Guides
Guides for mobile notaries and loan signing agents
Plain answers for a notary starting out, and for one already working — each written from its sources, which are named on the page.
- Starting out
Starting a mobile notary business: the first month
From the commission to the first paying signing: what your state asks of you, what to buy, how to set the business up, what to charge for, and where the first clients come from.
Read it · 8 min - Starting out
Notary bond and E&O insurance: what each one covers
A notary bond protects the public; errors-and-omissions insurance protects you. What each pays, who can ask for the money back, which one your state asks for, and which one the companies do.
Read it · 5 min - The work
Acknowledgment, jurat or copy certification: what each one certifies, and who chooses
What a notary certifies in an acknowledgment, a jurat and a copy certification, how the three differ at the table, and who decides which one a document needs.
Read it · 7 min - The work
Checking identification: a document, a credible witness or knowing the signer — and what to do when a signer has none
Knowing the signer, an ID or a credible witness: three states side by side, how the rule sets for all the states compare, who may vouch for a signer — the state’s to say — and when to refuse.
Read it · 7 min - The work
Loan signing basics: from the order to the courier drop
What a loan signing agent does before, at and after the table — the printing, the identity checks, the right to cancel, the return — and the line a notary never crosses.
Read it · 8 min - The work
Signings in hospitals and care homes: before you go, at the bedside, and when to stop
Calling ahead, an ID that is at home, a signer who cannot sign, staff and family in the room, and how to tell whether the signer understands and wants to sign — or when to stop.
Read it · 7 min - The work
Notarizing by video: what it takes, and how the states’ rule sets compare
How many of the states’ rule sets let a notary notarize for a signer on a screen, what three states ask first, how the signer’s identity is checked, and what is kept of the session.
Read it · 8 min - Getting work
How to get loan signing work: who sends it, and what they check first
Title and escrow companies, lenders and signing services send loan signings. What each wants on file before the first order — screening, insurance, a W-9 — and what earns the second one.
Read it · 6 min - Getting work
Getting found: Google, reviews, and a page of your own
A Google Business Profile for a business that travels, reviews asked for the way Google and the FTC allow, and a page that says where you go, what you charge and when you are free.
Read it · 6 min - Money
Getting paid by companies: W-9s, invoices, terms and 1099s
A company pays on paperwork: a W-9 before the first invoice, a dated invoice with its terms, a reminder when it ages, and a Form 1099-NEC after a year in which it paid you $2,000 or more.
Read it · 6 min - Money
Notary income and self-employment tax: what is exempt, and what isn’t
Fees for notarial acts are income, but the IRS leaves them out of self-employment tax. What the exemption names, what it does not, how it goes on the return, and what to set aside through the year.
Read it · 6 min - Money
The 2026 IRS mileage rate, for mobile notaries
The IRS business rate changed mid-year: 72.5¢ a mile through June 30, 76¢ from July 1. What that means for a mobile notary’s log, and the records the IRS asks it to keep.
Read it · 6 min - Records
The notary journal: what it holds, and why your state decides
What a line in a notary journal records, how the rules differ from state to state — required or not, paper or electronic, ID numbers and thumbprints — and how to keep the book safe.
Read it · 7 min
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