Cathy Wong, owner of Champion Mobile Notary, is pleased to announce that her company will sponsor the women’s category Pro/Elite 1/2/3 Memorial Day Criterium race on May 31, 2010. This is the second year that Champion Mobile Notary is sponsoring the race. It is a qualifying race for amateur competitive road bicycle racers to race with the pros at the Nature Valley Grand Prix (5 day stage race). This is a way she can invest in the local community and stay connected with women’s road bicycle racing.

She is a retired United States Cycling Federation road bicycle racer and USCF Coach and former manager and founder of a women’s bicycling club. She competed for several years and wanted to involve more women in the male dominated sport so she coached and managed a women’s bicycle club. She participated in the fun, well organized San Jose Bicycle Club Tuesday Night Criterium races which helped her improve her bicycle racing fitness and skills.

In the summer of 2006, she founded Champion Mobile Notary. The discipline and skills she developed with competitive road bicycle racing has helped her with her business. In a bicycle race your plan and what actually happens are usually different. Problem-solving, quick thinking and being goal oriented are a couple of bicycle racing skills that she uses with her mobile notary business. Clients include estate planning and family law attorneys; small business owners; small and medium businesses; wealth management companies; legal document services; Realtors; title companies; mortgage brokers; individuals adopting international children, home bound, in healthcare facilities and doing their own estate planning; and more.

To learn more about Cathy Wong, Champion Mobile Notary and her background visit: http://www.memorialdaycriterium.com/sponsors/champion-mobile-notary.php.

For more information about the races and categories for the Memorial Day Criterium, read the USCF race flyer.

Here are a couple of photos from last year’s Memorial Day Criterium Women’s 1/2/3 race:

Race start logistics

Podium Women 1/2/3 Memorial Day Criterium

Here are a couple of race photos of Cathy Wong:

Finish Sprint Livermore Criterium Cathy Wong Shot by www.Abbiorca.com

Cathy Wong in a San Jose Bicycle Club Tuesday Night Criterium Race

Stay in touch, join her Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary. You will also learn more about the daily happenings of a mobile notary public and loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula, South Bay and Silicon Valley.

The contents of this blog are copyrighted. No portion of it may be reproduced without written permission.

Sometimes people who have documents that require notarization are unaware of the proper photo identification they need. The governing body that regulates California notary publics is the Secretary of State. They determine what forms of photo identification are allowed. Following are acceptable forms of current identification (or issued within five years) to notarize documents according to the Secretary of State’s Notary Public Handbook 2010 (some wording modified for easier reading):

1. US passport;
2. California Identification Card (is similar to California Driver’s license. It states “Identification Card” instead of “Driver License”)
3. California Senior Citizen Identification Card (same as above);
4. A passport issued by a foreign government that is stamped by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service or the US Citizenship and Immigration Services;
5. A driver’s license issued by another state or by a Canadian or Mexican public agency authorized to issue driver’s licenses;
6. An identification card issued by another state;
7. A US military identification card with a photo, physical description, signature, and identifying number;
8. An inmate identification card issued by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation;
9. An employee identification card issued by an agency or office of the State of California, or an agency or office of a city or county in California;

Please note the original photo identifications must be presented to the notary public before your documents are notarized. Copies of your photo identification or expired original photo identifications are not acceptable. The fine for notary public’s not properly identifying someone is up to $10,000. In addition, it is to protect you. Please understand the responsibility notary public’s have in identifying you before they notarize your documents.

Stay in touch, join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary. You will also learn more about the daily happenings of a mobile notary public and loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay and Silicon Valley.

The contents of this blog are copyrighted. No portion of it may be reproduced without written permission.

Recently I notarized a special power of attorney in Santa Clara, California with a homeowner. The power of attorney notary wording in the acknowledgement was out-of-date. If I used it the lender may have rejected it, which would delay the closing of purchasing their property. She was scheduled to leave town the next day. The following day loan documents for the purchase of their new house would be signed by her attorney in fact in another county at the escrow/title office. The seller, the movers and the borrowers were operating with the property closing on a specific date.

