Happy Holidays! A look back on 2022.

First, we want to wish you all happy holidays no matter what you celebrate during this season of joy. This has been an up-and-down year for us as we started the year with a boom period with refinances and loan signings taking up much of our time. Around June, they started slowing down quite a bit and now at the end of the year, they are fewer and farther between due to higher interest rates. We remember when interest rates were as high as 18% but today’s 5-6% seems like a shock to many. We know that there are cycles and are holding tight for the new year where we hope that the housing market responds to slower inflation.

We are blessed to have a consistent customer base that keeps on calling us for all of their notarial needs. One thing that the pandemic period brought everyone is a focus on making sure estate paperwork is in order and we continue to notarize trust documents and packages most days of the week. As we are all traveling more, parental consent for travel forms and representing your family at the passport agency continue to be mainstays in our business.

This year we also got even more active in the community by helping out at the Rescue Mission for Neighborhood Wednesdays and notarizing birth certificate request forms for the homeless so that they can get ID cards from the DMV. We also worked closely with Hospice of Santa Barbara in notarizing Advanced Health Care directives after their successful workshops at senior homes throughout the year.

Finally, we are starting a new business with the new year called Santa Barbara Legal Document Service where you can get affordable legal document preparation. Alexis, who is a certificated paralegal and now a Legal Document Assistant (registered in Santa Barbara County ID#60), has started Santa Barbara Legal Document Services and took care of her first client this week. If you have a deed or trust document that needs to be made where you know what you need and do not need legal advice, she can prepare that for you. From there, she can notarize the document and even get it recorded if needed. You’ll hear more about this service as we begin 2023.

Again, happy holidays from all of us at SB Mobile Notary!