A loan signing quote looks like one fee to the title company or signing service that books it. To you it is several: a service fee for handling the package, the notarial acts inside it, printing, often scanbacks, and the drive. Price each one and you can see which jobs are worth taking and which only look good.
The lines in a signing quote
- Signing service fee. Your fee for the work of the signing: preparing, presenting the documents, walking the borrower through the signature pages and returning the package. It is a service fee, separate from the notarial acts.
- Notarial acts. The acknowledgments and jurats in the package, priced at or under your state’s maximum. How they are counted depends on the state, which matters more in a signing than anywhere else because there are several of them.
- Printing. Per page or flat. When the borrower needs a second full set, a double set doubles the pages. See how to calculate printing costs.
- Scanbacks. Scanning signed pages back before shipping, charged as its own add-on.
- Travel, waiting and after-hours. Priced the same way as for any mobile job.
The notarial acts in a signing, state by state
The count that matters is set by your state’s fee basis. Four acknowledged signatures, for example, have a maximum of $60.00 in California (Up to $15.00 per signature). In Texas (Up to $10.00 first signature + $1.00 each additional, restarting for each document) the same four signatures are $13.00 if they are all on one document and $40.00 if each is on a different document. In Nevada the first-signature amount restarts for each signer instead: four signatures by two signers have a maximum of $45.00.
The calculator asks for the grouping (documents or signers) whenever a state uses a first-plus-additional rule, and suggests a per-signature fee that keeps the total at or under the maximum. How state fee maximums work goes through each basis.
Two worked signings
A California refinance: four acknowledged signatures at the maximum, a $125 signing fee, base plus mileage travel for 18 miles, a double set of a 120-page package at $0.15 a page, and scanbacks. The estimate counts an hour at the table and 45 minutes of driving, with example costs of $0.65 a mile and $0.07 a page.
| Notarial acts4 × acknowledgment | $60.00 |
|---|---|
| Signing serviceRefinance | $125.00 |
| Travel$25.00 + 18 mi × $1.25/mi | $47.50 |
| Printing240 pages × $0.15 (double set) | $36.00 |
| Scanbacks | $20.00 |
| Total | $288.50 |
- Notarial acts
- $60.00
- Travel & service
- $228.50
- Est. net
- $260.00
- Per hour (1 hr 45 min)
- $148.57
This matches the result screen in the Mobile Notary Fee Calculator App Store screenshots. Rates other than the California maximum are example values.
A Texas seller package: three acknowledged signatures on one document, a $100 signing fee, flat $40 travel for 15 miles and a single 60-page set. For three signatures on one document the Texas maximum is $12.00; the $4.00 per signature entered here comes to exactly that.
| Notarial acts3 × acknowledgment | $12.00 |
|---|---|
| Signing serviceSeller Package | $100.00 |
| Travel15 mi · flat | $40.00 |
| Printing60 pages × $0.15 | $9.00 |
| Total | $161.00 |
- Notarial acts
- $12.00
- Travel & service
- $149.00
- Est. net
- $147.05
- Per hour (1 hr 5 min)
- $135.74
Texas maximum from the verified Texas record; other rates are example values.
In both, the notarial acts are a small share of the total. The signing fee, printing and travel are where the money is, and they are all separate services that you set.
Before you accept
A few questions change the price enough to ask every time:
- How many pages, and do you need to print a borrower set?
- How many signers, and how many documents need notarizing?
- Are scanbacks required, and is there a courier drop-off afterwards?
- What time, and how far?
The loan signing fee calculator puts all of this on one screen when you are setting the price yourself.
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.