Part 1 – The Description of a notary signing agent
Signing agent is a notary public, who works with the loan documents, obtaining and notarizing these documents with the purpose of closing the loan transactions (especially real estate loans). The existence of the signing agents is stipulated by the existence and the importance of the, middlemen. Signing agents are the kind of the middlemen and play very significant role in the loan processes. The loan process is very onerous for all its participants. As a rule, a person, who wants to receive a loan for the first time, does not know a lot about this process – where, when and how to get a loan, which documents are required and which are not, how to formalize and validate the loan etc. Lenders usually more informed about the loan process, but still want to improve insurance arrangements and check the accuracy of all the agreements. Here appears a notary public or a signing agent. His duty is to verify the accuracy of the documents about to be signed and only then the loan can be given.

Many loan companies operate in one office (city, region etc), but serve many debtors through the country. When they raise a loan in the remote location they send signing agents to these locations to identify the personalities of the borrower and of the lender, complete the loan and return all the documents signed to the main office, because it is very expensive and ineffective to send loan officers through the country to perform the closing of the loan. Often loan companies establish the networks of the signing agents through the country.
In summary, the overall duties of the loan signing agents consist of: – identification of the signers; – revision of all the documents about to be signed; – verification of the corresponding procedures with the documents (in other words signing agent must verify that all documents are signed, initialed and dated correctly); – notarization of corresponding documents; – return of these documents back to the main office (this responsibility is additional and sometimes it belongs to somebody else). There is one little but important nuance in the work of signing agent – he or she must not give any comments, advices or explanations during the signing of loan papers, because this role belongs to the closing attorney or a lawyer. Even standard questions about abbreviations are declined or at least an agent may just point on the list of abbreviations in the contract. In the case when questions arose, signing agents immediately call lender and ask to make corresponding elucidations, postpone the signing for a certain period of time or in some cases the agent can point to the document, where the borrower can find the necessary explanations. Moreover, in many states the legal advisory, explanations of legal documents of signing agents considered to be illegal. A signing agent can give mentioned above comments, advices and explanations only in the case when he or she is certified lawyer, qualified in the sphere of loans. Also a signing agent can provide general information about the loan, which is accessible in the documents.
Indeed, it is not very difficult to become a signing agent but it is necessary to fulfill the following qualifications: – be at least 18 years old; – be a resident of the city and county, in which a person wants to be a signing agent; – speak, read and write in English; – not be imprisoned or be involved in any crime etc. It is important to bear in mind that these qualifications can vary from state to state. Thus most adult Americans of can become loan signing agents. In order to be a signing agent, a person needs to know many forms and the legal procedures. Inasmuch as a signing agent can be considered as a face of the loan company, he or she must have good ethics and techniques of tactful and delicate handling with clients. That is why loan companies usually provide all corresponding trainings for signing agents. Such companies also teach future signing agents how to use modern means of communications and copying in the most effective way: they always emphasize the importance of the proper use of the cell phone (recharging battery in time, buying an additional battery, buying automobile charger etc), quick usage of fax machines, pagers, computers, PDAs, internet, ICQ etc. These measures are essential because a signing agent never can predict where and when he will need to establish a contact with his clients and which means of communications will be available at the moment. Nevertheless, there are not any official or required trainings in order to become a loan signing agent.
As a surety of notary public, signing agent is liable for “damages sustained by a person who is injured by the notary’s official misconduct” . The official misconduct is interpreted as unauthorized and unlawful duties or receiving an excessive fees (in excess of those established by the law). Thus this job causes responsibilities and demands much concentration. Also notaries public and signing agents are not responsive for the veracity of the documents about to be signed.
The fees of notaries public and signing agents vary from state to state. In some states the fees are cheap in some are relatively expensive: the cost of notarization varies from fifty cents up to ten dollars; signing agent receives from seventy-five up to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per signing in the average . These fees may increase significantly inasmuch as additional travel costs occur, as there are required several copies of documents, as one of the signers misses the appointment or decides to cancel the deal, as rescheduling originates or some force majeure, and must be negotiated with the client beforehand.