If I used the out-of-date notary acknowledgement and the lender rejected the power of attorney, there may have been some delay with the loan document execution. I would have to hand deliver the executed notary acknowledgement to their office immediately. If I was unable to hand deliver it immediately, there would be a delay in the closing of the property which would add more stress to the seller and borrowers by changing scheduled dates for items such as insurance, movers and utilities. In addition, there would be additional costs such as interest for the borrowers. There may be other costs involved.

In a different situation, I have seen this occur where another notary executed a power of attorney using the outdated notary acknowledgement. The bank rejected it because of the out-of-date notary acknowledgement. I was called to re-notarize the power of attorney using the correct notary acknowledgement. The additional stress is unfortunate when this happens to people, as usually they are already experiencing a lot of stress with why the person signing the power of attorney is unable to manage or handle financial themselves.

I am a member of the National Notary Association which keeps me up-to-date on new notary laws through their monthly publications. I am also a member of Notary Rotary, 123Notary.com and Golden State Notary which also keep me up-to-date on notary laws and industry changes. They also have notary forums where notaries from around the country share and discuss notary public matters. These organizations are focused on providing notary public education, supplies and platforms for notary publics to grow professionally.

When you have important documents such as a power of attorney requiring notarization, do you have a knowledgeable notary public you can call?

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily happenings of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay and Silicon Valley.

Recently, a family law attorney in Santa Clara County contacted me in the late afternoon. Her client in Palo Alto is in the process of finalizing an ugly divorce. One of the last pieces is notarizing the Interspousal Transfer Deed. The attorney’s location is about 25 miles from her client. She wanted to have the deed notarized the following day. Within an hour or so after we spoke, she emailed me the documents. I reviewed them and noticed her client’s last name was spelled incorrectly. She was grateful that I caught the typo and was able to update it and send it to me.

Imagine if the document was notarized with the typo. If the error was caught at the County Clerk’s office when it was to record, they would reject the documents. This would delay finalizing the divorce which was to happen in a couple of days. Can you imagine the emotional stress? What if the error wasn’t caught at the County Clerk’s office? The spouse receiving the property (grantee) really would not have full ownership of the property. What challenges would that bring along since the divorce agreement wasn’t followed? Some level of stress would occur.

When you have important documents you need notarized do you have a detail-oriented professional mobile notary you can count on?

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily happenings of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay and Silicon Valley.

Happy New Year!

My website designers highly suggested that my blog move to WordPress.org which is smoothly linked with my website http://www.ChampionMobileNotary.com and better organizes posts. Why not start the New Year off with the moved updated blog at WordPress.org? The direct link to my blog is www.ChampionMobileNotary.com/blog/.

I am excited about using WordPress.org and having the posts searchable and categorized. I look forward to sharing with you and learning from you!

You will notice multiple postings within a short time after this posting. They are postings moved from my blog with another blog site.

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily happenings of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay.

To learn more about me visit www.ChampionMobileNotary.com/about.html.

Thank you for reading!

Hello everyone,

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving.

I just want to inform you that my blog will move in the next few weeks to merge with my website. It will be with WordPress.org and integrate with my website for continuity. My website designer highly suggests this be done.

Over the past few weeks, I have worked on changing web hosts which also involved my business email accounts. This along with a spike in business had me away from blogging.

I will write another post to inform you of the final move.

In the meantime, you can stay up to date with my on my FaceBook Fan Page http://tinyurl.com/ChampionMNFB.

People want to do business with people they know. Networking is helpful in learning more about the local business community, resources available for your business, camaraderie and learning ways to expand your business.

I have been an active member in the Silicon Valley Chapter of eWomenNetwork since January 2007. They have three events monthly: a dinner on the first Wednesday in Santa Clara, a lunch in Palo Alto on the second Friday and a lunch in Campbell on the third Thursday.

Each meeting has time before the meal for networking and for vendors to promote their businesses. There are two accelerated networking times where each member or guest is allowed to share their elevator speech and any personal or business request needs. This allows other people to know how to help each guest or member. A couple of helpful business tips are shared by the executive managing director before our meal. The speaker shares insights and wisdom to help everyone professionally. After the event there is time for more networking and vendors to promote their businesses.

