All Forum Posts by: Alison Wise

Hi Jonathan,

I'm a mobile notary in LA county, but have done signings in Riverside and Orange Counties as well. It's my full-time thing, so there's definitely opportunity there. It's great as a side hustle or full-time if you're up for it.  I will say, though, that if you're doing it part-time you're less likely to get direct business (the higher paying signings), as most escrow officers won't work with you if you don't have a lot of availability /flexibility in your schedule. But it's still a good gig even if you're just doing signing service work. 

Hi Joshua! I started my loan signing agent journey about a year ago and wish I would have done it years ago! It's such a great way to make good money either as a side hustle or full-time. 

If you haven't taken the NNA course for Notary Signing Agents, I would suggest that, as it's kind of the industry standard and a lot of escrow and title companies require it. That said, it doesn't do the greatest job of teaching you how to actually make money doing signings.

Some really good advice I heard when getting started was to make sure you know your state's notary laws inside out before getting started. We're notaries first and loan signing agents second. 

Not sure if you've heard of Loan Signing System (LSS) that Mark Wills teaches or the Notary2Pro (N2P) course. I've taken the LSS one and found it incredibly helpful in knowing how to market myself to Escrow offices, and overall just knowing the process better. The LSS Facebook group is also great as people are overall very supportive and helpful with questions. It is a little bit of hype, but there's a ton of great content. I haven't taken Notary2Pro, but have heard really good things about it as well.

Another tip is sign up for as many notary databases as you can do for free (don't bother with any that ask you to pay for a membership... most are scams and there's plenty of work on the ones you don't have to pay for). And then sign up for as many signing services as you can! There are literally hundreds of signing services, so youre likely to be busy within a month or two of signing up. Make sure you know the difference between a database and signing service... for example Snapdocs is a database, but companies like Coast2Coast are signing services that USE Snapdocs to find notaries. 

And I agree that it's a great way to learn about the closing process for real estate. 

Best wishes getting started! Keep us posted on how it goes!

@Jingru Sui

Completely understand. Was just sharing what I did to give a notary's perspective. I agree, it shouldn't be so hard, but a lot of things are just harder now with covid-19. Harder, but not impossible.

What if he signed everything not notarized on his own, and they did the notarizations outdoors, he leaves ID on a table, and the notary stood a distance away while he signed the notarized docs & notarys journal, and thumb printed the journal? And then he moved a distance away while the notary signed and stamped? And everyone wears masks and gloves. If he's selling, there are not nearly as many documents to sign as when buying or refinancing.

I should also mention I live in California, so the area he's in would be over 5 hrs away from me. I may be able to connect you with someone, but it's also pretty easy to find a mobile notary on Yelp.

Sorry for the delayed reply. I know I posted this on your other thread, so apologies for the redundancy, but I thought there may be a chance someone may see this post and not the other, and I did want to weigh in on the "contactless signing" topic. And to be clear, I'm not saying this in order to be difficult. I get that this is frustrating for you and the seller, and what I would suggest is more a "minimal contact" signing, as opposed to "contactless."

Regarding the "doorstep" or "contactless" signings... a few signing services or title companies suggested we do that if the signer requested. I personally would not for a number of reasons. I can't speak for all mobile notaries, but here are the problems that I see with that.

1. It's impossible to say that the person signed of their own free will and wasn't coerced. If I'm not in the room, I can't tell. I know it's unlikely, but it does put me as a notary at risk if I was ever to be asked about the signing.

2. For notarizations, part of the requirement is that the signer is physically present when I sign and stamp the document to notarize it. This requirement wouldn't be fulfilled if I signed and stamped in my car while they were inside.

3. For Jurats, which are present in about 95% of the signings I've done, it requires that I physically see the signer sign in front of me as well as that I administer an oath.

4. I would only see at the very end of the signing if the signer consistently signed incorrectly (such as signing with black ink ,or not including their middle initial in their signature (if legible) when it is included on the documents, or not signing as trustee if the property is in a trust and this is required by the lender).

5. In CA we're required to keep records of every single notarization we do in our journal. And each notarization I do, the signer(s) must sign my journal and leave their right thumbprint. So I have dozens of people's personal information there. And I'm required to keep the journal under my control unless asked to surrender it by a police officer or the secretary of state. There is absolutely no way I'm giving my journal to someone to take out of my sight to sign and thumbprint. All it would take is one person taking a quick cell-phone photo and I could lose my notary commission.

That said, I don't mean to be all doom and gloom. I have been doing signings throughout the past few months, and have been taking precautions, especially with signers who are over age 60. Obviously the last thing anyone wants is to spread a virus we don't know we have and get someone else very sick. One of the biggest things I would do is sign outdoors, weather permitting (might be difficult if it's raining, with paper documents and all). I've done a few outdoors, and it was pretty easy. I still wear mask and a new, clean pair of gloves. But I also wash or sanitize my hands before and after each signing appointment, and I wipe down everything that comes out of my bag at the table with disinfectant wipes at the beginning of the appointment (so my phone, my stamp, the pens, my keys, etc). I have a legal sized clipboard so that documents don't blow away. And when they have thumb-printed my journal (I have an inkless "inkpad"), I immediately offer hand sanitizer. I did one signing next to someone's backyard pool where the husband stood closer to me, put his wife was a good 15ft away, and he would walk every document she needed to sign over to her and bring it back. They both wore mask and gloves as well. And it still fulfilled the physical presence requirement, and I could keep an eye on my journal.