The next important question that finishes the descriptive part of this work is the possible work places and spheres of the loan signing agents. The loan signing agents can work in the state, region or city, where he or she has registered his activities legally and certified by the local government. They can work in the loan company and thus receive new contracts very often, but in this case a loan signing agent has to share a part of his fee with his employer. But an agent can work for himself and do not share his fee with anybody. In this case he or she is called an independent contractor. It means that this agent is busy with the self employment and finds the clients by himself and for himself. An independent contractor has much less clients than those who work for a loan company. In order to increase his client base an independent contractor must establish a good reputation and image within his working area, use every opportunity and advertise his services as much as possible (the means of advertisement of independent contractors will be surveyed in the second part of the essay).
A loan signing agent and his client usually define their responsibility to each other (including legal, material along with all additional payments) in a separate document, which is called an independent contractor agreement. This document must be in written in order to elude all possible misunderstandings and to protect the rights of the participants. The signers of the independent contractor agreement must be very careful and vigilant while reading it. Some clients require the agent’s documents additionally such as driver license, insurance documents, certificates etc.
Independent contractors often establish some kind of communities, where they can share their experience with each other, discuss the main trends of the loan markets and governmental regulation of this market, create profiles of each other, share their opinions about each other and different loan companies etc. The establishment of such communities attracts new clients to its members, which have good authority, abilities and experience.

Part 2 – Methods of attracting clients and promotion and the way to find good loan agency
The loan signing agents have plenty of methods of attracting clients and promotion. People usually consider that large organizations are more reliable than just a single person and that is why independent contractors have fewer clients, most of which are permanent. Moreover, loan companies provide insurance from errors and omissions, what is not affordable to single agents. Of course, satisfied customers usually return and recommend the agent, who served them, to their friends. This illustrates the importance of the prestige of the agents. Of course new signing agents have not got their clients base and potential clients do not know them. A signing agent can let know others about his or her services by the following methods: 1) make an own web-site; 2) enter different communities of accomplices; 3) apply for a work in the loan signing company; 4) arrange the advertisement campaign and self-promotion.
The first method is running an own web-site, which contains all the necessary information about its owner (in our case – signing agent), the services offered, prices of the services and contact information. The first point is the information about the signing agent. There must be mentioned personal information (name, surname, gender, education, experience; the most important, significant and successful activities; if a signing agent works for a loan company (companies) or for himself as independent contractor), recommendations of employers and authoritative organizations. The second point is information about the services, which are offered by the agent. In the most cases owners of such web-sites offer not only signing services, but also services of a notary public – such as notarizing different activities (oaths, testaments, contracts etc). It is important to emphasize the number of clients serviced (of course this information must be valid), if this number is significant, because this number is like a visit card of the signing agent and proves his knowledge and experience. The third point is a price list of the services offered. It is very important, because most web-sites contain this information and in the case when the price list is absent, potential clients probably will search for another signing agent and will not contact you just to get to know the prices. The price list must be as clear as it is only possible and must not confuse potential clients. The fourth point is contact information. It must be accurate and there must be mentioned all possible ways of communication with the agent (phone, mail, cell phone, e-mail, fax, pager, ICQ) because it is unknown which kind of communication a potential client prefer and available. Of course when the web-site is ready and ran successfully it must be promoted over the internet. This task is not as easy as might be seen. It includes registering on different search engines, placing banners on other web-sites, registering on different internet communities, forums or even loan companies.
