A few years ago, I remember being greatly annoyed with a National Organization for Notaries where I was a member. This organization is supposed to be dedicated to the promotion of excellent notarial practice and the support of it's membership. As a member, I soon found that their true interest seemed to be the almighty dollar.
I am all for capitalism. But what disturbed me was the way in which this "support" organization was taking steps to drive dollars to their bottom line while at the same time causing harm to their paying members. As with many organizations, once you become a member you begin receiving their mail, email, newsletters and advertising. That is sort of expected. What I didn't expect was literature informing the general public what to expect in the way of mobile notary fees. Believe me when I say that their estimates were not even close to reality. There seemed to be no formula for how they had arrived at these numbers and no variation based upon different markets in different states. Wildly differing costs including fuel, tolls, parking, supplies or state specific notary fees make quoting prices a difficult proposition and they really need to be quoted locally.
On top of this blunder of telling clients how much signings should cost, they also began promoting a "certification" program that they said made one notary more qualified over another. The fact is that their certification program was a way to raise more revenue from the members. They told members that the "certification" would get them more work and listed testimonials from various hiring entities. Of course they charged a fee for their "certification course" which was nothing more than a piece of paper received after taking a generic notary exam. They did the same thing with "background checks" which generated yet another income stream.
Notary organizations continue to sell these products and newbie notaries continue to buy them. They believe somehow that these little pieces of paper will somehow improve their business. Meanwhile, they have been taken to the cleaners.
There is no substitute for experience. When looking for a Notary Public/Notary Signing Agent, look for their amount of experience. How many years have they been doing this? How many sets of loan documents have they signed? Are they full or part-time? Do they respond in a professional manner? Do they offer references? Do they ask intelligent questions about your notary needs?
The average "Joe" doesn't know what a notary is or does. He just knows he needs one to complete his legal document(s). With all the misinformation floating about out there, hiring a professional Notary Signing Agent seems like the only wise move.
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