REMAX Champions Real Estate

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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.