The second method is entering online communities of the loan signing agents and notary public (there are plenty of them). Such communities have own ratings of each other and ratings of signing agents, which are registered within these communities. Some of them are free, others are chargeable. But as a rule, chargeable communities provide different trainings, advices, forums, chats, tips and of course may attract much more clients rather than free ones. For example, there is a community, called “Signing Registry”, it is chargeable and provides the training course, which implies an exam after its completion. This company also adduces the list of the criteria, which must be met by the signing agents. After the completion of the exam and approval that an agent satisfies all the criteria, this agent becomes a member of this company and thus gains access to the database of potential clients and companies that are interested in good signing agents. Than the agent has to utilize this database and establish the contact with the suitable ones. Also the members of the “Signing Registry” are listed in their database and thus are available to the loan companies and single persons, which need the services of the signing agent. “Signing Registry” advertises itself permanently and is a well-known company through the United States of America and Europe. The motto of this company is stated as: “we must present an established and professional group of individuals who provide excellent services, who are educated, knowledgeable, professional, and who have high standards of ethical conduct” . There are many other communities, association, trainings and seminars available in the internet . All they certify that their members are qualified signing agents and prove their authority.
The third method is to apply for a work in the loan signing company. As it was already stated above, these companies have larger client base and authority. Nobody has one’s doubts as to the qualification of the signing agents hired in such companies as a rule. And, as a rule, such companies highly steem their authority and provide high quality services to their clients. But all these require increased costs (operating, preparatory, marketing etc) and thus the price of their services is increased too. Of course signing agents do not like to share their income (the main significant disadvantage of working in the loan company) with anybody and often prefer to work as independent contractors. The list of advantages of working as a signing agent in the loan company can be presented as the following: – trainings; – information; – support and advices from experienced signing agents; – provision of clients; – forums. Often signing agents begin to work at the loan signing companies and in a little while they begin to work independently (it usually happens when the agent has a personal contact with the clients and gains much experience).
The fourth method consists of several points: advertisement in different newspapers, magazines, radio stations; sending resume (flyers, e-mails, faxes) to potential employers and clients; allocation of banners in the internet; providing discount programs for permanent clients and their friends; establishing good public relations etc. Direct contact with potential clients is worthy of a special notice: escrow, title and mortgage companies’ contacts can be found in the internet and different telephone directories, and when the loan signing agent gets them he should permanently and persistently advertise himself to them by the phone, e-mail, ICQ, pager or fax. Personal meetings should be accompanied with the good appearance, ethics and a visiting card. The chances to receive an assignment are proportional to the amount of contacts with potential clients.
When a person needs to find a loan signing services the best and the quickest way to do this is to search in the internet. In order to do this the person has to go on the search engine (“yahoo”, “google” etc) and type “loan signing”. The search engine will generate the list of links to different loan signing agencies. Of course it is better to use advanced search – for example in the certain region. If a person wants to find the cheapest choice he or she should find an independent contractor through the internet. In this case, a person should type “loan signing communities” or “loan signing associations” etc. Then on one of the found web-sites the person needs to find profiles of the members of the community. It is for sure that the profiles include all the necessary information as region, recommendations, qualifications, fees, contact information and so on.
Internet is not the only way of finding loan signing company or agent. A person may look through the newspapers, magazines; ask his friends or co-workers, which have the necessary experience, who did serve their loans.
Moreover, I recommend to take an interest in the list of services of the loan companies – what is included and what is not, in order not to get involved in an unpleasant incident and to spare the difficulties and misunderstandings. Also a person should read feedbacks and opinions of the previous clients of the company if it is possible (search on forums online).

