Your Secret Closing Weapon: Why Real Estate Investors Need a Trusted Notary

Steve (00:00)
Notaries are a secret weapon in my opinion to real estate agents and investors because you know they could choose you know investors have their and real estate agents as well have their go-to HVAC person their go-to plumber their go-to electrician, landscaper, painter, etc. right? Well why not have a go-to notary? Nowhere does it say that titles is only one that does it.

Dylan Silver (01:54)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Steve Brittain, is a notary professional and business owner behind 775 Notary Services. He works directly with real estate transactions, ensuring documents are executed correctly and efficiently, helping deals move smoothly from contract to close. He brings a detailed process-driven approach to closing, supporting investors, agents, and clients in one of the most critical final stages of a transaction. Steve, thanks for taking the time today.

Steve (02:25)
Thank you, I appreciate it.

Dylan Silver (02:27)
Now, from your seat at the closing table, what are the most common mistakes that you see delay or jeopardize transactions?

Steve (02:37)
Yeah, so I mean that’s a great question. ⁓ You know, a lot of people think that, hey, you know, we’re just a notary and everything else, but we play a crucial role in making sure that those transactions close. So one of the biggest, a couple of things I see that are missed ⁓ is that, you know, funding is delayed because a prior notary that was assigned to that transaction either missed a signature, missed dates, ⁓ whether it’s their date or a customer’s date or the client’s date.

And then also initials from the clients themselves on page, especially in those commercial packages. It could be like 256 pages long. if you’re not looking through there to make sure, okay, hey, right in the middle of the page, because sometimes those initials are down on the bottom of the page, you got something right in the middle of the page that they got an initial saying, yep, I understand this clause and that clause. Those are missed and that delays funding. And then sometimes it has to be… ⁓

reassigned to a new notary just because the either escrow or the investor or the real estate agent doesn’t want to use that notary again because they messed up on that transaction which caused you know funding delays everything right so that’s one of the big things there signatures definitely also too what I have seen from notaries is that they missed their stamp which is one of the biggest thing too right is hey you know we made sure that we saw that person we’re verifying who they are and we put the stamp on it

So those are a few of the things that I’ve seen throughout my time being as a notary.

Dylan Silver (04:09)
Now, my understanding, correct me if I’m wrong here, is notaries often are involved, or get involved once the title company has a closing date in mind, and then they’re saying, okay, well, how are we going to make this happen? And in many cases now, mobile notaries are becoming more and more popular. So over the course of the transaction, are you typically hearing from the title company, you know, a couple days before close, or are they…

Reaching out to you maybe earlier, letting you know, hey, we have this closing coming up. Might you be available around this date?

Steve (04:43)
Yeah, so that’s exactly what happens. So that’s one way that I think that that can happen. Title reaches out to me saying, hey, are you available for this date? Whether it’s an in-office signing just because maybe of their workload or perhaps the client is unable to get away from work, taking time off of work to come into that title office. So that’s where I can come in. I can meet them and their spouse or their partner or whoever it is that’s signing with them. I can meet them at their work location and then let’s say that their spouse

can say, hey, yeah, I got lunch from this time to this time period that I take the documents, go over there to them, get them to sign. It doesn’t have to be a dual signing right there at same time. As long as everything is, you know, good to go, before closing, I can get those signatures and then take it back to title, no problem. And another way too is that I have certain clients, I guess, or partners that I partner with that just say, hey, I just want Steve just to do my signings because I know he’s good.

He’s right there, he’s available, he’s able to get everything done, get the docs back in time, and there’s no issues. So there’s also that as well, having that partnership as well.

Dylan Silver (06:38)
I’d be curious to get your perspective on transaction coordinators and how this intersects with what you’re doing, because I’ve seen a movement right now where real estate investors and real estate agents, people with teams, are realizing, you know, I just want to be focused on getting deals done, talking to my clients, and I don’t want to have to handle all of the nitty gritty of the contract. And from what I’m hearing you say, a lot of what you’re doing as well is making

not just the signing of the docs seamless, but almost some level of general consult in a way when you’re talking about how these closings are happening. Do you feel like there’s a tie in between transaction coordination and notary services in that regard?

Steve (07:26)
tell you the truth. I haven’t come across that as far as transaction coordinators, because everything’s pretty much done is once everything’s ready to go and ready to be signed, then that’s where I come in. So working with the transaction coordinator, I have not stepped into that field yet, but that gives me a good idea to start making some friends in that world. ⁓ just so that way again, cause it’s a partnership, right? And that’s one of the big things that, real estate agents and investors just don’t know is that they rely on the title company.

