I’ve been interested in becoming a Notary Public.
Fees are low.
But I’d like some advice:
Not sure this lends itself to a factual answer, but I’d suspect it would be difficult to make any decent coin out of it. The only way would be if you somehow got associated with a law firm, closing company, bank, whatever, that would generate a consistent and sufficient number of fees. But, I’d suspect it would be pretty cheap and easy for most of them to get one of their own employees qualified.
Fees would have to exceed the allowable limits (depending on the SS bens you are receiving) before they had any impact.
Probably not a big money maker, but it might generate a few bucks on the side.
I used to go to the bank, but that got spotty if the relevant employee was out or at another branch that day. These days, many/most FedEx and UPS store locations offer notary services for not a lot of money.
Here in Texas, even some HEB grocery stores offer notary services, so YMMV, clearly.
I have the sense that some of your answers would vary by state. Notary regulations certainly do. Some states require fingerprints from the client, others don’t bother. I would think the job would be introvert friendly, based upon my use of these services in the past.
One consideration: check to see if your local bank has a notary. If they do, it might not be a very good business opportunity.
One opportunity might be for “mobile notary.” We need one from time to time to go to our clients’ home with documents. I imagine they charge a premium for that service.
Yeah. When my sister joined a law firm (medical secretary → legal secretary) she was encouraged to become a notary, as in, the firm paid for the course she had to take and the associated fees, and all the renewal costs for the several decades she worked for them. (This was also true for three to five other of their non-atty employees over time.) She didn’t otherwise get paid extra for doing it, but since it rarely amounted to more than walking over to a conference room for about ten-fifteen minutes at a time while looking at driver’s licenses/watching people sign papers, and embossing her stamp on the papers… eh.
On a couple of occasions she was asked to travel to some homebound person’s residence, and then mostly she’d get a few hours of time off in compensation and reimbursed for a meal or whatever. Not exactly a significant income boost for her.
Heck - when my wife was applying for the bar after law school, she learned that she WAS a notary! Her terribly honest and ethical father was a realtor, and figured it would easier if he simply applied for one in her name, so he could sign and notarize his own signature.
(And, for reference, that likely does not make the top 10 of most outrageous things the asshole did - may he rot in peace.)
I’ve never heard of anyone making a living as a notary. It’s always added on in addition to something else, and that something else can be almost anything (there used to be a little shop not too far from my neighborhood that did shoe repairs and notarizing).
Mostly, I’d expect it’d be handy if any of your friends or family members need something notarized, so you could do it for them instead of them having to find someone for it (and I think there’s some sort of preference for a notary to actually know the person they’re notarizing for).
In Ohio at least, every lawyer is also automatically a notary public.
Every place that I worked had a couple of employees who were notaries and employees could use them a couple of times a year, my homeowner’s insurance company as well as my credit union have employees who are notaries and it’s free for customers. When I have had to sign loan documents or legal documents or financial documents, there was a notary at the office. As you can see, anyone who needs a notary should have one available to them. There should be very little call for a solo notary service.
I was thinking of this.
Around here, notaries are a small part of someone’s regular job. It’d be hard to make any money from it on your own: how often do people need them, and why would they pay you if they could just go down to the bank and get it done for free?
Notaries who aren’t part of a law firm only are called upon once a week or so. Even a law firm would only need one a couple of times a day. There’s just not enough volume to make any money at it, even if you could find people willing to pay for it.
My mother was a notary. She was a librarian and it was a service that was provided for free to the public. Banks, town clerks, libraries etc often offer the service for free. Other places provide it for a nominal fee. I usually go to the UPS store for convenience. I can’t see how it would be profitable to do it on your own.
I was a notary a few times for companies I worked at. Mainly in case the usual notary had something she needed notarized, it made sense to have two. After I left, I thought about renewing my license but Illinois required a class and a bond and I wasn’t nearly that invested. In my time, I notarized a couple documents for friends or family but probably no more than three times.
As mentioned, notaries aren’t hard to find between credit unions, banks, libraries or just paying someone $15 at the currency exchange. I found it weird that my cousin drove a good 45min to see me to notarize something and tried to explain it would probably be quicker to find a local notary but so it goes. In any event, I wouldn’t think it would be much of a side hustle.
Not here. I’m sure he forged plenty of lawyers’ signatures as well! 
Last time I needed a notary, I did it at the library.
One of my best friends is the secretary and administrative assistant at our church. The church footed the bill to get her authorized as a notary public, mostly as a free service which the church could offer to the congregation and the community.
She might serve in that role a half-dozen times a year. She likes the fact that she’s able to provide the service to people who really need it, and aren’t sure where to turn, but it just doesn’t come into play very often.
I’m a notary in Illinois. I just do it beause I can. I’ve never charged anyone for it. The maximum I can charge per notarial act in Illinois is $5. (It used to be just $1 back in 2005 when I first became a notary for a law office.) For electronic notarizations, $25. However, traveling notaries can make some money, as you can charge a travel fee that is itemized separately from the notary fee. You have to inform your client of it, of course. This seems to be the place where you can earn some money. If you take a step up and become a notary signing agent by taking a training course and get a certificate, you can earn appointment fees of like $150. That’s a little bit more involved. The Illinois Notary website informs me that the median salary of NSAs is $42K. You would be working within the real estate and mortgage industries. I don’t know much more beyond what I just read on the website.
But, at least in my state, if you’re just doing bog standard notarizations, there’s not much money to be made except off travel fees.
you really are not supposed to notarize things for immediate family (some states explicitly prohibit it), especially if there is any conceivable argument you could stand to benefit from it.
In Illinois it is explictly allowed in the notary handbook to sign for relatives, as long as you are not a party to the transaction. It is explicitly not allowed to notarize your own signature:
“May I notarize my own signature and/or the signatures of my spouse, children and other relatives?
A notary public may not notarize their own signature and may not notarize any document in which the notary’s name appears as a party to the transaction. A notary may notarize the signature of their spouse, children, and other relatives.”
However, as you say, if you stand to benefit from it or otherwise from being a “biased” party, it can cause trouble. I’ve never notarized anything for family members, but I have for friends.
And if anyone is interested, it is dead simple to become a notary, at least here in Illinois. There’s no course, no certification, nothing. I believe all they did was run a background check on me, and as long as I filled out the forms correctly, got the insurance, and sent the fees, I got approved. I got my stamp then from some notary organization online.
As I recall Mad Magazine had a bit where a person tried to make his sole living as a “Noted Notary Public,” which was not presented as particularly lucrative (I remember a very bored secretary)