Guide
Before a loan signing, a notary signing agent confirms the date and time, the exact address and how to get in, who will be present to sign, and that every signer has unexpired government-issued photo ID with a name matching the documents. The call takes a few minutes and exists to catch the things a work order cannot show you: the co-borrower who is out of town, the expired license, the gate with a code nobody sent.
What follows is common industry practice rather than a legal standard, and hiring parties differ on the details, so their instructions win where they conflict with anything here. Two of the questions cover the part that costs signing agents money: the call is normally where you learn how much of your day the order actually takes. For the return side of that, see what scanbacks are and how signing agents handle them. For why confirmation habits matter to the companies deciding who to call next, see getting direct title company clients.
It is the call you make to the signer after you accept an order and before the appointment. The hiring party already set the time with someone. You are the one who has to reach the right door with the right documents and meet people who can actually sign. The call checks that. It takes a few minutes, and most of what ruins a signing shows up on it while staying invisible on the work order.
The common practice is about a day ahead, with a second contact on the morning of the appointment if the signing is late in the day. Orders that come in the same day get a call as soon as you accept, because there is no day ahead. Calling too early has its own cost. Confirm on Monday for a Thursday appointment and you are working from information that has three days to change, and it does change: signers travel, documents get redrawn, closings move. If you have to confirm early, confirm again closer in.
Six things, and they take about four minutes. First, the date and time, said out loud, because a work order that reads Tuesday the 14th at 6:00 has been wrong before. Second, the exact address, including apartment or unit, and whether it is a home, an office, or a coffee shop. Ask for whatever gets you to the door: a gate code, a callbox name, where to park, which entrance stays unlocked after hours. Third, who is signing, by name, and whether all of them will be in the room. A spouse on the loan who works a night shift is exactly the sort of thing a work order will not tell you, and it is the difference between a complete package and a return trip. Fourth, that every signer has an unexpired government-issued photo ID, and that the name on it matches the name on the documents, middle initials and suffixes included. Fifth, how long to set aside, so nobody has booked something else forty minutes in. Sixth, a working phone number for you, so a change reaches you instead of the hiring party's voicemail.
Explain the loan. Industry training and most hiring parties' instructions draw the line in the same place: the signing agent presents and identifies, the lender explains terms. If a signer asks what their rate is, what their payment will be, or why a number moved since the estimate, the answer is the loan officer's name and number, not your reading of the documents. The same restraint applies to the fee. What you are paid for the assignment is between you and the company that hired you, and quoting it to a borrower who is looking at a different number on their closing statement creates a problem that takes a phone call from someone senior to unwind.
Text and email work for a reminder. They are weak for the confirmation. A text gets a thumbs up from someone who has not opened their calendar, has not checked whether their license expired in March, and has not thought about whether their co-borrower will be home. What you are listening for on a call is the pause after you ask whether both signers will be there. Some hiring parties require a phone attempt and want it logged. A workable pattern is to call, and if voicemail answers, leave a message and send a text after it so the person has your number in writing.
Try again, then tell the hiring party before the appointment, not after. Two or three attempts across a few hours, at different times of day, is a fair effort. If you have not reached anyone by the evening before, send the hiring party a short written note saying when you called and that you have had no answer. They often have a second number, or they know the signer is mid-move, or the closing has been rescheduled and nobody told you. Showing up unconfirmed carries a real cost. You have printed the package and driven out, and if nobody is home you are negotiating a trip fee after the fact instead of agreeing one in advance.
Everything the borrower cannot tell you. Whether documents are coming to you to print or arriving at the signing location, and if you are printing, how many pages and how many copies. Whether the order requires scanbacks, what the deadline is, and whether you must wait for approval before shipping, which the scanback guide on this site covers in more detail. Where the package ships and whether a label is provided. The fee, in writing, before the appointment. Ask about these when the order is offered rather than after the documents are on your printer, because two of them, the print job and the scanback hold, are the ones that quietly double the length of the assignment.
It is usually the moment you find out the order is bigger than the appointment. A signing you booked as an hour can turn into an afternoon once you know the package is 150 pages you are printing yourself, the address is 40 minutes out, there are two signers arriving separately, and a scanback is due before you ship. Those figures are an illustration rather than a measurement, and yours will differ, but the habit is what matters. Block the whole obligation: print time, drive, signing, scan, drop-off. If your calendar shows only the appointment, you are advertising hours you do not have, and the next request you accept is the one you turn up late for.