Colorado Springs Notary - Leon Austin

There's a saying: 'You won't know how far you can go, until you've gone too far.'

For a runner it might mean setting a goal to complete a marathon.  For a mountain climber -- reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

It doesn't have to pertain to distance or height.  It could mean pushing yourself to achieve more in your career -- doing things that require you to take on more responsibility, gain more skills, ... etc.

Seeing 'how far you can go' can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people.

For me it meant accepting an assignment yesterday to do a closing in Trinidad, Colorado.  The closing location was more than 140 miles from Colorado Springs -- the farthest I have ever driven to do a closing.

When I first started as a notary signing agent, if a company had asked me if I could do a closing that far away, I might have told them to try to find someone else who is closer.  But a lot of times there isn't a notary signing agent who is closer.

It was a good experience, and it taught me a lot of things.  It forced me to get a little farther out of my comfort zone.  In the future, if a company asks me if I can do a closing that is more than 100 miles away, I can answer affirmatively.  And I actually look forward to doing more closings in southern Colorado.

There was something else that I gained from that closing assignment.  Trinidad is about as far south as you can go in Colorado.  In fact, I was only 6 miles from the border. 

So after the closing I took a short trip into New Mexico.

Being a notary signing agent requires working with a lot of different companies.  And a large part of that entails following a lot of instructions.  It can get a little confusing. 

But there are a lot of positive things about it.  For one thing, it broadens your horizons. 

It's like the world traveler who has experienced being in many different parts of the globe.

They have learned to deal with all kinds of people, and are comfortable in a lot of different situations.

The signing agent can take a similar approach when working with different companies. 

Assimilate the good practices of each one.

Take a little bit from this company ... a little bit from that one.

Treat it like a buffet.

Good luck.

I got a call last Thursday from a real estate company to do a closing here in Colorado Springs.  The caller said she found my name on SigningAgent.com.  That is the NNA (National Notary Association) database of notary signing agents.

In order to be listed on SigningAgent.com, one must pay annual membership dues to belong to the NSA Section.  The annual cost: $39.  That's not all.  One must also belong to the NNA.

My NSA Section membership will expire at the end of February:

I have already renewed my NNA membership.  So I'm good until the end of January 2010.  But I debated whether I would renew my membership in the NSA Section.

Then I thought about that closing I did last Friday.  The company is paying me more than what it costs to be a member of the NNA and the NSA Section combined.  In other words, both of those memberships were paid for through that one closing assignment.

Not all notary signing agents will agree with me on this.  There are signing agents who say they have never gotten any calls through that site.  Granted, there are very many signing agents listed on that site.  And the names are arranged according to which signing agents are certified and background screened, then those who are not.  It's not like some sites where you can pay extra for a higher placing.  So for those signing agents, it may seem futile to continue to pay an annual membership fee when there doesn't appear to be a return on their investment.

But if you get just one call from that site, then it's worth it.  And there are some additional benefits to being a member of the NSA Section.

So does it pay to belong to the NNA?  Well, I haven't received the check for that closing I did last Thursday.  But for now I think it's safe to say, 'yes'.

Good luck.

People often wonder how notary signing agents find work.  One of the ways is by signing up with signing services.

There is usually a contract that the notary signing agent has to sign.  And there may be some documents that have to be submitted as well.  The purpose of these documents are to prove that the notary signing agent has a valid notary commission, they have E&O insurance, ... etc.

And one other thing: your notary seal

Not all companies require this, but there are some.  I recently signed up with a company that requested it:

I provided everything else ... except an impression from my notary seal.

The notary seal is not something to be taken lightly.  The only time it is to be used is at the time of notarization.  When I re-ink my seal is the only exception.

I politely told the company that I cannot provide them with an impression from my notary seal.  They still accepted my application.  A company cannot make a notary do anything that is against the law.  I can't understand why a company would want to have an impression of the notary's seal in the first place.  They are already requesting a copy of the notary certificate.

The use of the seal is covered in the Colorado Revised Statutes (CRS 12-55-112).

There is also an article regarding this in the March/April 2006 issue of The Notary, published by the Notary Law Institute.  The title of the article is: Things the Courts Call Big "No No's"

"2. Never affix your seal to any paper without there first being notarial certificate wording theron, or it is considered an abuse of your notarial authority. ..."

I will be glad to send any company a photo of my notary seal.  But never an impression from it.

There seems to be a 'prime time' for remote closings, and it's usually in the evenings when most people are home for the day after getting off work.

What this means for notary signing agents is that we usually will get several requests to do a closing at times when we are already booked.  For the company looking for a closer, it means they have to look for someone else to do the closing. And they might not be able to find anyone else.  For the borrower it might mean that there isn't another notary signing agent available, and their closing will have to be rescheduled.

It's not the kind of position we want to put the borrowers in.

When I first started as a notary signing agent, I tended to say 'no' in situations like this.  What I didn't think about was that the borrowers might be flexible.  And a lot of times they are.  If there isn't a notary signing agent available for 5 p.m., the borrowers may be willing and able to do their closing instead at 7 p.m.  It's better than not at all.

So now, instead of saying 'no' if I'm booked, I offer to work it around my schedule.  I tell the company that I'm willing to do the closing at an earlier or later time, if the borrowers are also willing.  And a lot of times it works out that they are.