And I’m not saying there’s anything bad about the title company. They have their ways, they have their deals. Sometimes, know, for me, if I want to get into a particular title company, I have to provide my, you know, my credentials saying, yes, I’m a commission notary here in Nevada. You know, here’s my bond, here’s everything else. But also at the same time, you know, we’re a shoe and we’re a, you know, that back pocket card, if you will, saying, hey, I have a notary. I’ve worked with him before.

or whatever the case may be. Maybe I met them at a signing table, ⁓ at the signing table, one of the investors or real estate agents is like, hey, you could choose your notary. ⁓ Even same thing with the client, they could choose their notary. So it’s just not left up to title. It just comes down to the title company, if I’m approved in their database to be in their database to perform notary. So that’s really the only hurdle there. And that’s my job to do.

provide my credentials, but for having that notary right there in your back pocket so that you’re not relying on title because you know we you know we are busy and everything else and some notaries may be available some may not some title companies like well I got to go with this person I know how this person is it’s gonna take you know two hour signing where you usually can only take anywhere from 30 minutes to to an hour just depending on questions

Dylan Silver (09:15)
Yeah.

Steve (09:16)
Notaries are a secret weapon in my opinion to real estate agents and investors because you know they could choose you know investors have their and real estate agents as well have their go-to HVAC person their go-to plumber their go-to electrician, landscaper, painter, etc. right? Well why not have a go-to notary? Nowhere does it say that titles is only one that does it.

We’re you know we’re just a secret weapon as well and as long as we have that trust and rapport you know

The notaries, we’re right there, we will take care of you because once that rapport happens and we do a good job, right? I’m not saying that, this is the way all and be all, but we do a good job for that person, then why not have that backup notary or that preferred notary so that way your transactions are gonna be good to go and pretty solid.

Dylan Silver (10:44)
I’d like to get a little granular there and going back to something you mentioned earlier, which is even if investors or people come into the closing table are closing at the title company, they could still elect to have their own notary that they’ve worked with previously. Do title companies ever give any pushback? I’m not actually as familiar with this process as I should be. Do they typically have someone in-house who’s a notary there?

Steve (11:11)
So they do. So pretty much all the escrow officers and the escrow assistants are pretty much notaries. And that’s kind of the trend right now where we’re at just because the business is just kind of low. So I’m seeing a lot more in-house with the title companies doing their own signings. But again, that doesn’t preclude from the real estate agent or the investor saying, hey, I understand that you’re doing this, but I want this notary to come and do my signing.

Title companies basically gotta say, okay, mean, there’ll be some pushback, I’m pretty sure there will be, because they’re like, oh no, we can do this, and blah, blah, blah, blah. But it’s just a matter of, hey, do you want somebody good to do it, or are you okay with escrow and title doing it? If they got a great report and everything else, nothing wrong with that at all. We’re just another option.

Dylan Silver (12:01)
sure you have many stories at the closing table. ⁓ When you’re at the closing table, are there any questions that you see come up commonly where you’re having to explain to folks what’s going on in the closing docs?

Steve (12:17)
At times, as a notary, we’re only, basically what we’re allowed to do is point to the paragraph or point to the document and say, is what it is and give a very, very broad overview of it. So we can’t go in, we can’t talk about the numbers because that’s between that person and the lender. We can’t talk about anything else really that has to deal with that transaction. We just kind of go to that document.

We point to it saying, okay, here’s your APR, your interest rate, here’s your payments, here’s this question here, whatever they might have. And that’s pretty much what we were able to do at a legal speaking point.

Dylan Silver (13:00)
I got it, I got it. Now of course, missing signatures or missing documents is going to be crucial. ⁓ Whose job is it to make sure that all the documents that are needed are in the packet for signing? Is it the notary’s responsibility? Is it title company’s responsibility? Is it the seller’s responsibility and their agent? Whose shoulders does that fall on?

Steve (13:25)
So it kind of falls on to everybody, right? So you got your lender, because basically the lender docs come from the lender. They’re the ones that are supposed to ensure that, all the docs needed to close that transaction comes from the lender and so forth. And then the escrow comes in, they kind of do a double check. And then if you’ve been in the business like I’ve been for last few years, you kind of know what to look for. then, ⁓ you know, and there’s nothing wrong with asking or shooting ⁓ a text to the title office.

and saying, I think we’re missing this or hey, know, the closing disclosure, where’s the closing disclosure at? Oh, they did that on there. It’s like, okay, well, I thought they had to do a wet signature as well. It’s like, oh yeah, you’re right. Let me get you another one, right? So it’s kind of a shared responsibility in a way. And again, if you know the documents, you can ask title or the lender if you have a good relationship with the lender and saying, hey, you know, I don’t see this document in here. And it could just be,

that the lender did it through or or title and escrow did it through um docuSign or something like that so a lot of a lot of things that don’t need a wet signature are kind of going in hybrid where you know back in 2020, 21, 22 you know we had stacks that are probably like this big 200 something pages now coming down to about maybe 120 to 150 because all those were signed through docuSign and um yeah

Dylan Silver (14:52)
So

Steve (14:53)
Go ahead.

