Peninsula Escrow

This escrow company was chosen by my realtor when I purchased a property a few years back. I didn’t think it mattered what escrow company you chose, as they would all be the same. I found this escrow company to be unpleasant to work with. Everything went through, but the process wasn’t customer friendly to say the least.

We canceled our escrow and asked for our deposit to be returned. They won’t return our deposit unless we signed over our legal rights. As of now we are being black mailed by the escrow and real estate company Remax, which is owned by the same entity. Escrow is suppose to be a unbiased third party. Unfortunately they were looking out for their real estate company and not the fairness of situation.
Update: we had to go to go to get our deposit back which the judge granted us. It took yd over 6 months to get our money back which hinded us ftom purchading other houses. It’s unfortunate it had to go this far to get justice.

I found Danielle to be very helpful on both our sale and purchase transactions. She was always available for questions and was very friendly.

I recently closed a deal in So Cal through Peninsula Escrow in Manhattan Beach. It was by the seller’s request and I had good experience with the same brand at the Palos Verdes location so I went along. I was shocked when I found out I was charged an escrow fee of $ 1182 on a $ 220k transaction (over $ 5 per 1000). In the past 30 years I’ve involved in about 20 real estates transactions and am very familiar with all the fees on top of fees an escrow company can charge. But the escrow fee itself always came out to be about 1 to 2 dollars at the most per 1000 with or without a flat (about $ 250 to $ 300). The income property I bought last year was 750k and the escrow fee was $ 975 ($ 1.3 per 1000). When I asked for an explanation I was given none. I was not pleased but moved on nevertheless. Few days ago I got a refund check from the county because they revalued the property and the current year property tax was lowered due to the much lower new transaction price. However, their calculation, following the same formula in the letter, did not quite come out. My realtor suggested that I call Danielle La Charite, my escrow officer at Peninsula, perhaps they can give me a better explanation (she also sent her an email briefing her on the situation and letting her know I’d call). I did. The conversation went like this: «Hi, Danielle, I am so and so of escrow number so and so, and I received a refund from the county and…» «Why are you calling me? I have nothing to do with the county. Talk to the county. Why are you calling me?» «But I thought perhaps…» «No, I can’t help you. Call the county…» Click! No hello, no goodbye.
I was in the service industry for the last 20 years before I retired in 2005. Never had I encountered such bad manner and obnoxious behavior in a usually professional environment by a reputable company. I am appalled and will pass along the sentiment to my fellow investors and real estates professionals in the area.