paid us.  In 5 years, we never had one notary question or challenge our split. 

At the same time, never did we question the 25% split paid to notaries, on work that was paid via cash from the field.  There was a mutual trust as we trained our notaries and paid them well.  Signing companies would never consider a 75% payout.  We left that business model as we were getting clients outside our service area and required a better system of service delivery and then began our labor of love, needAnotary.

Companies that used us exclusively now use our notary members and that pleases us, as we are able to share this work with our members.  We work hard to keep our prices down, service high, and technology state of the art.

We passed along a tip last week that many of the notaries that worked for us used to earn about $150 a day, http://activerain.com/blogsview/424972/What-kind-of-non.  Many notaries think that because a bank has a notary on staff, that they won’t use outside notaries.  Not only will they use them they would welcome them in many cases, as their staff can work on more profit producing tasks, since notary is a free and time consuming task. 

Think outside the box and don’t let fear force you to change your mind to an opportunity that enters your thinking.  Remember, you will be dealing with people, some will, some won’t, continue…