Premium Escrow Inc

Lysette Freeman went above and beyond. All I can say is that my wife and I had a nightmare escrow to no ones fault in this decade. With every twist and turn a sloppy property transfer from 20 years back can throw at you. Lysette was there every step of the way with solid solutions. Her communication during this transaction was excellent. If you are looking for an escrow company that will go the extra mile, look no further. more

After eleven grueling months looking, my wife and I bought a house in Altadena, but there were serious problems with the transaction. First, we had to fire our lender well into the process. Secondly, the selling agent must have been one of the ""Mean Girls"" in high school, and was incompetent to boot. She represented B of A and the Veterans' Administration in the sale, which was an REO. No one on either side of the transaction had ever done a VA foreclosure, and the selling agent repeatedly sent us incorrect information. We had only 19 days to close, and still had not been assigned an escrow company. At that point, my agent was told by the Mean Girl that we could pick our own, and my agent immediately called Premium Escrow. Lysette was completely responsive to our needs, and handled every curve ball thrown by the idiotic selling agent, B of A and the VA. There was a lot of misinformation presented, and some things had to be done a second time, but none of that was Lysette's fault. Thanks to Lysette and our new lender, we were able to meet a number of ridiculously short deadlines and close on time. An escrow company is sort of a ""middleman"", and only deals with information it is given. If that information is bad, then things go wrong. In my transaction, my first lender was a flake, and the selling agent was incompetent. Only after Premium Escrow was on the job did we start to feel secure. Reading some of the negative reviews of this company that literally enabled me to buy my house makes me think that some of those folks who wrote them made their own problems. An office has the right to close when it says it's going to close, just as an airplane has the right to take off on time. And if you're going to enter into something as serious as buying real estate, it pay to know in advance what kind of check will be acceptable. more

I closed an escrow with Lysette at Premium Escrow just in time. She was instrumental in closing our new home before the new year. My family is so exciting that we were able to celebrate New Year's Eve in our new home. We didn't think it was going to happen. Lysette was awesome and I can't imagine ever using anyone else for an escrow. A++++ more

I personally took the time to read each and every review posted on this website. People will always respond to situations in life in different ways. Futher, people are also always entitled to their opinions. I ""respect"" each and every opinion, even if I don't agree with the opinion. more

I am really amazed at all the criticism.....Premium Escrow just completed an esrow for me in 3.......yes THREE days. They were all courteous and professional. Lysette in particular went out of her way to insure that I would close on time. Simply Remarkable....A lot of the beefs I am reading online here appear to be either simple easy to correct errors which are being blown way out of proportion....or by customers not quite sure of what they are doing......Either way, rest assured that Lysette and her staff will complete all of your escrow needs in a timely and professional manner.......and their smlilng faces aren't bad either...... Pros: Professional,Reliable, Prompt more

I want anyone in the world to know that there are too many honest escrow companies to use other than this one. I was encouraged to use them and my experience gave me anxiety, stress, depression. Lysette was evasive and lacked integrity. This is not someone you want to have control over your funds. There were many mistakes made. TOO many to list. They are prompt at getting your money. Good luck ever seeing it again. That is exactly what you will need is luck. I hope this saves one family from the grief this company has put me through. BEWARE!!!!!!!!! Pros: zero Cons: dishonest more

I too have experienced rudeness and unprofessionalism in my interactions with Premium Escrow, similar to that described by other reviewers on this website. more

