Worst Title and Escrow experience I've ever had in over 20 years and a dozen+ real estate transactions. Compared to the many deals I had done on houses, condos, land involving financing, FHA, multi-state and multi-party ownership interests, even foreign deals, this was as simple as it could be: this was unimproved raw land owned outright for sale. As simple as could be.
First Yosemite inappropriately asked my wife to sign a waiver of ownership interest in a property that was my separate property, predated my marriage and was also in prenuptial papers and was also listed by the county officially as my separate property. This is significant because the property was protected by Prop 13 tax status. The deal was contingent on a perc test and any strange ownership documents that are unnecessary might endanger the prop 13 protected status which could have raised my taxes thousands of dollars. Eventually I talked to Yosemite's manager David and he confirmed that his underlings were wrong and my wife did not have to sign anything.
This gave me red flags. Other local title companies warned me about dealing with Yosemite, but the deal was underway. I told David I would let this go but I warned him no more mistakes. He promised no more mistakes.
The deal was septic test contingent, standard for raw land. I am diligent so I contacted the septic design company the buyer had chosen and got their info and the estimate and sent it to Yosemite title as well as communicated that I would be paying for half of the cost of the septic study up to $1200 and that it would be paid through the proceeds.
As the deal got extended due to delays the buyer agreed to waive the results of the test but still wanted it done and I still agreed to pay my half. This was all communicated with extensive email chains to the escrow company. On the closing documents I signed with the notary there was a debit that was labeled for septic, it was my understanding the escrow company would pay my share of the septic study cost to the septic company.
The deal ends and a few weeks later I get an overdue bill from the septic company demanding $1200. I immediately called the escrow company and asked what happened. They claimed on their "final" closing documents they had the $1200 listed as a credit from me to the buyer. This was NOT what was on MY documents. They tried telling me I only had estimated closing documents and that sometimes changes occurred, but the amount didn't change, but they did change where the money was going and I had assumed from the documents they had me sign they would pay the septic company.
There aren't many septic companies in this area and I didn't want to get a bad reputation for being a deadbeat especially since this wasn't my fault especially as I had more business to conduct and may have to hire the same septic company again for another land deal. I was furious and wanted answers. Beth was not helpful, she couldn't initially explain the change on the closing documents after I had signed them. I spoke with the owner Lisa who told me David would call me back. Later guess who called me? Beth. She told me that the buyer's agent had asked them to change the payment to a buyer's credit and they did it without asking me even though it was MY MONEY they were redirecting.
I told Beth I didn't want to talk to her and that Lisa had told me David would be calling me. Apparently Beth had found out I had called her boss Lisa and decided to call me first, probably to try and cover her actions. I told Beth to transfer me to David. She put me on hold and the line disconnected... I called back and had the receptionist transfer me to David. David could not explain Beth's behavior. I told him they damaged my relationship with the septic company but he refused to refund my title and escrow fees despite their multiple mistakes that cost me precious time. What's the point of hiring Yosemite if I have to spend hours researching info and fixing their mistakes?
Run, don't walk from Yosemite. If your buyer/seller tries to use them DEMAND A CHANGE. read more
