How much to charge for a loan signing (and when to counter)
Price a loan signing from your whole job, not the minutes at the table. Fair fee = hours door to door × the hourly rate you want + mileage + printing. A refinance 24 miles away with 240 pages to print takes about 3¼ hours and costs about $46, so at a $35 an hour goal it needs about $160. An $85 offer on that job pays about $12 an hour.
The formula
Fair fee = (hours door to door × your hourly goal) + mileage + printing, rounded up to the next $5.
Door to door means everything the signing takes: the confirm call, printing, both drives, the table, scanbacks and the drop-off.
Worked example: an $85 refinance offer
| Part of the job | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm call and prep | 15 min | |
| Printing 240 pages at 40 pages a minute, plus sorting | 16 min | $12.00 (5¢ a page) |
| Driving, 24 miles each way | 70 min | $33.60 (70¢ a mile, 48 miles) |
| At the table | 60 min | |
| Scanbacks | 15 min | |
| Drop-off | 15 min | |
| Total | 191 min (3.18 h) | $45.60 |
At $85 you keep $39.40 for 3.18 hours, about $12 an hour. To make $35 an hour the fee needs to be 3.18 × $35 + $45.60 = $157, so $160.
The cost per mile, cost per page and hourly goal above are example numbers. Use your own.
Check an offer
Printing here assumes 5¢ a page and 40 pages a minute. SigningCheck lets you set your own printer speed, paper cost, signing types and fees, and writes the counter for you.
Do this in ten seconds on every offer
SigningCheck does this math with your own numbers, shows what the job really pays, and writes the message for you. $19 once.
Questions
What is a normal fee for a refinance signing?
It varies by area and by who is paying. One Las Vegas mobile notary lists $75 to $95 for a rate-and-term refinance and up to $125 for jumbo or investment loans, and an agent on the NotaryCafe forum quoted $125 base plus extra for travel and scanbacks. Treat those as reference points, then check your own job with the formula above.
How do I counter a low signing offer?
Reply fast, stay friendly, and name the parts of the job the fee has to cover. For example: "Thanks for thinking of me for the refinance in Brookfield on Thursday at 6 pm! With the 48-mile round trip, printing 240 pages, scanbacks and the drop-off, I can take this one at $160. If that works, send the docs over and I'll confirm with the borrower today."
Should I charge for printing?
Yes, in the fee itself. A two-set refinance package is often a couple hundred pages, and paper, toner and printing time are real costs. Put a cost per page on it so it shows up in the math.
What cost per mile should I use?
Use your own number: gas, wear and insurance spread over the miles you drive. Many people start from the IRS business mileage rate as a stand-in and adjust from there. Count the round trip, not one way.
Do scanbacks and drop-offs change the fee?
They add time, so they change what the job pays per hour. Fifteen minutes of scanbacks and fifteen for the drop-off add half an hour, which is $17.50 at a $35 hourly goal.
Sources
- Lake Mead Mobile Notary: refinance signing cost
- NotaryCafe forum: what is the average fee for a refinance?
Written by John at Vantic Ventures. Fee figures from other businesses are their published numbers, not advice for your area.