REMAX Champions Real Estate

unknown

We purchased our new house for which REMAX Champions were the listing agent and also their staff represented us as buyers' agent. REMAX Champions Agents listed a condition for the sale in the reply to our offer that we must use Mountain Ridge Escrow in Upland, CA as the escrow company. We had no choice but to accept it since the seller accepted our offer with that being a condition. The escrow went horribly. Delays, lack of communication, and negative attitude. This resulted in delays in closing and additional moving and delay costs to us. Mountain Ridge never provided us with an estimate for their escrow costs and we did not know what their costs were until they sent us an accounting of the transaction after close of escrow. It turned out that Mountain Ridge Escrow is owned by the same person that owns REMAX Champions in Upland. This was not disclosed to us by any of the realtors. The fee that Mountain Ridge charged us was $300 base fee plus 3.5% of purchase price, which is a ripoff. The average escrow fee is 1.75 to 2% of purchase price. We contacted Norma, the escrow officer, and spoke with her repeatedly. She said she would have the owner, Jennifer Puglisi, call us. Jennifer did finally call us. She was rude and said she can charge us any fee she wants and that she does not have to let us know what the fee she is going to charge us before she charges us and renders the service. She said go an complain to anyone you want. We will do that. We believe we were manipulated by REMAX Champions and that they unfairly and deceptively forced us to have escrow with Mountain Ridge Escrow which is also owned by the same person who owns REMAX Champions. Their greed deprived us from our right to use whatever escrow we wanted, and due to their monopoly on the escrow due to the condition they put in the purchase agreement, they new they could charge any fee. They charged us a total of $3,434.33. We are demanding a refund of the excessive charges. Also, we discovered a number of problems which were not disclosed to us at the time of purchase. While the sellers were moving out, their movers caused some damage. It has been over a month, and we are not able to get the repairs done, and the agents have failed to resolve this. It has been a nightmare and we have never had any experience so awful like this. The real estate agents and their in house escrow are the worst we ever dealt with and we will never use their service again.