My husband and I have bought and sold several homes over the years. The escrow portion is usually just an exercise in signature-writing. Not this time.
The Escrow Group in Seattle made a variety of errors:
1) They got the selling price wrong. We caught that, but they didn't correct it throughout the signing papers.
2) They didn't credit back a negotiated $8,000 credit in the signing documents. This would have cost $18,000+ with interest over the years.
3) A document was missing and they didn't notice until after we'd left. We had to wait for a courier at home for several hours, then return it.
4) They got our address wrong, and when they sent us the refund check, it was delayed because of this.
5) Then, the refund check was $200 short for no reason (other than the escrow closer's incredible sloppiness). She ignored us when we pointed this out, until our agent called their company president.
6) It took them more than a week to get us the full amount, and even then, took multiple contacts from us and our agent (the escrow person denied receiving the initial e-mail -- which had been sent as a reply from one of her own e-mails).
Their communication in general was appalling. We had to call the closer three times just to get the amount of money we were supposed to wire, which was only an added hassle.
There are plenty of companies in Seattle that get this sort of transaction right. The Escrow Group is not one of them. If you have a choice, avoid them. If you don't, check your paperwork very, very carefully. Otherwise, you will pay dearly for it and have no recourse.
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