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Originally posted by Dannotary

HOW MUCH DO YOU MAKE AS A NOTARY SIGNING AGENT???
Here are your expenses:
Costs of commission testing
Any other testing, certification costs
Bond and filing it
E&O ins
Notary Law Primer and any other related books/educational material
Journals
Notary stamps
Other stamps (name, date, etc)
Ink for stamps
Thumbprint ink
NNA or other membership costs
Business card, other advertising, listings on internet etc
Alcohol wipes or kleenex for peoples thumbs
Stickies to mark your notarized pages and make notes in package
Paper clips, rubber bands, pens, pencils, binder clips and manila envelopes for your borrowers copies
Locking file cabinet, file folders, file hangers, alphabetic accordion files for your invoices and check stubs
Calculator
Brief case
Office furniture, desk, shelf, chair, storage etc, desk lamp
Your computer costs divided by how many years you use it
Your printer costs divided by how many years you use it
Monthly maintenance fees for your printer/copier
Repair fees for computer /printer/copier
Cell phone and land line costs
Parking and tolls
Printer paper and toner
Self employment tax/ paying into Social Security at about 15%
Costs of having taxes done
Gasoline, car ins, and car maintenance and repair bills
Mileage (about 80% for business )
Write off a portion of your home for office, and utility bills, and internet costs
All your business clothes are not a write off and you must be dressed like you work at a bank or professional office, anything less, and you are undermining your possibility for any success at this.
Remember as a self employed person , you are paying your own health insurance too.
Add up all these expenses yearly, divide these expenses by HOW MANY SIGNINGS YOU HAVE DONE IN THE YEAR.. ( keep track daily , weekly, monthly , yearly in your planner with a note on how much each appt. paid.)
Add up your yearly gross and subtract the expenses, plus subtract 15% for taxes and this is your NET PROFIT, ( what you actually took home). Divide the number of appointments you did in the year by your NET profit and this is what you made for each appt. Now divide that by how much time it took you on the average to do one appt.
Doing 15 appts a week is about 780 appts a year (52 weeks). Averaging 125. An appt, you net about 62. An appt. If it takes you about 2.5 hrs on average to do an appt, you made about 24.80 an hour.
For appts that are within 10-12 miles from home, 15 mins to get there, 20 mins to go to Fed x UPS, wait in line to drop package, 15 mins to get home, 30 mins to print and set up/prepare package before going, and average only taking 40-45 mins to sign if you are experienced and fast. Give or take some minutes.
If there are more than 2 people signing, CHARGE 25-50. MORE, your printing costs go up, and your time is longer, also more notarizations which in Calif. Is based on 10. A signature.
If you use another language, $25. More, this is a skill set that you possess and that is a service you are providing – charge for it!
125. an appt is not enough folks. Also consider that Notaries Public have UNLIMITED LILABILITY- THIS MEANS YOU CAN BE SUED AND LOSE YOUR HOUSE, CAR ETC. What self employed jobs carrying this type of responsibility??????? Scary.
Also in California, your journal entries have to be for every document you notarized, and you have to write their ID info, and address FOR EACH BORROWER, over and over again in the book, NO DITTO MARKS!, plus attached acknowledgements and jurats a lot of times because the pre printed verbiage many times, is something we can’t use. More time.
NEVER travel farther than 10-12 miles- not worth the extra $20-$25. They offer. What if you have to go back for something missed? Now you made nothing.
CAUTION!! THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS AND DIFFICULT WORK.

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