Dylan Silver (14:53)
getting granular there, DocuSign almost seems to be a way where notaries could be potentially a source of competition, right? Or the DocuSign is a source of competition for the notaries. Do you see that being more commonplace across the board where you don’t need as many wet signatures? Or do you think that, you know, we’re always gonna need wet signatures because people in the real estate space wanna have a physical paper trail

kind of keeping it a little bit more traditional, more old school in that regard.

Steve (16:06)
So really I think it depends kind of on the lender, right? But here’s another great thing, and that’s a great question as well, because with the, you know, now we’re in the 21st century, we’re finally starting to grasp the 21st century, right? So now we have electronic notaries, which I am as well. So we can hop on a platform, and if that lender is okay with having electronic notary seals and electronic signatures,

We could do that too as well in the real estate ⁓ industry as well. And I’ve probably done maybe about three or four. you know, here in Reno, it’s not as popular, but in the future, see it once, I see it becoming more of a thing coming into the future. And I think that once more, mortgage industry becomes a little bit more streamlined of, okay, hey, what can we do? You know, of course, federal laws and everything else dictates what.

what needs to happen and everything else. But I can see this in the future, maybe five to 10 years from now, where we’re probably gonna see less and less of what signatures and it’s gonna go straight into electronic.

Dylan Silver (17:13)
So for myself and our audience who may be having difficulty picturing this, what is an electronic or digital notary, how does that work?

Steve (17:23)
Yeah, so it’s called remote online notarization. ⁓ There’s, I don’t know, 30-ish states, maybe a little bit more, don’t quote me on that, that are able to do online remote online notarization. Excuse me, that was a mouthful right there. And basically what that happens is it could be anywhere from a general notary document just saying, okay, hey, you my kid passed the hours for driving, I need it notarized.

I don’t have time to go down to UPS or find ⁓ a ⁓ physical notary, so they could just jump online, get onto one of the many platforms, then they’re assigned a notary and it gets signed. So same thing with ⁓ the real estate portion of it. If we’ve got somebody who’s, know, let’s say they’re buying somewhere here in Reno, right? And they’re out of country ⁓ on vacation or on a job or whatever.

then what they could do is that we could get online and again it all depends on the lender and what their requirements are and everything else is that we could jump online, we could do all the mortgage paperwork right there online, all the electronic seals, their signatures, electronic signature, my electronic signature, everything that’s required for the notarization and then it’s done.

Dylan Silver (18:41)
Is it like a zoom call? it like face to face on online or is it like they see your signature next to theirs and it’s like a three way chain docuSign type situation?

Steve (18:51)
Yeah, no great question. So with electronic notarizations, it has to be kind like what we are face to face depending on which platform and what state they’re in. Right now, Nevada does not do biometrics. It’s all by KBAs. So it pulls off your credit report says, hey, did you have a car payment? You know, is it between this amount? You know, do you have a mortgage? Is it between this amount? You know, here’s the addresses. Where did you used to live at? And it’s all pulled off the credit report. That person’s got to answer those questions.

And then once they answer those questions correctly, they’re granted access into the room. And then, yeah, and then it’s face to face, because I got to see them. They upload their ID, and then I verify their ID through the platform. And then once I verify the ID, then we can continue on with the signing, and then go from there.

Dylan Silver (19:26)
Wow.

wasn’t even aware that this existed. How long has this been around for?

Steve (19:45)
Yeah, yeah.

Um, it’s been around for, for quite a few years, at least 10 years. Um, and then once COVID happened, then a lot more States jumped on, you know, uh, allowed, you know, through the legislature said, yep, it’s a, you know, we’re going to do this because of COVID. And so a lot more States are jumping on board with, uh, with electronic notarizations. California, uh, you know, which is right next door to me, about 30 miles is there slated, I think for 29 or maybe 2030.

is when they’re supposed to be kicking off. they’re going through everything right now to get everything set up, changing any type of laws, you know, all that good stuff to perform electronic notaries in California.

Dylan Silver (20:31)
I’m curious to get your perspective on how the notary space and how folks like yourself feel about the digital notary process. Are people saying, you know, hey, there is going to be mass adoption here soon or is there some degree of pushback from the old guard saying, well, there is too much change happening here?

