Questions and Answers from NSA's - Article 12

Covers a wide variety of topics. Make sure you read them all to get all the information.

by  Victoria Ring---Bio

Dear Victoria:   I signed up to be in the Notary Directory but the web page address to my notary page is too long. It cannot fit on a business card.  Why can't I have a web page with a shorter URL?  --Sam

Dear Sam:  The web page you have in the Notary Directory should not be used for printing on business cards. Just like any other job directory (such as http://www.monster.com), the purpose of your notary web page is to help you get work from title, mortgage and signing companies.  Secondly, you should never use a job directory page address for printing on business cards because your listing will eventually expire and the web address could no longer be valid.  Therefore, if you want your own web address to print on your business cards, you need to contact a hosting company like Bummer Hosting at http://www.bummerhosting.com  This way, you will have a permanent web address that is short and can be printed on all your correspondence.

If you currently do not have a web site registered with a hosting company, the best way to utilize your web page address in the Notary Directory is to provide it to the companies you sign up to work with when filling out the online forms. This will allow them to quickly retrieve your contact information so they can contact you for work.

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Dear Victoria: Thank you so much for the recent telephone conference!  This provided much useful information.  I truly appreciate your hard working efforts to help people, including me!  I wanted you to know that I took the NNA NSA exam this morning and passed!  It actually took me three tries on the second section.  It was a bit tricky, but I finally passed it with a score of 85% for that section, and about  90% overall.  I am just delighted to be now certified by the NNA.  With best regards, George Wynns, The Bankruptcy Assistant, http://thebankruptcyassistant.com

Dear George:  Congratulations! I will publish this information in The Notary News and direct people to your website if they wish to congratulate you personally.  Keep in touch.

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Dear Victoria: Last night was my first time on the Business Power Talks teleconference. It was great to be able to receive so much good information and to hear people sharing like that! I live in the Orlando, FL area and even though I am a Certified Signing Agent, I need help with getting started in the business. Victoria, this was a blessing from God to find your website.  The company that I worked for as a Credit Counselor is going out of business and I was just recently laid off. It was in the plan of God.  I was praying for some direction with my notary signings and loan processing, along with more time for ministry and here you are the answer to prayer. I spoke with Joann Sessom this morning, after hearing her last night on the teleconference. She was wonderful to talk to. Thank you for sharing love as well as knowledge to want to help other people. God Bless!  --Cynthia

Dear Cynthia:  It is a great feeling to know the Business Power Talks are helping so many people. I am also glad to know you are a Christian who loves Jesus Christ.  Keep your faith in Him and I am sure He will bless your business in more ways than you can imagine.

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Dear Victoria: You are not going to believe this.  I am a notary mentor and today I received a call from a new notary who lives in my area. She had her first signing and it was for a new purchase. She needed training and asked if she could stop by before going to the appointment.  I love helping people so I quickly agreed.

The first problem that occurred was the signing was scheduled for 2:00pm.  She said she would arrive at my house at 1:30 but didn't show up until almost 1:50 pm (10 minutes before the scheduled signing.)  I asked her about this and she said she called the borrowers and already told them she would be late.  (Bad mistake!  That's like showing up late for work the first day you are hired.)

Secondly (and this is the horrifying part) she handed me the documents she had printed out and I couldn't believe my eyes. Because she did not have letter-size paper, she printed the documents on legal-size paper.  This is not bad, but instead of leaving the printed pages intact -- she took the time to actually TEAR OFF the ends of each printed page by hand. I promptly explained that these were LEGAL documents and they would never be accepted in this condition. So I had to make copies of the pages she printed out (since I did not have the original PDF file) because she did not have time to reprint them.

Thirdly, she did not print out a second set for the borrowers.  I do not understand where this lady's common sense is. When she printed out the pages on her printer, why wouldn't she immediately think about printing 2 copies of each page at the same time?

Tell me -- why would anyone go on a signing with absolutely no experience and have the nerve to tear off the bottom portion of legal documents thinking they can be filed in court? If anything else she could have used a pair of scissors to make the edge crisp and neat -- and I would have at least thought she had some pride in the quality of her work.  And what would possess her to tear off the bottom anyway?  She already printed the documents on legal-size paper. What would possess her to spend the time defacing the documents too?

What do you think I should do to avoid problems like this in the future?  I spent over an hour helping her and when we were finished she said she would send me some money when she was paid by the lender.

Dear Subscriber:  First of all, when she first called, you should have given her a price for your services before she came to your home. Anyone who truly appreciates the help they receive from experienced notaries should be more than happy to pay for your time.  If not, they are not serious and you don't need to waste your time babysitting them.

Secondly, she should have offered to pay you for your services before she left.  You already rendered your services. Any payment she receives from the lender is between the lender and her.  You provided a separate service and you should not have to wait until any notary is paid for their work before receiving payment for your services. Delaying your payment is one good sign of horrible business practices. It is doubtful she will ever pay you because she will probably make a lot of mistakes and never receive payment from the lender.

We have so many wonderful notaries out there who are more than willing to help others. But there are also a lot of people out there who care nothing about others and will "use" your good nature to their selfish advantage.  God tells us in the Bible to "not cast our pearls before swine." (See actual Bible verse below.)  This verse can apply to many situations.  In the case of helping to train others this means that you should not freely give out wisdom (pearls of knowledge) to people who will despitfully use you, take up your time and cause you a lot of additional work, stress and grief.