Part 3 – Mortgage loans
A mortgage is a device used to create a lien on real estate by contract. The mortgage is an instrument that the borrower (called the mortgagor) uses to pledge real property to the lender (called the mortgagee) as security for a debt, also called hypothecation . The mortgage, as a rule, consists of the promissory note and the pledge. For example, when somebody wants to buy a house to live in it with his family, but does not have enough money at the moment. Thus that person needs to take a credit. But nobody will give this person such a large sum of money, without having trustworthy and firm guarantees. But what kind of guarantee can meet these criteria? Of course it is not a word of honour or just a promissory note. But the house, which a person wants to buy, will probably be the best guarantee for the creditors. Consequently, the person, who needs a credit, writes a promissory note, which serves as the evidence of the debt and the promise to repay money with a certain interest rate, and formalizes a lien. This lien must be registered in the public records. After the repayment of the debt within a certain period of time, creditor returns the promissory note to the debtor and the lien becomes annulled. In the case when the debtor can not fulfill his engagements, the pledge (the house in our example) will be sold by the auction and the proceeds pass into the hands of the creditor.
Sometimes there occur such conditions, when a creditor needs money with expedition and the credit’s maturity date is too late. In that case the creditor can resell the lien to other holder, which will receive the interest rate and the credit. This kind of financing is very popular in the United States of America and there exists two governmental organizations – Home Owners Loan Corporation and Federal Housing Administration, which provide mortgage loans with very law interest rates and of course there are plenty of private loan companies, mortgage companies, credit unions etc.
There are many types of mortgage loans exist: adjustable rate mortgage, fixed rate mortgage, capped rate mortgage, discounted rate mortgage, reverse mortgage and other.
Adjustable rate mortgage is characterized by the changing interest rate. Thus “the borrower benefits if the interest rate falls and loses out if interest rates rise” .
Fixed rate mortgage is characterized by the constant interest rate and, in turn, constant monthly payments.
Capped rate mortgage is the mortgage when the borrower pays the accrued interest with a constant rate, but if the actual rate falls below the capped rate, then the borrower pays on the lower rate.
Discounted rate mortgage is a mortgage when the borrower repays the loan with the discounted interest rate for a certain period of time.
Reverse mortgage is a kind of loan, when old people want to receive money while living in their homes. When the borrower dies his property is sold and the credit is repaid from the proceeds.
In order to obtain a mortgage a person should fill a loan application and prepare all the required by the lender documents (see below), and then deliver them to the lender. Within three days the lender has to return the disclosures, required by the law – Good Faith Estimate and Truth in Lending, to the borrower. Commonly, lenders demand for the following documents to be presented by the borrowers: – verification of income; – verification of assets; – information about the purchase; – information about the debts; – some kinds of additional personal information. Verification of income includes the following: earning statements for the two past years; profit and losses from the self-employment (if applicable) for the past three years; additional income (if applicable) such as interest or social security. Verification of assets includes the following: list of bank accounts numbers, list of saving bonds and some other. Information about the purchase – anything that may be considered important from the point of view of the lender – copies of the purchase agreement and the sale agreement, because he is concerned a lot if the borrower is not a swindler. Information about the debts is important because in the case of borrower’s bankruptcy there can occur the line of his creditors each of which has a legal priority to receive debts. This information might contain the following: credit card bills, consumer debt bills, information about alimonies (if applicable) and some other. Lenders usually interested in the origin of the future down payments (will the borrower pay them from the salary or interest from some equity etc). Additional personal information can include divorce decree or explanation letters about any credit problems. Of course, the list of the required documents may very different from one lender to another and it will be wisely to make them more precise by the means of communications beforehand. But borrowers should take into consideration that fact that different types of mortgage imply specific requirements (for example, reverse mortgage requires the borrower to be at least sixty-two years old). I also want to mention that there is a kind of mortgage when no or very little documents are required to be presented except for income and losses, but it can be given only to self-employed borrowers. When the lender processes and analyses the information about the borrower, he determines the size of the loan, which he can give to the borrower. This size depends on the borrower’s ability to repay the debt. When the borrower knows the amount of the possible loan he or she can negotiate the terms of the mortgage and its type (main types of the mortgage were described above). Then it comes time to open escrow, provide title report, credit report and the appraisal of the property – in other words, to form mortgage package and send it to the lender, which would finally determine to give a loan to the borrower or not. If the loan is approved by the lender, it is time to sign all the documents (with the signing agent of course) and deliver them to the lender. The lender reviews the document once more and funds the loan, then all necessary records are made and the loan closes.
