Colorado Springs Notary - Leon Austin

Many people have a family doctor.  They might also have a family lawyer, a family pastor, an accountant, and a few other people whom they turn to when they need those particular types of services.  They feel comfortable turning to just one person, because that person is intimate with their family medical history, their personal history, their financial situation, their legal situation, ... etc.  And it's someone whom they can trust.

So why not have a family notary?

The thought crossed my mind today after I received a call from a woman who needed notary service.  I did the closing for her and her husband a couple of weeks ago at their place of work.  They were happy that they didn't have to leave work to do their closing.  And they were pleased with how I handled their loan documents, and how I safeguarded their personal information.  I believe they felt I was someone whom they could trust.  And I have a feeling that they will call me again when they need a notary.

Although a notary public is a public servant, it's not out of the question that people can have just one notary whom they can turn to for all of their notary needs -- someone whom they can trust.  And you want a notary who has passed a background screening.

And if that notary is also a mobile notary, they know that they can depend on him or her to come to them when most businesses are closed for the day. 

They have a notary who makes 'house calls' -- in any type of weather.

Another benefit to having a family notary is that the notary won't need to see your identification each time you need something notarized.  The notary can identify you based on personal knowledge.

There are many types of documents that depend on the services of a notary: Wills, Power of Attorney, Copy Certifications, real estate documents, travel documents, employment documents, financial documents, ... and many more. 

Instead of going to a different notary each time you needed notary service, you would turn to your family notary, and have the notarization done in the privacy of your own home.

Do you have a family notary?

A remote closing is supposed to be a convenience to the borrower.  But sometimes the convenience will have to be mixed with a bit of inconvenience.

One of the requirements of the notary signing agent is to properly identify the borrowers.  And one of the requests made of the borrower is that they provide a photocopy of their ID.

In a closing I had last Friday, the borrower handed me the photocopy of his and his wife's ID.  Nevertheless, I asked to see the original. 

What?!

This meant that the borrower had to go outside, in the cold, and get his wife's driver license out of her car.  Then he had to go upstairs to get his.

Was all of that really necessary?

I'm afraid so.  As much as I would have liked to spare the borrowers the inconvenience of having to go through all of that, I had to.  It's not enough to see a photocopy of their ID.  I must see the original, and inspect it.

This wasn't the first time that this has happened.  On another occasion I did a closing at a hospital. It was for a doctor. The borrower had the photocopy, but she left the original in her purse in her office.  She had to go to an adjacent building and take the elevator up several floors.

Perhaps the misunderstanding is because some people have never appeared before a notary. Or they appeared before a notary and were not asked to present any form of identification.  Or they showed a photocopy of it and it was accepted.

Unfortunately a photocopy of the ID won't do.  Whenever a person appears before a notary, they must present the original.

In the movie, Schindler's List, Oskar Schindler recalled his father saying that there are three things you need in life: 'a good doctor, a forgiving priest, and a clever accountant.'

If you asked a notary signing agent what those three things are, they might say: a cell phone, a computer, and an automobile.  There are some other things that we need, but those are near the top of the list.  Especially the automobile, which is why I try to take good care of mine.  Without it, I'm out of business.

So I went to the VW dealer yesterday and made an appointment for Friday for some routine maintenance on my Jetta.  I'm having the oil changed.  The mechanic will also check some of the other fluids.  A great way to begin the year 2009: a new year, and new fluids. 

I should be relieved, knowing that I will have this service done on my car. Actually, I'm worried.  In fact, I could hardly sleep last night.  I considered calling today and cancelling the appointment.

Why?  Because I have lost faith in auto mechanics. It's not just a loss of faith. It has escalated into a fear of them. 

There was one mechanic that I believe was sabotaging my car.  Things would be perfectly normal before I brought the car to him.  When I got it back, there would be problems.  And of course, he was more than willing to 'fix' the problems -- for an additional charge.

A few months ago the plastic handle inside the car that opens the hood broke.  I took it to the dealer and asked him how much it would cost to fix it.  The price: $400.  He would need to replace the cable that goes from the handle to the hood.  This would require a lot of labor, he said.  I asked him how much it would cost for just the handle. $25.  I bought the handle and fixed it myself.  Saved $375.

In fact, I can't get a mechanic there to even look at my car without them wanting to charge me $90 to hook it up to a machine that does a test on the various systems.