Or you could do a doorstep signing for everything except notarizations. And the notary could pre-fill out the notary certificates prior to the appointment with everything except their signature and stamp, provided they had enough time to do so prior to the appointment. They could also make sure their journal is easily accessible and ready to be signed and thumbprinted by the signer(s).

I hope this helps, and that you're able to find a solution that works!

@Jingru Sui, great questions. First, yes, blue ink is the standard unless it specifically says to use black ink (every lender is different, but most require blue or have no requirements, so I always have them use blue unless black ink is specifically asked for). Regarding the "doorstep" or "contactless" signings... a few signing services or title companies suggested we do that if the signer requested. I personally would not for a number of reasons. I can't speak for all mobile notaries, but here are the problems that I see with that.

1. It's impossible to say that the person signed of their own free will and wasn't coerced. If I'm not in the room, I can't tell. I know it's unlikely, but it does put me as a notary at risk if I was ever to be asked about the signing.

2. For notarizations, part of the requirement is that the signer is physically present when I sign and stamp the document to notarize it. This requirement wouldn't be fulfilled if I signed and stamped in my car while they were inside.

3. For Jurats, which are present in about 95% of the signings I've done, it requires that I physically see the signer sign in front of me as well as that I administer an oath.

4. I would only see at the very end of the signing if the signer filled out or signed something incorrectly (such as signing with black ink or not including their middle initial, missing a date, missing initials at the bottom of certain pages, etc).

5. In CA we're required to keep records of every single notarization we do in our journal. And each notarization I do, the signer(s) must sign my journal and leave their right thumbprint. So I have dozens of people's personal information there. And I'm required to keep the journal under my control unless asked to surrender it by a police officer or the secretary of state. There is absolutely no way I'm giving my journal to someone to take out of my sight to sign and thumbprint. All it would take is one person taking a quick cell-phone photo and I could lose my notary commission. 

That said, I don't mean to be all doom and gloom. I have been doing signings throughout the past few months, and have been taking precautions, especially with signers who are over age 60. Obviously the last thing anyone wants is to spread a virus we don't know we have and get someone else very sick. One of the biggest things I would do is sign outdoors, weather permitting (might be difficult if it's raining, with paper documents and all). I've done a few outdoors, and it was pretty easy. I still wear mask and a new, clean pair of gloves. But I also wash or sanitize my hands before and after each signing appointment, and I wipe down everything that comes out of my bag at the table with disinfectant wipes at the beginning of the appointment (so my phone, my stamp, the pens, my keys, etc). I have a legal sized clipboard so that documents don't blow away. And when they have thumb-printed my journal (I have an inkless "inkpad"), I immediately offer hand sanitizer. I did one signing next to someone's backyard pool where the husband stood closer to me, put his wife was a good 15ft away, and he would walk every document she needed to sign over to her and bring it back. They both wore mask and gloves as well. And it still fulfilled the physical presence requirement, and I could keep an eye on my journal.

Or you could do a doorstep signing for everything except notarizations. And the notary could pre-fill out the notary certificates prior to the appointment with everything except their signature and stamp, provided they had enough time to do so prior to the appointment. They could also make sure their journal is easily accessible and ready to be signed and thumbprinted by the signer(s).

I hope this helps, and that you're able to find a solution that works for him!

@Jingru Sui, If he resides in CA it will be really difficult... I can't speak for GA, as laws there are different, but I am a notary public in California, and as he physically resides in CA those are the laws he must abide by. California allows E-notarization but not Remote Online Notarization. You still have to physically appear in person for an E-notarization, but I don't know of any notaries who actually do this, as it's usually much easier to just stamp a physical paper.
Below is an article that talks a bit more about it. 
https://www.docverify.com/Products/E-Notaries/Electronic-Notary-and-Remote-Notary-Platform/What-is-an-Electronic-Notary
However, since the property is in GA, and therefore the Deed would be filed there, it may be possible to notarize through a site like Notarized or Snapdocs. 

I'll second what Brendan said on becoming a notary signing agent. I've gone this route and while it definitely has its ups and downs, it's definitely worth the effort. The only issue with starting now is that it's likely that you can't take the test during the shelter-in-place. (every state is different, but I'm in CA and know people who want to take the test but can't until things reopen). And then it's a few weeks after taking the test to get your commission in the mail. But it's still a small startup cost and you're able to make money within a few weeks instead of in 6 months.

That's for ELECTRONIC notarization... which still requires you to be physically present before a notary. At this time CA still doesn't allow you to notarize something when you are in a different location from the notary.

https://www.notarycam.com/e-notary-versus-remote-notary-what-is-in-a-name/

https://www.docverify.com/Support/Community-Forum/tabid/237/forumid/14/threadid/59/scope/posts/Whats-the-difference-between-e-Signing-e-Notarization-and-Remote-e-Notarization

Hi Ray, I'm a mobile Notary in CA, and unfortunately CA doesn't allow online notarization. You might be able to find an out of state notary to do a remote online notarization, but there is a lot of room for fraud, and your personal information isn't incredibly safe. My suggestion would be to find a mobile notary in your area to come to you. These days, for the signings I do, I'm wearing mask & gloves, and often do signings outdoors so that there's much lower risk of spreading viruses, and I know most notaries are doing the same these days if that's your concern.

I'm a mobile notary in CA, and we were originally told that only actual banks are essential, but later received word that banks and credit unions and businesses that support these services are deemed essential, which would include title, escrow, and mobile notaries. A lot of title/escrow places are still open, just not allowing non-employees in. I've heard of some "curbside closings" kind of like a drive through as long as you physically appear before the notary, and also if you don't mind having a mobile notary you can request that the signing be outdoors. From what I understand things are still being recorded at the county, but are being e-recording now.