Tonia became a notary in 2013 when her role as a company bookkeeper required her to serve as a notary as well.
“Since I was not a notary, the company paid for me to become one. Three years later I moved on from that organization and into part time notary work, which is when I started doing mortgage loan closings. I enjoyed this type of work. It was also very profitable. I became a full-time mobile notary in 2018.”
The reasons why Tonia finds being a notary so rewarding are both personal and professional.
“I enjoy getting to travel to different towns and cities within North Carolina, some of which I have never heard of or visited before. I also love meeting new people from different walks of life and hearing their stories.”
On the professional side, Tonia gets great satisfaction from assisting clients who require funds so they can move forward.
“Some clients need the money to address situations with their homes. Knowing that I’ve helped them finalize their closing is very rewarding for me.”
During the signing process Tonia always puts her clients’ best interests at the forefront. For example, one time the lender had misspelled the clients’ names throughout the documents.
“The lender told the clients that they could just cross out their names, rewrite them and then initial the changes. The client said, “No,” and had the lender correct and reprint the documents. When the revised documents arrived, I checked them. There were still some spelling errors. I immediately contacted the lender and had them fix the mistakes. The documents were finally corrected and I was able to close the clients.”
Professionalism is very important to Tonia.
“I push myself to do better in all aspects of my job. Even when I think I’m already going above what is needed, I still push myself to do more. Professionalism also means always showing up to a closing 15-20 minutes early and thinking two to five steps ahead, so if something does come up, I already know how I’m going to handle it.”