During her 20 years as a Notary and Signing Agent, Amy Seitz has become adept at recognizing trends and knowing what works and what doesn’t for her business. When she became a remote Notary, she knew this was a game-changer for Notaries across the nation. “This is exciting! It’s going to change how Notaries do business, so it’s crazy not to learn how to do it,” she said.
She performed her first remote online notarization (RON) in Ohio on January 1, 2021. After a few months, Amy was making more money doing online notarizations than at her government day job. But there was a catch. She estimated 65 percent of what she was earning went toward paying for the technology she used to notarize documents.
Amy knew she couldn’t be the only Notary frustrated with high costs to perform online notarizations. She reviewed available platforms but felt that none of them really viewed the costs incurred by Notaries into their pricing matrix.
For example, when performing remote notarizations for loan signings, she had to use a technology platform designated by the lender or title company. Some of these platforms charged her a transaction fee between $20 and $60. With many signing services she worked with only offering her $50 to $70 as payment for the total loan assignment, it didn’t seem economically feasible for her to keep performing RONs during loan assignments unless something drastically changed.
Starting her own remote notarization platform
This is when she decided she wanted to start her own remote notarization platform to provide affordable service for Notaries, and so the idea for CyberizeIt was born. After much research, she hired web developers and was open for business.
It was not all fun and games putting together a platform. Originally, Amy planned to offer services only for her fellow Ohio Notaries but she soon realized this would not be profitable. There were other set-up and approval costs she learned about as set up her own RON platform. For example, to provide services in other states, she had to pay approval fees as high as $1,500.
Because she is a Notary herself, she wanted CyberizeIt to do business differently than other existing RON platforms. Notaries who sign up with the site pay a low monthly fee for membership and transaction fees are charged to the signer instead of the Notary. The Notary also receives the majority of the remote notarization fee as well.
“I wanted Notaries to get residual income from return clients, so our Notaries receive a unique URL. If someone signs up with us using your link, you get residual income from that client,” she said. “It made me angry to see that on other platforms, return clients weren’t going to benefit the Notary that brought them to the table.” Amy also recognized that small errors were common while performing online notarizations, so Notaries on the site can also restart a transaction without a secondary fee.
Amy also trains other Notaries on how to market their services and do online notarizations with as few technical issues as possible. “You have to learn the technical components, troubleshooting, and how to tag the document. When you do a RON, you may need to help the signer with basic computer issues and show them where to sign,” she said.
Today, CyberizeIt provides remote notarization in 33 States and the territory of Guam. But Amy isn’t resting on her laurels. She realized that many closing documents were being rejected because they weren’t MISMO-certified. MISMO stands for the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization, which is a not-for-profit, wholly owned subsidiary of the Mortgage Bankers Association responsible for developing standards for conducting business in the U.S. mortgage finance industry. Being MISMO-certified meant that CyberizeIt had to have a software validation that underwriters look for when Notaries use a platform to complete a closing. CyberizeIt was able to obtain this certification in March of 2022.
Even as the platform has grown, Amy continues to support her own clients, money which she invests back in her business. When asked how she sees the platform growing in the future, Amy replied “I’ve already grown into something I didn’t expect. Many of the technical support calls I received were questions from Notaries who needed guidance to ensure their remote notarizations were compliant. Due to this, I become a Certified Notary trainer in Ohio and Montana; with more states pending.”
“RON is here to stay”
Amy said she expects remote notarization will give Notaries the opportunity to serve customers around the world — and even beyond someday.
“RON is here to stay but most people don’t know this is available. If I’m in my commissioned area, I can notarize a document for an astronaut on the moon, as long as we have audio/visual communication and we’ve done the ID validation,” she added. “The client’s location really doesn’t matter, as long as I’m where I’m supposed to be. So, the moon’s the limit!”