Mortgage loan implies different additional fees for the borrower (or the lender, which is very seldom, but it depends on the prior negotiations) among of which there may be the following: discount fee (this fee usually reduces interest on the pro rata basis), loan origination fee (it is the compensation for the lender because of his operation costs for organizing the mortgage), application fee (it is usually paid when the borrower competes the application form for the debt), appraisal fee (this fee increases directly on the pro rata basis with the price of the house; it is paid for the independent appraisal of the house, which lender wants to know in order to assess how much money he can lend you; “Factors to be considered in determining market value of the property are: present cash value; use; location; replacement value of improvements; condition; income from property; net proceeds if the property is sold, etc” ; moreover, lenders usually suggest a mortgage which not exceeds ninety five percent of the assessed property), credit report fee (this fee is paid for the independent assessment of the borrower’s solvency), title search and insurance fee (these costs are related to the investigation of the property’s history), flood certification costs (related to the investigation if the property is not situated in the flood zone and if it is so than it implies flood insurance costs), survey fee, paperwork fee, costs of attorneys, real property taxes (regulated by the state law), escrow account costs (lenders often require borrower to create such account as a guarantee that the borrower pays insurance fees and taxes on the real estate in time, in order not to loose his pledge; usually governmental loan companies require an escrow account, private companies may not require it) and some others depending on the situation. In this part there also must be mentioned, that most lenders require an immediate down payment at the certain rate of the purchase price (different lenders require different down payments – from three up to thirty percent; low down payment percentage are stipulated by the private mortgage insurance).
During the process of obtaining the mortgage loan there are also needed signing agent’s services. This need is stipulated by the following circumstances: both the lender and the borrower need to ascertain that they have a deal with the right people, they want to ascertain that the documents are accurate enough, that all the necessary procedures are performed in the appropriate way, that all the essential signatures and dates are made in the appropriate way and that all the documents notarized correspondingly. But as it was already stated above, the loan signing agent must not give any legal advice or comments.

Part 4 – Description of the loan signing agent activities
When the client (the lender as a rule) is in need of a loan signing agent, he or she has to find a suitable one first of all. In order to do this the client observes different magazines and newspapers or makes a corresponding request in the internet search engines. Then that client surveys possible candidacy and selects several loan signing agents and tries to get the contact with them and after all negotiations with them chooses which loan signing agent will service his activities related to the mortgage documents. After this, it is necessary to bring the loan signing agent up to date (it may include all the parties involved into the affair – the lender, the borrower and co-borrowers, the escrow company, the Title Company, private insurance agency etc; their contact information, the target dates which are suitable for the parties, the deadline etc).
All this may be realized by the phone, fax or e-mail, but professional signing agents usually prefer direct face-to-face contact. If the agent neglects preliminary or well-timed face-to-face contacts it is time to think if this agent is enough qualified, intelligent and experienced and even to find another one (by the word, loan signing agencies provide top level services and do not permit such attitude towards their clients as a rule). Of course, the client of the signing agent may reflect on the matter if he needs his services and why. In the first three quarters of the twentieth century people did not used loan signing agents, but in the 1990s people decided to ease all the loan procedures because it was very unsuitable to the participants (especially the borrower) to travel to each other for several times in order to make all necessary negotiations and collect all signatures in the accurate manner, and, moreover, meet the deadline. Thus the “industry” of loan signing agents’ services developed. But in the nearest future it is possible that the signing agents loose their daily bread – with the development of technology it is possible nowadays to sign all the documents online. But such service provided only by large signing companies, which use very expensive software, and usually not affordable to single agents.
