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As a house mortgage company, getting your documents notarized when dealing with a client to prove the authenticity of your documents and the transaction is very important. It’s a three-part process i.e. The vetting of the document, certification, and record keeping. There are different ways you can get a notarial act and they include;
- Electronic notarization
- Remote notary
- Mobile notary
There might be differences between these forms of notaries but the end goal is the same. However, to fully understand how all these forms of notarization work, you need to understand who is a notary public and their role. A notary public is an officer appointed by the state government and serves by witnessing the signing of important documents and assist deter fraud. It is the most common type of notary since notary services were introduced only a couple of years ago. A traditional notary public can be found in a bank, legal offices, and shipping stores.
Electronic Notarization
Electronic notarization is where you notarize a document electronically when all the participants are in the same room or location. As a house mortgage company, electronic notarization is helpful to all the parties involved including the client intending to mortgage a house. It is done by the notary public as it is an official act. It does not entail the use of any physical ink as a stamp or signature but rather the notary public puts a tamper evidence seal on the document electronically.
The difference between Electronic notarization and remote notarization is that it is not done remotely, hence all the parties involved have to be present to witness the notarization of the document at hand.
Mobile Notary
As the name suggests, a mobile notary is offered anywhere anytime. The notary public has to travel to the specified location to do the notarization. Due to the nature of this work, at times it elicits the name traveling notary public for the notary officer. They have set hours of operation and a standard fee set for their services but you will have to cater to their traveling costs and convenience fees.
The main difference between a mobile notary and other forms of notaries is that you will have to book an appointment with them before the notarization day. They also do not have specific places they operate from or say a head office which means finding a mobile notary might prove to be a little hectic compared to hiring the services of traditional notary public or electronic notary.
Remote Notary
Remote notary, or commonly known as an online notary is notarization services offered online. The remote notarization process takes place to live online which means the participants have to be online through audio or video to witness the process but they do not have to be in the same physical location. In the recent past, remote notaries have become very common with the advancement in technology and the availability of the internet globally.
In just four steps, you can have your document notarized as a client or as the company. Here are the steps:
- Upload the document online
- Complete identity verification
- Connect with all the other parties involved
- Download and print the notarized document
Importance of Online Notary Services
As a house mortgage company, online or remote notarization comes much in handy especially in these trying times of COVID 19 pandemic and could remain the leading method of document notarization since it saves on time and resources.
The Main Differences
Remote notary and electronic notary are quite different in that in both forms of notarization, participants are present but only physically present in electronic notarization. You should note however that all remote notaries are electronic but not all the electronic notarization processes are remote or online.
For mobile notaries, they operate far different from how remote notaries operate since they do come to where you are, and there is nothing remote about this. A remote notary is also cheaper compared to a mobile notary as you only incur the service fee for their services and probably some internet costs. Which in most times is very minimal.
Initially, mobile notaries were used a lot for mortgage closing to cater to the needs of both the client and the mortgage lenders with the mobile notary public traveling to where the rest of the other parties are comfortable.
You may also like: How To Become An Online Notary
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