3.1 Receiving & Securing Assignments

How Assignments Arrive

A Notary Signing Agent does not get loan documents by accident — every assignment is a deliberate order from a hiring party that has chosen you to notarize a specific loan package. Lesson 2 of the NNA Notary Signing Agent coursework covers the intake process: how you receive, confirm, and secure each assignment before you ever print a borrower copy.

The Three Sources of Assignments

Assignments arrive from three distinct channels, and recognizing which one you are dealing with shapes how you negotiate, communicate, and get paid:

• Direct from a lender or title/escrow company. The hiring company contacts you straight. Fees tend to be higher ($100-$200 is common), you often deal with the same coordinator repeatedly, and you may print docs yourself or receive them electronically.
• Through a signing service (aggregator). The aggregator acts as a middleman between the title company and the NSA. It funnels volume your way but keeps a slice of the fee, so payouts often land at the lower end ($75-$125). You may never speak to the title company directly.
• Direct from a borrower or attorney (rare). Occasionally a borrower or attorney hires an NSA for a private signing. Treat these like any assignment: confirm scope, fee, and ID requirements up front.

How the Request Reaches You

Requests come by phone call, email, text, or a signing-service app/portal. Mobile-first platforms push alerts you must accept or decline within minutes; slower title companies may email a request days ahead. Regardless of channel, the discipline is the same: capture every detail the first time so you are not calling back to ask what you missed.

What to Capture at Intake

When a request lands, record at minimum:

1. Borrower name(s) exactly as they will appear on the documents.
2. Property address and the signing location (often the borrower's home, sometimes a neutral site).
3. Date and start time of the signing.
4. Loan type — refinance, purchase, reverse mortgage, HELOC, or modification.
5. Your fee and whether it includes travel and printing.
6. Special instructions — scan-backs, fax-backs, witness requirements, or package limits.

If any of these is missing, you are not ready to accept. Ask before you say yes.

Securing the Assignment

Accepting an assignment is a mini-contract: you are promising to appear, on time, prepared. Securing the assignment means locking in three things — availability, fee, and the order details — so nothing slips between the request and the signing.

Step 1: Confirm Availability Against Your Calendar

Before saying yes, check your calendar against the requested date and time including travel time both ways. A common rookie mistake is booking back-to-back signings across town with no buffer. Build in at least 30-60 minutes of travel slack per appointment, more in heavy traffic. If you cannot make it, decline politely — a declined assignment preserves your reputation; a no-show destroys it.

Step 2: Accept the Fee Explicitly

The industry-average fee is $75-$200 per signing, varying by loan type, region, and whether docs are printed or eSigned. SPW Principle 7 requires you to honor the contractual fee you agreed to — no padding the invoice afterward, and no illegal referral fees (you cannot pay a kickback to a coordinator for steering work to you). Confirm the number in writing before you accept so billing disputes are settled up front.

Step 3: Send a Written Confirmation

After a verbal yes, send a short written confirmation (email or portal message) restating the date, time, location, fee, and loan type. This creates a paper trail and protects you if the hiring party later disputes the terms.

Avoiding Double-Booking

Double-booking is the fastest way to get deactivated by a signing service. Prevent it by:

• Keeping a single master calendar (not one per platform).
• Logging each accepted assignment immediately upon acceptance, not at the end of the day.
• Setting reminders 24 and 2 hours before each signing.
• Blocking travel time as a separate calendar entry.

Direct vs. Aggregator: A Strategic Note

Many new NSAs start with aggregators to build volume, then graduate to direct title relationships for higher fees and repeat work. Both are legitimate. The key is to treat every assignment — direct or aggregator — with the same intake discipline, because your reputation score on one platform follows you to the next.

Rush Assignments and Documents Delivery

Not every assignment lands days ahead. Rush assignments — same-day or next-day requests — are common, and they pay a premium precisely because they are stressful. The intake discipline does not change, but the tempo does.

When Documents Actually Arrive

Final loan documents are rarely attached to the original assignment request. They are typically delivered separately, often 1-2 hours before the signing, and sometimes even as you are parking at the borrower's home. This is normal in the industry, but it shapes how you work:

• Never print until you have the final docs. Lenders issue revised packages late; printing a stale draft wastes paper and risks notarizing superseded pages. Confirm the package is marked "final" before printing.
• Confirm the delivery method at intake (email PDF, overnight courier, or portal download) so you are not waiting on a courier that was never sent.
• Have printing capacity at the signing. Some NSAs carry a portable printer for last-minute reprints; others locate a nearby print shop as a fallback.

Handling a Rush Responsibly

When a coordinator says "this is a rush, can you take it in two hours," confirm the fee covers the rush, confirm docs are actually ready, and confirm the borrower is genuinely available before you say yes. A rush that turns into a no-show because the borrower was never called is still a failed signing on your record. SPW Principle 7 applies here too: agree to the rush fee up front in writing, and do not retroactively demand more.

The Intake Discipline in One Sentence

Capture every detail, confirm the fee, check your calendar, send a written confirmation, and log it immediately — whether the signing is two days out or two hours out.