Hi Everyone! I'm Mariangel, a scheduler at TCSS, and I would like to share this with you. I had a tough one today: a remote order in Maine with very limited notary coverage, only 10 notaries within 25 miles! Instead of struggling to find a notary who could travel or bring a witness, I pivoted and asked if the signer could provide their own witness. It made the process so much smoother and helped us secure a notary much faster. Sometimes, the simplest solution is the best way to keep the file moving! To all the notaries out there: In situations like this, do you prefer when we ask the signer to provide a witness beforehand, or do you find it easier to handle those arrangements yourselves? I'd love to hear your take!

I got a call from a SS today saying that Title called stating they had not received the deed. They realized that they had marked scanback only and had not sent a label. Newbie here decided she wasn’t gonna shred the deed just yet. Whew… it’s going in the mail today! How long to you hold scanback only docs? I just developed a policy… not shredding until the assignment is closed (payment received and it’s off my radar).

I understand that we are discouraged from using Walgreens, Staples and Walmart for FedEx/UPS drops. I can certainly see why. My Walmart has an actual FedEx ship center staffed by FedEx employees located inside its premises. My assumption is that this would be a valid drop off. I don’t want to be wrong here when a package gets lost.

We recently had a file where the title company included two shipping labels inside the package. Knowing this could cause confusion, we left a very clear note for the notary indicating exactly which label needed to be used. Unfortunately, the wrong label was used. The package was lost, the title company never received the documents, and the borrowers had to sign again. When we asked the notary to return for the re-sign, the response was: "I'll do it, but you need to pay me a witness fee because this happened due to the two labels being in the package." Here's the question: If specific instructions were provided and the wrong label was still used, who should be responsible for the consequences? Mistakes happen to all of us. But when they do, should accountability be part of professionalism? Curious to hear your thoughts. 👇

A notary completed our signing on time, but had another appointment afterward that ran longer than expected. By the time she finished, she let us know she would no longer be able to make the FedEx cutoff. The challenge wasn't the signing itself. The challenge was scheduling so tightly that there was no room for delays. As we all know, signings don't always go as planned. Borrowers have questions, traffic happens, documents need attention, and appointments can run over. When accepting multiple appointments in a day, are you building enough buffer time between them?