I got a call yesterday to do a closing on Monday at 3 p.m.  I already have a closing scheduled for 4 p.m., so there is no way that I could do it at that time.  I told the caller that I would be willing to do it earlier or later.  He called the borrower, then called me back.  He asked me if I could do the closing at 6 p.m.  I agreed. 

The title company has found a closer, and the borrower will get his loan closed.  It's a win situation for everyone.  All that is required is finding a solution.

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"The image of success is important, but even more important is the ability to focus on solutions instead of problems. ..."  - Donald Trump

I got a short-notice call to do a $.M.A.R.T. loan closing. There was a non-borrowing spouse on the documents. I told the husband that his wife needed to be there to sign some of the documents.

Apparently no one told the wife.

Sometimes the financial representative shows up for these closings. It would have been a good idea if he had been there for this one.

The wife was upset because her husband didn't tell her about the loan, and that she would need to sign some of the documents. To keep a long story short, I won't tell you all that transpired. I'll simply say, she decided that she would teach her husband a lesson.

She didn't sign.

Perhaps he'll communicate with her a little better in the future.
 

I got a call yesterday from a woman in Canada.  She needed a document notarized for her son who lives in Colorado Springs.  Yes, it would be simpler if the son arranged all of this, but the mother wanted to be as much help as possible.

She said the he needed some travel documents notarized.  I asked her if the documents had notarial wording on them. She said 'no'.  They were letters that she would be writing.

I get a lot of requests like this.  Someone will want a document notarized, but the document doesn't contain notarial wording.  By law, a notary cannot choose what type of notarization to perform in a situation like this.  We have to follow the instructions of the signer.

But since I wasn't in communication with the signer, but rather his mother, I explained to her what I could do.  I told her to tell her son what type of notarization he wanted so that he could instruct me.

The mother will write the letters and send them to her son.  He'll call me to make an appointment, with the knowledge of what type of notarization he wants for the documents.

I got an unusual request yesterday.  A man called and said that his wife needed to take a certification test, and that the test had to be notarized -- proving that she took the test on her own and within the prescribed amount of time.  I would be glad to notarize the affidavit.  But there was just one thing: 

I would also be the one administering the test.

That is not exactly what I do, I explained.  That would entail sitting there and waiting while she took the test.  How long would it take?  Perhaps 2 hours or more?

My primary function is as a notary.  But my primary occupation is notary signing agent. 

I close loans for a living.  That's how I pay the bills.  So I gave the man an estimate based on what I could earn in 2 or more hours if I were closing loans.  The fee was more than he was willing to pay.

I offered some suggestions.  What needed to be proven was that his wife took the test on her own. She could go to a nearby school or college and have someone in a testing center administer the test, write a letter, and have it notarized by a notary on staff.  That should more than suffice as evidence.

Granted, the fee that I quoted was much higher than the $5 fee for notarizing an affidavit.  But considering how much time I would spend driving to the person, administering the test, then driving back, I simply based the fee on what I thought 2+ hours of time in a working day is worth.

What is your time worth?

I had a closing last night, and we had to keep our voices down -- almost to a whisper.  The reason: we didn't want to disturb any of the patrons who were reading or studying. 

The closing was at the public library.

It was originally scheduled to be conducted at the borrower's home.  But the wife requested that we do it at the library instead.  She had to go to work after the closing, and her place of work was nearby.

Not a problem.  And that's the beauty of remote closings.  They can be done just about anywhere.

But since this was at the public library, we had to keep in mind ...

Shh!

As I was studying for the 123notary certification exam I came across a comment from a signing agent in one of the lessons.  It was regarding the 'Statement of Information'.  That's the document that asks borrowers to list their past residences for the last 10 years, places of employment, prior marriages, information about the property, ... and a lot of other personal things.

This particular signing agent recommended having the borrowers fill out the Statement of Information at the very beginning of the signing.  This would allow him or her time to fill out their notary journal.

If it works for that signing agent -- good.  There really is no order in which signing agents have to sign any of the documents.  Usually the only thing that matters is maintaining the stacking order.

As you can see from this closing that I had, the Statement of Information was page 6 of the title documents:

And there have been loan packages where it was even farther into the stack than that.  If I had the borrowers fill it out first, as that signing agent recommended, it would still have to come out of order.  And if I left it in this order, it would disrupt the flow of the signing, in my opinion.

How about at the very end?

This is something I have been doing for a very long time -- having the borrowers fill out the Statement of Information as the very last document.

Why?

My reasoning is that, it really doesn't take me that long to fill out my journal.  So I don't see a point in having the borrowers fill it out in the beginning.  The first document that I want to go over with the borrowers is the HUD Settlement Statement.  And I don't want to disrupt the flow of the signing by having them fill it out in the middle.  Sometimes the borrowers have to think about some of the information, or they have to search their records for some of the information.  This can take a while.

The point at which I could really use some time is when I am reviewing the documents, at the end of the closing.  I want to take my time and make sure that the borrowers have signed and dated all of the documents properly, make sure that we didn't miss anything, ... etc.

So while the borrowers are filling out the Statement of Information at the end of the closing, I'm reviewing the documents.  And it usually works out that we are both finished at the same time.  And sometimes I'm finished before they are.  And I can announce to them, to their satisfaction ...

... that's all folks!

Good luck.