The Notary Signing Agent

Since I am a paralegal by trade, I decided to use my notary license to become a notary signing agent. A notary signing agent is a person who travels to a borrower's house with the loan documents and assists people in completing their mortage loan documents and notarizing the necessary pages.

So, about five years ago, I started signing up with a few notary databases and waited for the phone to ring. I didn't have to wait long, and I found that you can actually make good money doing this. Of course, there are always signing companies that are slow to pay, won't pay, go out of business, find some small reason not to pay you or reduce your fee.

A couple of years ago, when Nevada had its real estate boom, being a notary signing agent was a great way to make money. But with all of the recent changes in mortgages and the whole ARM fiasco, business has really dropped off. Signing companies are reducing the fees that they will pay and expect signers to work for pennies.

I would certainly recommend this to anyone with a notary license already who is looking to make some extra money. My advice would be to sign up on the National Notary Association website which is SigningAgent.com and also google notary signing services to find some reputable companies to sign up and be included in their database.

Personally, I charge $50.00 for a local signing when the documents are delivered to my door. I add an additional $25.00 to print the documents on my laser printer and I charge for time and mileage if I have to go out of town. Of course, there are some companies which give me quite a bit of business, so I charge them a little less. Always remember, when it is a last minute signing that the title company really needs to get done, you can always charge more.

If you average my earnings out over the last five years, I generally make about $300 to $400 per month, which is not bad for extra money.

Always remember, you need multiple streams of income to build wealth. I hope that I have been helpful.