MortgageDocs Blog

5 Ways to Gain More Notary Business in Today’s Mortgage Crisis

We frequently hear one request. How can I get more notary signings? Many notaries can relate to this predicament. They aren’t wondering whether their glass is half full or half empty, they’re wondering where to find the water.

We get this question a lot now that the industry has slowed down. You can generally attribute the lack of business to the current state of the market. In addition, the loan industry is worse in certain areas of the country such as California and Florida. Whereas many of our California notaries used to see a signing request once a day, many of them now see signing requests once a week. You can almost bet the market is the primary problem if you are located in a region that has experienced a more adverse impact from the economic situation.

Much of the problem lies outside of your control. Banks are eliminating risky practices reducing the number of loans they are willing to service. The result is fewer borrowers qualifying for loans. The federal government is trying to alleviate the pain by lowering interest rates which, in the long run, should stimulate growth. But it will take time before we’ll see the effects. While you are powerless to encourage banks to lend more money, in many cases there are things a notary can do to pick up more business. These are the five most important things you can do to gain more notary business this year.

1. Prompt communication - Reply to your emails and answer your phones ASAP

You should be extremely careful about doing this if you are in the middle of a signing. In most cases it is not appropriate to interrupt the flow of the signing in order to respond to an email or reply to a text message. You need to remain professional whenever you are with a borrower and part of that means giving them your undivided attention. In some situations you will be able to excuse yourself for a second in order to respond to an email or answer a phone call. A convenient time to do this might be if the borrower is on hold with the loan officer resolving some document discrepancy.

However, in all other cases, do everything you can to keep your communication lines open. Which means–keep your cell phone charged at all times and frequently check your email throughout the day. MortgageDocs has built a reputation of providing a notary for our client’s borrower in less than 30 minutes. Unfortunately, we don’t have time to wait for callbacks. If you do miss a phone call, return it as soon as possible. The longer you wait the less likely the signing will be available.

2. Accept everything that is offered…just be sure to keep your feet on the ground

Responding quickly is important, but you also want to make sure that you aren’t simply responding with variations of “sorry, I’m busy.” As much as possible, you have to take all of the business that’s offered to you. Turning down work now, could cost you work in the future.

Think about the potential long term impact of turning down work. If you were the only notary in your coverage area and you decided to pass up on an opportunity for a signing, a new notary will be added to complete the work. What you initially thought was the loss of one signing request, now turns into multiple requests as future orders are shared.

While we try to be as fair as possible when assigning notaries to loan signing requests, it makes sense to be known as the notary who never turns us down. If we contact five notaries in a given area and one particular notary stands out above the rest as being the most available, it is only natural to gravitate toward that notary with any future opportunities.

You still need to use discretion when accepting work. Never overcrowd your schedule to a point that is unmanageable (see picture). This is especially important during the end-of-the-month rush.

3. Ensure that your work is top-notch

Remember to apply the following principles for a successful loan signing:

• Be courteous, professional, and timely.
• Keep your focus.
• Avoid industry jargon; your instruction should be simple and concise.
• Do not bring children along with you.
• Be neat, clean, conservative, and professionally groomed. Dress for success!!!

It is also important to send the completed signing back to the lender without any errors. You should be in the habit of double and triple-checking your work.

4. Go above and beyond to satisfy the borrower

Now is not the time to rush through a signing. You need to make sure that every borrower is completely satisfied with the level of service you provided them. Don’t give them a reason to complain to their loan officer about the unfriendly notary. Instead, they should be telling their loan officer how much they appreciated the signing. It’s always a positive when a lender begins to request a specific notary because of their consistently outstanding performance.

5. Offer your best price

The last thing you want to consider when the cost of living has increased, is lowering your price. Believe me, I know. But let’s consider basic supply and demand principles for a moment.

Remember the Tickle Me Elmo doll? The demand for this toy skyrocketed in 1996, before it was even available for purchase. Unfortunately for Tyco, they did not anticipate the phenomenon that took place. When the doll became available for purchase the supply was so low and the demand was so high that stores were able to charge fees as outrageous as $1500.

Now let’s try to apply this concept to your notary service. In theory, your price is in an inverse relationship with the supply. Therefore, the higher your fee (demand) the lower the quantity of work you will receive (supply). If you are the cheapest notary in an area, and all other factors are equal, you will receive the highest quantity of work. On the other hand, if you are the only notary in your coverage area, you can demand more money for your service since the supply is low.

Your goal is to reach a state of equilibrium–a point where you are charging just the right amount to receive no more or less work than you desire. Obviously, if you’re getting so many offers that you’re having to turn work down, you have priced your service too low. On the other hand, if you price your fee too high, you might be passed over for the notaries with lower fees.

The problem with applying this concept to the loan industry is that the quantity of goods (# of available signings) is in short supply. In other markets, a company can play with their price and production until they come close to equilibrium. They can lower their fee to increase demand and all they have to do to make more money is increase their production. But that isn’t possible in the loan industry. The supply is narrowing by the day. Fewer borrowers are applying for loans.

For notaries, the signing service is the supplier so they have the most influence upon the price. When a loan signing that is in short supply becomes available, the signing service will find whoever offers the most competitive price (again, all other factors being equal).

Remember, the notary is only one piece of the puzzle. Everyone, including the signing service, must collectively offer their best price when the market tightens in order to allow lenders to make a better offer to borrowers who are ultimately the ones driving the market.

Hopefully, I haven’t completely confused you at this point. If I have, just ignore step 5.

In Summary

Work is slow throughout the nation. There is only so much within your control that you can do.

1. Providing prompt communication can set your service apart from other notaries who are less responsive.
2. Accepting all the work that is offered to you can place you in a good position for future work.
3. Performing top-notch signing services will keep everyone happy establishing you as a notary who provides quality service on a consistent basis.
4. Going out of your way to take care of difficult borrowers will give our clients a good impression of your service and may lead to direct requests for you on future signing orders.
5. Offering your best price will eliminate the temptation to use a notary with lower fees.

While none of these suggestions guarantee you’ll receive more notary business in 2008, it could mean the difference between staying in the industry and looking elsewhere.

We wish you all the best and look forward to seeing the market rebound!