I have attended every dinner since I joined which has helped my Bay Area mobile notary business grow. The relationships built, the insights shared by other members and guests, and the community are fabulous. Power partnerships are built, you receive referrals, people are encouraged and supported and more.

For more information about the eWomenNetwork Silicon Valley Chapter visit:
http://www.ewomennetwork.com/chapter/sanjose
eWomenNetwork is a national organization. Their goal is to connect and promote women and their businesses locally and globally.

Happy networking!

To join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary .

Realtors do you ever wonder how a mobile notary public may help you and your clients?

Here are a few ways as a mobile notary public I help Realtors and their clients:

1. When the title company is out of the area. The title company couriers the documents to me and I meet with you and your clients to sign off.

2. When your clients are elderly and are unable to leave their homes. I meet with them to sign off the documents in the comfort of their homes.

3. When your clients have young children. Minimize stress for parents to sign off in their home. They avoid the hassle of finding a babysitter or bringing the kids to a title company office.

4. When there is a Quitclaim Deed, Power of Attorney or Grant Deed and your clients are unable to meet with the escrow officer during business hours. I meet with people who have medical challenges or with former spouses who want nothing to do with each other.

5. When the loan documents are with an out of area title company and there is not enough time to courier the documents to sign off and close on time. The escrow officer emails the documents to me. I print them and meet with you and your clients.

When your clients are unable to sign off at the title company, do you have a trusted mobile notary who can meet with them at their work office, home, your office or wherever to sign the final closing documents?

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily adventures of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay.

Adopting an international child is an exciting time for soon-to-be-parents. At times, the process can be stressful with all of the paperwork required by both the local and the foreign adoption agencies. The process involves notarized documents and apostille or certification of the documents with the Secretary of State before they are sent to the country’s adoption agency. Completing and notarizing the documents correctly are important in maintaining the adoption timeline.

A recent couple with whom I have worked is in Russia completing the final steps in their adoption process. They will be there just under three weeks. At the end of it, they will bring home their 18 month old son. They are thrilled to be at the end of their 18 month adoption process.

I notarized documents for them with their physicians, CPA, psychologist, work colleagues and many other documents that are required by both the local adoption agency and the adoption agency in Russia.

When they received a call a couple of weeks ago about the final steps with their adoption process, they were advised of additional notarized documents that were required. I met with their physicians and at the husband’s work office to notarize the final required documents.

I was glad to be of service to them and sharing a part of their journey with them.

When you are ready to adopt an international child, do you know of a professional, detail oriented mobile notary who can help ease the stressful paperwork requirements?

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily adventures of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the San Francisco Bay Area Peninsula and South Bay.

I just spent about half an hour on the phone with the son (“Mr. Smith Jr.”) of Mr. Smith Sr. who is in Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. A few days ago, a notary notarized a power of attorney with Mr. Smith Sr.. When Mr. Smith Jr. brought it to the bank, the bank wouldn’t accept it since it was notarized incorrectly. The wrong notary acknowledgement was used and the marks signed by Mr. Smith Sr. weren’t written with correct representation. What a terrible surprise for the Smiths.

Yesterday, I notarized a document for Mr. Smith Sr.. He signed by a mark and we had two witnesses present.

Today in the early evening, Mr. Smith Jr. called me asking for help. He noticed on the power of attorney that the notary certificate was different than what I used. He also noticed that the mark his father made on the power of attorney was handled differently than the way it was handled on the document I notarized. He called me again for help, when they arrived at the other notary’s office.

Having an incorrectly notarized power of attorney was hugely unfortunate for the Smith family, as Mr. Smith Sr. recently fell which caused paralysis from his neck down. This event by itself is enormously overwhelming for the Smiths.

Do you know of a competent notary public you can call to be sure you avoid such a situation? If not, do you know where to search for one?

Join my Facebook Fan Page www.Facebook.com/ChampionMobileNotary to learn more about the daily adventures of a mobile notary public & loan signing agent in the counties of Santa Clara and San Mateo, California.