Well the point is obviously to verify the signatories identity. Those notaries could (and should) lose their license. Notaries/attorneys lose their license for that stuff all the time. If you use that notary frequently enough that they know you on a personal level now, then that's another thing.

Has anybody done RON since this was passed? I got some feedback from my underwriters this morning. First, my underwriters said it can't be used for authentic acts (donations, sales, mortgages, etc.). Maybe that's just my particular underwriter's rule...but for real estate closings, I would suspect that means people would still have to come physically sign the sale/mortgage (and the lender probably wants the note wet-signed too). Seems to weaken the whole point of doing RON if they can't sign 100% of the package.

Also got some pricing on some of the approved RON platforms. They seem costly. Looks like there would be monthly subscriptions the notary or title company would need to pay PLUS some fee for each use. They listed $100-$150 for real estate closings. That added cost probably isn't worth it for msot people, especially if they have to go in person for a sale, note & mortgage anyway. Didn't see how much for a simple one-time notarization, but even if that's "cheap" at like $10, then you're talking about a $25 notarization now increasing by 40% or more.

I want this to succeed, but those costs aren't very realistic for most applications, IMO

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Posted by Jimmy2shoes

The South

Member since Mar 2014

11004 posts

Posted on 3/30/20 at 10:34 am to Neauxla_Tiger

Do you have to retain recordings of the signatures?

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Posted by Neauxla_Tiger

Member since Feb 2015

1877 posts

Posted on 3/30/20 at 11:06 am to Jimmy2shoes

Yeah, it sounds like it has to be recorded and kept for I guess at least a couple years for auditing purposes. I think the approved platforms will do that as part of a subscription service.

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Posted by Joshjrn

Baton Rouge

Member since Dec 2008

27067 posts

Posted on 3/30/20 at 11:30 am to Ramblin Wreck

quote:
Notary’s in Louisiana can be added to my list of complaints about the cost of living here. In Texas, I always went to the bank to get something notarized and it was free. Here you have limited choices and are charged about $25 per signature. I had a loan renew on a rental property the other day that required 6 places to be notarized on the paper work. Fortunately I found someone this time that only charged $15 per signature, so $90 versus the $150 I had to pay last time.

Pro tip: if you know an attorney, odds are decent they are a notary as well. We don't have to take the exam, just pay a fee. Because it's not how we make our living, we usually don't charge much, if anything, for it. Just FYI.

And yeah, notaries, frick me, I know