Why I Haven’t Hired a Mobile Notary in Over 10 Years

Most weeks, at least one of them calls.

Same script every time. “Hey, I just got my notary public. Looking for work. Can I leave my info on file in case you need a deed of trust notarized?” Or the slightly more polished version: “I specialize in mobile notary work for bail bonds. Happy to be on call.”

I’ve been doing this over ten years. In that time, I haven’t hired a mobile notary once. Not once. The calls haven’t stopped. They won’t, either. Somewhere in a strip-mall classroom, a bored instructor is still telling a room full of people that bail companies are a solid place to pick up work. Leave your cards at restaurants with the tip. Pin them to every bulletin board in town. Cold-call bonding offices. I know the pitch because I sat through one of those classes myself. I had my notary for years. Most of the agents I know still do.

What those classes never mention is the actual layout of a bail office in California. Almost every bonding company that writes any volume already has a notary on staff. Sometimes it’s the owner. Sometimes it’s two or three of the agents who work the counter. The fugitive recovery guys usually carry one too. When a deed of trust needs to be signed at 2 a.m. because a family is trying to get someone out before the morning court calendar, nobody is dialing a stranger from a Facebook group. We’re not paying a couple hundred dollars for someone to show up, stamp a document for five minutes, and leave. The paper gets notarized by whoever is already standing there with a stamp in their desk.

Larger collateral cases during normal hours work the same way. Clients who need real property or vehicles as collateral are usually meeting us at the office or at their attorney’s office. Most law firms that handle criminal work already have a notary on staff—one of the legal assistants or another attorney. They don’t need us to arrange a mobile notary. If the client doesn’t have a private attorney and just needs something simple signed, they can walk into the nearest UPS or a bank during business hours and get it done cheaper than what a mobile notary would charge.

The notary courses sell the idea that bail is a reliable side hustle because the work sounds dramatic: late-night calls, high-dollar documents, people in a hurry. The reality is that the people who actually need those documents signed already have access to a stamp. The ones who don’t usually aren’t writing the kind of bond that requires a deed of trust in the first place.

So the calls keep coming. I still answer them. I still tell them the same thing. Most of us already have it covered. If you’re looking for consistent work, the bulletin board at the coffee shop and the tip jar at the diner are still better odds than the bonding office.

If I were a new notary trying to build real income, I’d skip the bail offices and start networking with busy loan offices instead. Loan signing agents handle refinance and purchase packages for lenders, title companies and escrow offices. The pay per signing is usually better, the appointments land during reasonable hours instead of 2 a.m., and when the loan market is moving, the work can be a lot more consistent. A handful of solid relationships with loan officers and escrow staff is worth more than a hundred cards left in bonding offices.

About the author

Jesse Kleis

Jesse Kleis is the founder of Mr. Nice Guy Bail Bonds and a California-licensed bail bondsman with a background in sociology. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Sociology from California State University, Dominguez Hills and teaches as a social science instructor. A media contributor who has been quoted in legal and news publications, he writes on criminal justice topics with a focus on practical bail insights and industry realities.