Printing is the loan signing cost that is easiest to underestimate, because it arrives a few cents at a time. A package printed twice is hundreds of sheets of paper and a measurable share of a toner cartridge, before you count the time the printer runs. Price it deliberately and it stops quietly eating the signing fee.
Two ways to charge for printing
- Per page. A rate times the pages printed. The charge tracks the job: a long refinance costs more to print than a short seller package, and the quote says so.
- Flat. One printing charge per job. Simpler to quote, but it pays the same for 60 pages as for 300.
Both are supported by the calculators and the app. For 150 pages printed as a double set, $0.15 a page comes to $45.00; a flat $25 stays $25.00 whatever the count.
Double sets
When the borrower keeps a full copy you print the package twice. The calculator’s double set switch doubles the page count: a 150-page package becomes 300 pages. With per-page pricing the charge doubles too. With flat pricing the charge does not change, but the extra pages still count toward your printing cost in the estimate, which is the point of the estimate: you see the cost even when you do not bill for it.
Work out your own cost per page
Your cost per page is the paper plus the toner or ink each page uses. Take the numbers from your own receipts. With made-up example prices:
- Paper: $9.00 for a 500-sheet ream is about 1.8¢ a sheet.
- Toner: $90.00 for a cartridge rated at 3,000 pages is about 3.0¢ a page.
- Together: about 4.8¢ a page, before the printer itself wears out.
The calculators start from $0.07 a page for the cost side and $0.15 a page for the charge. Both are the app’s starting values; replace them with yours.
Printing inside the whole signing
An Arizona purchase with a 150-page package printed as a double set, three acknowledged signatures at the $10 per-signature maximum, a $125 signing fee and flat travel:
| Notarial acts3 × acknowledgment | $30.00 |
|---|---|
| Signing servicePurchase | $125.00 |
| Travel20 mi · flat | $40.00 |
| Printing300 pages × $0.15 (double set) | $45.00 |
| Total | $240.00 |
- Notarial acts
- $30.00
- Travel & service
- $210.00
- Est. net
- $206.00
- Per hour (1 hr 40 min)
- $123.60
The $10 maximum is from the verified Arizona record. Every other rate is an example value.
The printing line bills $45.00 and costs $21.00 at $0.07 a page, so it contributes to the job rather than draining it. Set the rate to zero and the net drops by the whole charge while the cost stays: that is what printing for free looks like.
Try your own numbers in the loan signing fee calculator, or run a flat offer through the profit calculator with the pages you will print.
This site provides pricing and statutory-fee reference information for convenience and is not legal advice. Laws and fee limits may change. Verify current requirements with your commissioning authority.