So I'm a little anxious about taking my car to the dealer on Friday -- fearing that a routine oil change might mean having to replace the engine.

I keep telling myself that my fears are irrational, and that I should trust them.

But I don't.

So much for 'Fahrvergnügen'.

The National Notary Association conference will be held in Las Vegas in 2009 -- from June 9 to June 12. You can read all about it if you received the January issue of The National Notary.  Or visit the National Notary Association Conference 2009 website.  There will be many speakers to listen to, and many workshops to attend.  There will be so much going on over those 4 days that the people attending the conference will certainly miss some events.

And many of us will miss all of it.

I wasn't able to attend last year's conference in Los Angeles.  And I won't be able to attend the one in 2009 either.  And there will be very many other notaries who will not be able to attend the 2009 conference, for various reasons.

There were a few workshops that I especially wished I could have attended.  I called the NNA and asked if it was possible to get transcripts or handouts from some of the workshops.  I'd be willing to pay for them, of course.  There was no way to get a certificate of completion for them.  I wasn't interested in that.  I wanted the knowledge. 

Unfortunately they didn't make transcripts, and they weren't making any handouts available.

It is unfortunate. 

Hopefully the NNA will enable people who won't be able to attend the conference in 2009 to still take part in it.  There are various ways to do it.  The technology is available.

I received the January issue of The National Notary, published by the National Notary Association.  In it (on page 24) is an article about opportunities for notaries who know a foreign language.

I agree that knowing a foreign language can be a benefit.  I've even submitted a few articles on this subject in my ActiveRain blog.  Although the article in The National Notary has some merits, there are several things that I have to take issue with.

It mentions the difficulties of learning dialects. For example, Chinese.  It states: "Even to many Chinese, these dialects can be as alien as a foreign language."  If the language is difficult for Chinese, it will surely be a formidable task for English-speaking notaries trying to learn the language.

Some of what is involved in foreign language documents is irrelevant.  For example, no matter what language a document is written in, the notarial certificate should be in English.  At least that's the notary law in Colorado.

So what is a notary to do, who wants to learn a foreign language well enough to conduct notary business in that language?  My suggestion would be to structure your language learning around the types of situations that you will find yourself in.

I taught German for 20 years at the university level.  During that time I was often asked to teach special courses in German.  The people in these courses weren't interested in being able to read Goethe's Faust, and they had no intentions of studying at a German university.  For example, I taught an in-house German course for engineers at United Technologies.  They would occasionally travel to Germany to visit the BMW plant.  Their needs were specific.  So I designed a German course that focused on those needs.  There was a specific type of vocabulary and phrases that they would need to know.  It was the same when I taught a German for Travelers course. What situations will these people find themselves in, and how will they need to deal with them?

As I was reading the article in The National Notary, I couldn't help thinking that the same would apply to notaries who wanted to learn a foreign language.  There would be a basic vocabulary that notaries would want to have, and there would be phrases that they would want to learn. 

I'll give you an example.  Here are a couple of phrases that a notary would want to know if they were learning German:

As you can imagine, you don't need to sit through months and months of language classes.  You can separate the wheat from the chaff by learning just what you consider essential to your work as a notary.  You can do this through self-study. If you like, you can employ the aid of a native speaker to help you with understanding the spoken word, and for help with being able to speak the language. You wouldn't need to know that German has 3 different genders, 4 different cases, and a lot of other things that drive people crazy about the German language.  Learn just what you need to know to conduct business as a notary.

This will take some imagination on your part.  You want to anticipate what situations you will find yourself in, and how you will respond to them.  What questions might be asked of you?  How do you say that in German? Or Spanish? Or whatever language you have decided to learn.

Fluency in a foreign language is nice to have.  But there is more to learning a foreign language than having a mastery of it.  There is a practical use for it.

Viel Glück! (Good luck)

See also:

Should notary signing agents learn foreign languages?

Is there a need for multilingual notaries?

It will be 2009 in a few days.  Be sure to update your profiles on the sites where you are listed.  Even if you just did so recently. 

The reason: When companies view your profile, you don't want it to show that it was last updated in 2008.  It will still appear that it has been a year since you were active.

Start the new year off right, as far as your notary signing agent business is concerned, and have all of your profiles indicate that you updated it in 2009.

Have a prosperous new year.

