How This Side Hustler Makes 5500 Monthly as a Freelance Notary Public

Lucas: Let's start with a name you've probably never heard: Sarah Chen. Two years ago, she was an administrative assistant at a dental office in Phoenix, making thirty-eight thousand a year. Today she earns fifty-five hundred a month as a freelance mobile notary public. Luna: Wait — a notary? Like the person who stamps documents at the bank? That's a side hustle that pulls in over five grand a month? Lucas: Exactly. And the bank-teller version is actually the low end. Sarah is what's called a loan signing agent. She specializes in real estate closings — mortgage refinances, home equity lines, purchase agreements. In Arizona, notaries can charge a maximum of ten dollars per signature for standard notarizations, but loan signings are a different beast. Those are regulated by the signing service companies, not the state, and they typically pay seventy-five to a hundred and fifty dollars per appointment. Luna: So she's not stamping one document at a time. She's doing full closing packages — how many signatures are we talking? Lucas: A typical refinance package has between forty and seventy signature lines. Sarah walks the borrower through each one, verifies their ID, witnesses the signatures, stamps, and then returns the package to the title company or escrow officer. The whole thing takes about forty-five minutes to an hour. She averages four appointments a day, five days a week. Do the math — at a hundred bucks a signing, that's roughly two thousand dollars a week. But she doesn't always get four a day. Some weeks are slower. Her monthly average after expenses is fifty-five hundred. Luna: What were the startup costs? I'm guessing notary commissions aren't expensive. Lucas: Total outlay was under five hundred dollars. Arizona's notary commission fee is thirty dollars, renewable every four years. She had to buy a notary seal and journal — maybe sixty bucks. The real cost was the Loan Signing System training course, which was about two hundred fifty dollars, and a one-time background check for the National Notary Association certification. She also spent a hundred bucks on a dedicated laser printer — title companies require documents printed single-sided on specific paper. That's it. No inventory, no office lease, no website needed initially. Luna: So how does she get clients? I assume people don't just randomly need a notary who comes to their house. Lucas: She started by signing up with the three big signing service platforms: Notary Rotary, SigningAgent.com, and SnapDocs. These are like Uber for notaries — title companies post assignments, and notaries claim them. Sarah says the key is response time. If a signing comes in at 10 AM and you respond within two minutes, you get the job ninety percent of the time. She set up email alerts on her phone and kept her calendar open. Within three months, she was getting enough assignments to quit the dental office. Luna: But there's got to be a catch. What about liability? If a document isn't signed correctly, isn't that on the notary? Lucas: Biggest risk in the business. Errors and omissions insurance is a must. Sarah pays about two hundred fifty a year for a one-million-dollar policy through the National Notary Association. She also carries a surety bond — Arizona requires ten thousand dollars. The bond doesn't protect her, it protects the client, but it's a requirement. She's never had a claim, but she's had close calls: once a borrower signed the wrong date, and she had to drive back to get it corrected. That trip ate an hour and fifteen dollars in gas. Luna: So she's essentially a mobile administrative professional who manages her own routing. How does she handle the logistics? Lucas: She uses a combination of Google Calendar and a route-optimization app called Circuit. She clusters appointments by zip code. If she has a signing in Scottsdale at 9 AM, she'll take another in Tempe at 11, and maybe a third in Chandler at 1. She tries to keep each trip under twenty minutes of driving. Her average commute between appointments is twelve minutes. She also sets a two-hour window for each signing so she has buffer. And she only works Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM — no evenings, no weekends, unless it's a rush closing that pays time and a half. Luna: I'm curious about seasonality. Real estate is cyclical. Does she have slow months? Lucas: Absolutely. December and January are dead — maybe ten signings the entire month. But she saves for that. She also diversifies: she's certified for loan modifications and reverse mortgages, which don't follow the same seasonal pattern. And she does traditional mobile notary work — wills, powers of attorney, adoption papers — which fills gaps. Her slowest month last year was January, where she made two thousand eight hundred. Her best was June, when refinance volume spiked and she cleared seventy-two hundred. Luna: That's still a solid floor. And it's interesting that she doesn't need a car with a professional look or anything. She drives a 2018 Honda Civic. Lucas: Exactly. No branding on the car. She just shows up in business casual — blouse, slacks, comfortable flats. The borrowers don't care about the car. They care that she's on time, explains the documents clearly, and doesn't rush them. Her secret weapon? She brings a clipboard with a printed checklist of the signing order. Borrowers appreciate that. It builds trust fast. Luna: If listeners want to start this today, what's the first concrete step? Forget the training course — what's the cheapest way to test the waters? Lucas: Get your commission first. Every state has different requirements, but it's usually a simple application, a fee, and a background check. In Arizona, you can get commissioned in about two weeks. Then buy a seal and journal — sixty bucks total. Then go on Notary Rotary and look for 'signing agent' jobs in your area. You'll see what they pay. You don't need the training course to start; you can learn the process by doing a few free signings for friends or volunteering at a legal aid clinic. After five or six signings, you'll know if you want to invest in the certification. Luna: Yeah, that's smart. And the barrier to entry is so low that even if it doesn't work, you're out maybe a hundred bucks and a weekend. Lucas: Exactly. And the demand isn't going anywhere. Every real estate transaction, every estate plan, every power of attorney requires a notary. It's a service that can't be digitized away because the law requires a physical witness. Sarah's case proves that a low-tech, high-trust service can still generate a solid middle-class income without a degree, without a boss, and without a huge investment. Luna: I love that. And speaking of keeping things independent, that's actually the philosophy behind this podcast. We deliberately don't run ads on these episodes. If you want to support that choice, the link is buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, and it's the same principle Sarah applies to her business — she keeps her overhead low and her focus on the client. If these conversations have moved your work forward in some small way, that link is there. No pressure, just a way to keep the show ad-free. Luna: Alright, back to Sarah. One thing I want to dig into: how does she handle the administrative side — invoicing, taxes, scheduling? Lucas: She uses Wave for invoicing — free. She tracks mileage with a simple app called MileIQ. For taxes, she sets aside twenty-five percent of every payment into a separate savings account. She files quarterly estimated taxes. Her accountant charges three hundred dollars a year. That's another advantage of this business: the bookkeeping is straightforward. You have one revenue stream, a handful of expenses, and a standard mileage deduction. Luna: Is there a ceiling? Could she scale beyond one person? Lucas: Some notaries do. They hire subcontractors — other commissioned notaries — and take a cut of each signing. Sarah hasn't done that because she likes the control. But she knows a woman in Dallas who runs a team of eight notaries and clears twenty thousand a month. The challenge is quality control: if one of your subcontractors messes up, the liability falls on you. Sarah says she'd rather keep it small and reliable than scale and risk her reputation. Luna: That makes sense. And I guess if she wanted to pivot later, the skills are transferable — document review, client management, scheduling. Lucas: Completely. A few notaries I've talked to have moved into title examiner roles or loan processing. Sarah says she's happy where she is, though. She values the autonomy. She can take a Wednesday off to go hiking, as long as she gives the signing platforms a two-day notice. That flexibility is the real payoff. Luna: Alright, so recap: startup costs under five hundred dollars, potential earnings of fifty-five hundred a month, and you're your own boss. If you're looking for a side hustle that doesn't require a fancy skill set, this one's worth a look. Lucas: And if you try it, let us know how it goes. We're curious to hear your numbers.