So when the loan signing agent gets the job and all the necessary information it is time to act for him. First of all, an agent needs to contact with the borrower and negotiate time and place of future meetings and make sure that the appointment is suitable for all other signers in advance. Then he needs to know when the lawyers will finish the preparation of the mortgage contract, get it and read carefully. During the reading the loan signing agent must check the spelling of all Essential Elements and accuracy of dates, including document date, notarization date and signing date. Then the agent identifies for himself which procedures must be fulfilled, which signatures and initials must be appended, at which positions and their amount; the deadline; the consequence of signings; specify the travel directions and all other procedures and documents that are required by his client and consequently implements them. Inasmuch as mortgage contracts may consist of two hundred pages and even more, the amount of signatures is incredible because both signatures of the lender and the borrower are required on the each page of the documents. It is difficult to imagine that the loan signing agent will be sitting and pointing at each position where the borrower (and the lender in his turn) must append a signature. To avoid this and other kind of embarrassments, signing agents usually resort to various tricks and tips. One example of such tricks is that the agent use stickers which drive the corresponding party. Another trick – is that signing agents have to manage their time wisely, because they often deal with several mortgages at the same time and thus they have very rich schedule. When the signing agent finishes all the essential procedures with the borrower (it includes the verification of his or her identity, signing and dating of all the documents in the accurate manner, notarization of the documents and leaves the borrower’s copy of the documents with its owner) at the place, which is suitable for the borrower, he has to deliver these documents to the next designated place safely and timely for closing. When the loan is closed, the borrower becomes the owner of the property, which is also appears as the lender’s pledge and signing agent’s services become accomplished.
When and how signing agents receive their fee? This question can be answered in the following way: “The notary signing agent’s fee covers tasks beyond notarization that usually include identifying document signature spaces, courier services, and ensuring that the package is returned to the issuing agency in a timely manner. Like attorneys or real estate agents who also are notaries, notary signing agents wear “two hats,” deriving income not only from their notarial services, but also for performing other functions ”. This aspect is interesting because of such nuance that notaries’ and their sureties’ fees are regulated by the government in the United States of America and vary from one state to another. According to the law, signing loan agents must not demand more than it is allowed by the state law and keep a journal of notarial acts. This journal contains all the necessary information about notary’s public (and its surety’s) activities, including income, date, substantiation, participants, commentaries, essential thumb-prints, the signature of the borrower or the borrowers etc. All additional income must be logged in this journal or special appendix for this journal too. If a signing agent does not return all documents for closing in time then he would not receive his fee, most probably.
One more important aspect of signing agent’s activities is related to the appropriate identification of the signers. “All signers must provide current, legal ID ” – for this purpose a state issued ID (photo of the holder is essential), driver license or passport can be applicable, but such documents as birth certificates, credit cards or social security cards are not applicable for this enactment. Sometimes the state law allows notaries public and their sureties to validate the identification of the person without corresponding ID, but in the presence of one or several witnesses (for example, California State Law) – I think that such practice is inadmissible because witnesses’ identification must be validated too. So only when the signer was correctly identified and first and second names with the surname in the documents coincide with the same in the ID, a signing agent may start the process of signing. While this process lasts the agent should pass the documents to the borrower (or consequently to all borrowers if applicable) in the accurate manner and check each page and sign it after the borrower.
The next important aspect is that the signers (but in no circumstances the loan signing agent) are responsible in what they do sign – it must be taken into consideration by both the lender and the borrower. For this reason it will be wise to pay for the legal attorney’s services, because there are many swindle incidents. If the borrower has any questions that require time for resolving, the execution of the documents can be postponed within three days if it is foreseen by the bargain.
Many people consider that the loan signing agents’ fee is too expensive and the cost of their services should be much cheaper. But indeed, it is not so and such people underestimate the importance of the agents. Loan signing agents work hard: they have to travel a lot, negotiate a lot, concentrate a lot; they bear significant liabilities, which may bring them to prison or large fines. Moreover their role on the mortgages is vital.

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