Jack had just completed his training to become a notary signing agent.  He was anxious to get started doing loan signings, so he signed up with dozens of signing services -- as many as he could find.  He didn't care who they were, or what their policies were.  He just wanted to do loan signings.

It wasn't long before Jack finally received a call to do a closing.  It was his first closing assignment, and he was very excited.  He did the closing and dropped off the loan documents. He did all of the administrative things that were required from the company. 

All that was left was to get his first check.

Several weeks passed and Jack had not received payment.  And he never would receive payment for that closing.  The reason: The borrower cancelled the loan.

Jack called the signing service and demanded payment.  The signing service told Jack that they would not pay him because the borrower exercised his right to cancel.  It was Jack's very first closing, and he would receive absolutely no payment for it.  Not even a 'trip fee'.

Read the fine print

In Jack's eagerness to sign up with as many companies as possible, he did not take the time to read the contracts for each of the companies.  If he had read the contract for this particular company, he would have seen, way down at the bottom of the page, the following:

It was stated in the contract, and Jack agreed to it:

There are other reasons that signing agents will not receive payment for a closing.  Also in that agreement are the following terms:

"If a notary does not invoice within 30 days of the closing with the date of closing, borrower last name and title information the notary will not receive payment."

Also:

"Notary shall notify (name of company) of all successfully completed assignments prior to 7:30 a.m. EST the next business day."

So if a signing agent oversleeps and fails to submit a completion report by 7:30 a.m. the next day, they forfeit their fee.  Not only that, but they must include the 'title information'.

Jack is a fictitious character.  But he stands for a lot of notary signing agents who, in their zeal to sign up with a lot of companies, fail to read the contracts of the companies.  The contract is written for a purpose.  It's in the best interest of the signing agent to read it.  If they don't agree to it, then don't sign up with the company.  And if they do agree to it, and don't get paid, then, as we say in German ... "Schäm dich!" (Shame on you!)

The contracts are long, and they are tedious to read.  But take the time to read them.

Good luck.

I came across an article in the news this morning about the need for math and science teachers.  It was projected that schools will need 200,000 teachers over the next decade.  There is a need for teachers in other subjects as well, but the article focused on those 2 subjects.

One of the new teachers who was mentioned in the article was a career changer.  His career before becoming a science teacher: a loan officer.

Why on earth would a loan officer want to become a science teacher?

A desire to teach is one possible reason.  But there are also financial incentives.  There are scholarships.  President-elect Obama wants 40,000 scholarships made available to people who want to go into teaching.  A special emphasis would be placed on science and math teaching.

The loan officer is receiving a $5,000 scholarship.  In exchange for the scholarship, he is committed to teaching in the school district for at least three years.  He is able to teach classes while he's going to school.  He will have his teacher's license within a year.

Microsoft OneNote is a great tool for organizing all types of notes and information, regardless of your occupation.  I had already been using it for organizing personal information, then decided to create workbooks for my Notary Signing Agent information.

The beauty of OneNote is that it is simple to use, yet powerful. 

This is how a workbook appears on the screen. 

To the left you have tabs for all of the workbooks you've created. At the top are the sections in the workbook.  To the right are the pages for each section.  It's like having a 'table of contents' at a glance. 

There is no limit to how many workbooks, sections, and pages you can have.

I'll take you on a tour of my 'Notary Signing Agent' workbook, starting with the first page.  I created a table for expiration dates.  Not only that, but I added hyperlinks to some of them. 

For example, if I click on 'Notary Commission' it will take me to the website of the Colorado Secretary of State.  At the top of the page is a link to an Excel spreadsheet that I use for my business.  Already you can see just how flexible OneNote is.  Just below the table is an area where I can add more text.  But that is what I use the other pages for.  For now, I have a page for the following categories:

• Notary Law
• NSA Career Goals
• Loan Documents & Types
• eSign (eClosing)
• Continuing Education
• Marketing
• Office Supplies & Vendors
• Buy Add
• Demand for Payment Letter
• Resume
• Coverage Areas
• Links

In the 'Notary Law' section you can set it up to find any information you need regarding your state's notary laws.  If you are a member of the Notary Law Institute, you can download the newsletters on notary law and have a link to them in OneNote.

What are your goals?  You can create a list of things you want to accomplish in your career.

Know the loan documents inside and out by adding information about them in a separate page.  You can create hyperlinks to websites that provide more information about them.

