Recently, I have observed that there is a bit of confusion among new notaries regarding where real estate and loan signing work comes from and how to connect into that flow. Below is a list of sources of work for real estate deals and loan signings. I’ve tried to put the sources in order from most common to least common. Hopefully, this will help clarify where loan signing and real estate work comes from and how it gets to notaries.
Congratulations! You’ve made it! This is the final article on the series Wills and Estate Documents for Notaries. Thanks for hanging in there for all five installments--you’ve learned a lot! Today’s article will provide the five top points to remember when you are handling an assignment involving a trust as the principal signer. Kudos to you for focusing on education. I realize that it’s always more fun and exciting to talk about marketing ideas and making money, but all professions require continuing education and reminders on the pitfalls of their careers. Notaries are no different. For this reason, I encourage notaries to take advantage of the high quality, reasonably priced...
Welcome to Part 4 of the Wills and Estates series in which we have been discussing notarizing estate planning documents. Today, we will shift directions a bit and talk about handling a loan signing appointment where one party has been granted the authority to sign documents for another through the execution of a power of attorney (POA). This can happen when a borrower has suffered a stroke lets another person handle signing of documents. Another situation is when a spouse is out of town or a borrowing spouse is in the military. I have also handled loans with single borrowers who are on military duty and have left one of their parents in charge of their affairs...
Welcome to the third installment of our series “Wills and Estate Documents for Notaries.” This week's article contains basic information that should help you oversee the signing of a power of attorney. We won’t cover any legalities or specifics of the differences between a limited and general power of attorney or touch on the document’s durability. This information is not legal advice; it is based on my experiences.
Welcome to the second installment of Wills and Estate Documents for Notaries series! If you missed Part 1, you'll find it here. ------- Since the arrival of free and cheap online do-it-yourself (DIY) legal forms, notaries are called more frequently than ever to notarize wills. Today’s article is about handling about wills from a notary signing agent’s view. A notary’s focus in this type of work is: to identify the signer of the will, ensure the will appears to be complete with no glaring blanks or spaces waiting to be filled in with missing vital information, witness the signatures placed on the will, and to perform the verbal ceremony that goes along with the will’s execution. Legal Jargon Not Used...
This is the third in a series of articles about commercial loans. Unless you have questions you'd like to see answered regarding commercial loans for notary signing agents, we are moving to the topic of wills and powers of attorney,. ---------- I thought I was early when I walked into the multi-story building that housed the Houston title company that had hired me for the next three days. I would be handling their overflow of borrowers who were closing on home equity loans. I wanted to make a good impression, so I arrived early--around 7:30 a.m. I'm not going to lie. I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. When I found the office, finally. I figured that it was so early, surely no one...
Last week we reviewed nine typical loan packages and discussed the sizes of each and the estimated number of notarial acts. There are a few loan types that are significantly different than the others, the commercial mortgage loan being the most different. The topic of commercial loans is also quite popular with new notaries. With that in mind, this week, we are going to cover the six primary differences that notaries need to know about when switching over from residential loans to handling commercial loans.
If you are new to the notary business, you may feel like receiving the documents for your assignment is like opening up a box of Cracker Jacks and digging out a prize. Are there 200 pages in that file or 20? 500 or 50? Will I need to notarize something? How many documents need notarization? The guessing game can be fun for about three minutes, but then you need facts. Today's article may help you better know what to expect when you receive an assignment. We will analyze assignments in this article based on the following variables: Size of the package (pages) Number of notarizations Other nuances of the deal This article can’t cover ALL the different types of lending or real estate packages, but we will...
If you are a new notary public or a new notary business owner, the six steps listed below can help to set up the right public image for your notary career. These steps aren't new discoveries , but they can be easily overlooked while you are trying to learn how to handle your new duties as a notary professional.
Today, we are focusing on confusing and unfamiliar documents that notaries are requested to notarize. We are going in this direction today because after polling several new notaries this month, I learned that many would like to know how to handle documents they have never heard of--the crazy ones...the ones that are not in loan document packages. I ran across one that made me scratch my head, so we will take a look at it. Its purpose is to say who gets my DNA results from a genealogy company when I die. It is called a Beneficiary of DNA Information, and it is pictured in the image below.
A "split signing" is a type of notary signing appointment. Being signed are real estate or loan documents--the reason is it referred to as a split signing is because all of the signers can't attend at the same time. Therefore, a transaction that would normally require one appointment will require at least two appointments. Today, our example signers will be siblings--Jack Smith and Jill Jones. Jack are Jill are co-owners who are selling property that was left to them in equal shares by a deceased relative. Here are three complicating factors -- Jill lives Dallas, Texas. Jack lives in Madison, Wisconsin. The property is in Houston. Unfortunately, when the documents were drawn up, the attorneys who drafted the documents for sellers Jack and Jill...
Today, we are going to discuss ten habits of notaries who perform like experts and gain repeat business. Notaries at any level of experience can do these things to project professionalism and become more desirable to hiring parties!