Wow, Upset Customer and Unhappyman are you talking about the same Premium Escrow? I have been doing business with them for the past 10 years without a problem. I feel compelled to defend them. Lysette and her staff are incredibly warm, friendly, and professional. As far as your complaints about closing right at five, they had to have a good reason. Could you not plan ahead and bring a cashier?s check with you? Or leave 10 minutes earlier and get the cashiers check before you arrived? As far as personal checks, everyone knows that an escrow company will not accept a personal check! As far as the attention to detail bordering on obsessive- compulsive (not compulsive obsessive), this is a good thing when dealing with an escrow company. Also a lot of these details are requirements of the lending companies and not the escrow company. Your na?vet? of the real estate and escrow business shows in your complaints. Even you have typos and omissions in your emotional rant of a review. A lot of the typos and omissions you may have found could have been on loan docs not produced by Premium Escrow but by the lending company. As far as ""Lysette sharply chewing out people over the phone in the other room"", are you sure that she wasn't fighting to protect another customer just like you? It diminishes your credibility when you presume to know what was occurring by eavesdropping a one sided phone call from the other room. Even your eavesdropping skills come into question when you quote these inaccuracies such as ""I heard her repeatedly use the excuse that her husband was a real estate attorney so she should know."" Her husband isn?t a real estate attorney he is a title rep so maybe you are mistaken here as well....I do agree however that even if she was married to an attorney it would have no bearings on her credentials...however the fact that she has been doing this for around 20 years and is a Certified Escrow Officer does add a little to her credibility...As an Attorney you should have better things to do with your time than place this type of soccer mom, coffee house, gossipy review without basis. Also as an Attorney you should have enough common sense to know that personal checks wouldn't be accepted and that people?s time is valuable and they shouldn't have to wait for you to get your ducks in a row. I do not believe that the three of your friends and both business contacts should listen to anything you have to say....... Pros: Friendly Professional and efficient more

I had a horrible experience with Lysette and her staff at Premium Escrow. The office was incredibly unaccommodating and inflexible. For example, they insisted on closing right at five and would not wait for me to get the cashier's check from across the hallway. They were also so nitpicky about the smallest details that it bordered on compulsive-obsessive. Although attention to detail is usually a valued trait, the things that they insisted on being picky about were for things that showed their lack of intelligence rather than a commitment to thoroughness. And even though they were unforgiving with any perceived lack of attention to detail on my part (for example, I didn't realize they didn't take personal checks and they pointedly reminded me that it was written among the many papers they sent me), they made numerous mistakes on their part (for example, numerous typos even after it was pointed out to them, forgetting a co-donor's signature line, mistakes in the characterization of the loan, etc.). She also charged me for documents that she drafted incorrectly. As a result, we ended up having another escrow company draft the correct ones. And when I questioned some of the fees in the closing costs, her staff member shrugged it off as ""just $75"" and said they would not take them off. I resent the attitude that they could afford to be generous with my money. Although some people may mistake Lysette's crisp voice and apparent prompt attention to calls as evidence of professionalism, these examples prove that they are more show than substance. I have only spoken to Lysette over the phone and have never met her in person. But I could hear her sharply chewing out people over the phone in the other room while I was signing papers. She was very rude to all of the people involved in my real estate transaction, including my husband, the mortgage officer, and our insurance agent. I also heard her repeatedly use the excuse that her husband was a real estate lawyer so she should know. I find that sort of name-dropping to be the epitome of unprofessionalism. Whether her husband was an attorney or not has no bearing on her own credentials and is no reason for why she is not courteous to all her customers. As an attorney myself, I know many attorneys who are kind and gracious while at the same time providing valuable and correct legal assistance to others. I do not know how Premium Escrow will be in business for much longer if they do not change their attitude as their company is in a customer service based profession. I have informed all my friends as well as business contacts to never use Premium Escrow. We had no choice as the seller's agent insisted on using them for our real estate transaction, but had we known what we know now, we would have rather forgone the transaction than use this company. Pros: close by Cons: inflexible, rude, more

Their service is unacceptable. They are not friendly and over charge compare to others. First they put Mr. Shirley X and Mrs. XX as husband and wife on all the doucuments. Have you ever seen a male name Shirley? They just don't care. They never clearly answer my questions and expalin the documents to me when they asked me to sign. The next morning after I signed the loan documents and gave them the cashier check, they called me again and said I needed to go back to their office and pay them another cashier check because they made a mistake on calculation. I had to drive all the way to their office and bring them another cahier check immediately in order to get the funding on time. more