Under the 'Notes' section is a template for the 'Cornell Note-Taking Method'.  This can be used for taking notes if you attend a lecture, or an online course.  Or use it for self-study. Lots of possibilities.

At the top are the various sections in my workbook.  If I click on 'Tools & Forms' I have links to my invoice, a personalized W9 form, Fax cover sheet, and Mapquest. 

The 'Companies' section is for different types of companies. This is also where I keep my no-no list.

You can imagine all of the possibilities for this section.  Keep notes on all of the companies you work with, those you're interested in, etc.  If you see a post on one of the notary sites, you can copy the information and post it in your OneNote workbook.

The last section is the 'Glossary'. I have it indexed in two ways.  On the first page are the letters A - Z.  There is also an index in the right column.  I created it by adding a separate page for each letter of the alphabet. The letter 'Z' is hidden, but I can access it easily from the first page.

The 'Search' feature can also be used to find any information in the Glossary, or anywhere else in the workbook. 

And not just the 'Notary Signing Agent' workbook.  It will also search through the 'Reverse Mortgage' workbook, or any other workbooks that I create.  You can imagine what a powerful search tool this can be once you start adding more and more information.  You can have it all at your fingertips.

Let's do a search so you can get an idea.  I'll do a search on the word 'reverse'.

Not only does it show me all instances of the word 'reverse' in my Notary Signing Agent workbook:

It will also take me to the Reverse Mortgage workbook that I created. Note that now the 'Reverse Mortgage' tab is highlighted in the left column, indicating that I am now in a different workbook:

Create as many workbooks and pages as you want.  Making changes is very simple. There are lots of tools, such as hyperlinks to link your information to websites or files on your hard drive. You can imbed audio and video.  If you use QuickBooks for accounting, you can imbed a link to it in your workbook.

OneNote can be the one file that you go to for all of your notary signing agent information.

You can share your workbook with others.  This is beneficial for notary signing agent networks, or if you are collaborating on a project with someone else.

You can link your tasks in Outlook to OneNote.

There is an application that you can add on to OneNote that allows you to print any of the pages (or the entire workbook) in PDF. 

As you can see, you can also send your pages as email.  This will come in handy when marketing, or for sharing information with others in the profession.

In a separate topic I'll show what I've done to create a Reverse Mortgage Manual for notary signing agents.

The possibilities for organizing information are endless.  Whatever you can imagine, you can do with OneNote.

For more information about OneNote, go to: Microsoft Office Online - OneNote 

Any questions that notary signing agents will be asked by the borrowers at a closing fall into 3 categories:

• those that can't be answered
• those that can be answered, and
• those that shouldn't be answered

Questions in the first category are usually easy to deal with.  These questions are the kinds of questions that the loan officer should answer.  And that is the person we refer the borrowers to.

It's the questions in the last 2 categories that notary signing agents have to be prepared to deal with.  And it's not always easy, because questions that can be answered, might also be questions that shouldn't be answered.

Occasionally the borrowers will ask for advice.  A notary signing agent who is knowledgeable about real estate matters might be able to offer some, although they shouldn't.  We're not supposed to give advice, even if we know a subject inside and out.  Perhaps the best advice we can give is to suggest to the borrower that they call their loan officer.  Yes, it would be nice to come across as sounding like an expert.  But it's more important to steer clear of certain kinds of questions and plead ignorance.

Borrowers will sometimes ask how much we're being paid.  Either they want to know how much of their closing costs are being spent on our services, or they're considering becoming a notary signing agent and want to get an idea what to charge.  In either case, it's a question that can be answered, but shouldn't.  The problem is coming up with a good response, without being rude and telling the borrower: 'It's none of your business'.  Usually I tell the borrower that I am being paid by a third party.  If they press for a more specific answer, like a dollar amount, I might say that I send the company an invoice after the closing.  The fee will be based on the services provided, and it's always different for each closing.

Whenever I watch a political debate, one of the things that impresses me is the amount of preparation that is involved.  The candidates are also put into the position of being asked those 3 types of questions. They have to anticipate the questions that will be asked, and be prepared to make an intelligent response.

For notary signing agents, we never know which questions we will be asked.  And we don't have a staff of experts to prepare us.  All that we can do is keep a mental list of those questions that can't be answered, those that can be answered, and those that shouldn't be answered.  And somehow try to be prepared to give an intelligent answer.

Good luck.