Steve (20:52)
Yeah, I can see kind of both, right? Again, like I said a little bit earlier, think between five to 10 years from now, we’re going to see a total different landscape where I believe that probably the majority of transactions are going to happen over online. It’s just the way we are, right? We’re just trying to make it easy for the lender, Title and Escrow, for the clients, for the notary.

Just jump online get on the platform and then just do it So, you know, I still think that there’s some pushbacks. We got some old-school people who still like the old pen and paper You know, there’s and it’s nothing wrong with that, you know, as long as laws don’t change and say, okay Hey, this is the preferred way now or the legitimate way now if you know what I mean But if there’s still that option between paper and pen and electronic, you know We still might have some of those people who’d be like, nope. I want pen and paper

Dylan Silver (21:46)
Now, ⁓ pivoting here, I’m sure you’ve had many situations come up where it’s been a little hectic at closing. Any stories that come up where you think this is one that was kind of a game changer?

Steve (21:59)
⁓ As far as electronic notary or just in general?

Dylan Silver (22:02)
as far as notary

stories in general that got a little hectic.

Steve (22:06)
Yeah, so we were there’s one and it’s about the names, right? So we got to make sure names are good to go on the paperwork. And so it’s. And I don’t mean to disparage anybody on here or to offend anybody, but within the Hispanic culture, right? We have, you know, their last names and that’s one of the ones that’s really hard to catch because. And it’s not.

it’s nobody’s really fault, right? We’re just typing in what’s on the license. And so we got probably about maybe, this is probably about a 3.30 in the afternoon signing. We got about maybe three, maybe four pages in, and I’m just looking at the documents and I just have to look up at the gentleman and he goes, I think my name’s wrong. I said, you and I are on the same wavelength because I think your name’s wrong too. And so we looked at the license, called in title, and we said, hey, the name is wrong.

They’re like, oh, yep, it is. Let me get back to the lender. So again, this is at 3.30, so probably about maybe 3.40-ish, right, when we noticed. Then we had to wait on the lender. So this is 3.30 in the afternoon, waiting on the lender to redraw the docs and then to get them back to us, which probably took about maybe about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. And so we’re just sitting there, having some, know, chit chatting and all that good stuff. But.

which is really cool because the guy was a landscaper. He’s like, hey, I need notaries every once in a while because of some of the properties I go to and this and that and a lot of D and personal stuff. And I said, yeah, sure. Here’s my card. And so I work with that guy on a probably about maybe every three to six months I probably see him just from that rapport and everything else. And so I’m kind of like his go-to notary when everything, if he needs anything. So luck, yeah.

Dylan Silver (23:57)
That’s right. The

name’s got to be right. Yeah, that’s an interesting one. mean, it’s like people have to get one thing right on these and that’s one of the big ones, right? ⁓ We are coming up on time here, Steve. Any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you?

Steve (24:07)
Yeah.

Yeah, sure. So I like to call notaries a jack of all trades because it’s just not notarizations that we do. found just another quick story. I found another client that I was signing like, hey, we’re getting married and whatever. I’m like, hey, sweet, you know what? I’m an officiant as well. So married them, which was pretty cool. So signing for the first house, married them. you know, notaries are jack of all trades. So it could be field inspecting, officiates.

There’s one thing that I do partner with right now. Just started this probably about maybe a year ago. ⁓ What it is, it’s a digital vault for trust, wills, important documents. It’s kind of morbid thinking right now, but we’re all gonna die, right? And it’s a safe place. It’s a digital cloud to upload everything, like passwords to Facebook, your banking account. You can leave a video memo to your loved ones. ⁓

and it’s all stored in the cloud. It’s all security safe. AES-265 or 365, whatever it is. I can’t remember what it is off the of my head. So it’s all secure and it’s a great product. I use it for me and my family. I’ve had other friends who use it and say, hey, this is a great thing. so that’s one of the biggest projects right now that I’m kind of pushing out, is when I go to the signing table and say, hey, now that you have this or doing trust signings, now that you have a trust, you know.

If something happens to you and you’re out of town, how are you going to get to that will and that trust to let the doctors know what needs to happen with you? And they’re like, ⁓ OK. So yeah, it’s a great product.

Dylan Silver (25:54)
Yeah. What’s going to be the

process, right? And how are people going to have access to the necessary information or next with kin in that situation? I think a lot of people are scrambling when sometimes they have to gain access to this and it can be definitely challenging. So that sounds very interesting and useful. Steve, thank you so much for joining us here today on the show. Thank you so much.

Steve (26:03)
Yeah.