Customer ReviewsforGold Star Title & Escrow, Inc.

I have been in the mortgage business for many years, and I have never seen a title company over charge a buyer's lender's title insurance policy by $1,600.00 like this title company did, the lender policy at the minimum should have been around $350-$450 over promulgated, which is $25.00 for a simultaneous issue. I would never recommend this company due to the excessive closing fees. When I inquired about this ridiculous overcharge, they said it was due to their "E&O" and other business-related costs and did not reduce this fee at all. So, in conclusion, I guess the buyers/borrowers are now responsible to pay the bills of this title company?

This review is erroneous in its content. Please see my email response to her on December 14, 2022 which contains the full unabridged information as to the transaction. Thank you for your consideration.

"Zuleika, I am the branch manager here at ****************. I just got back from vacation and wanted to reach out to you based on your emails. Also, I have reviewed the file with Brett. As I understand it, we provided your office with our title fees 2 months ago so that you could prepare your loan estimate for the borrower pursuant to the TRID requirements. Unfortunately, it appears that you did not utilize our fees to do that but instead used other fee generator? If you did not use our fees as is required by TRID, do you mind telling me where you got your fees from?

Also, by way of information, the Department of Financial Services allows for title companies to charge a simultaneous issue rate from $25 up to the cost of the owner's policy. This is also called the risk rate. As with all casualty-based insurance companies, we have had to increase our fees to offset the enormous increases in the cost of our E & O insurance as well as all the new crime insurance, cyber insurance, and increased measures that we have to do to protect our technology from hackers and the like. I am sure you will agree that the title company has a very large risk/burden in a closing transaction as ALL other parties will hold us accountable for any losses incurred even if those losses are not our fault just as the below email from you indicates.

According to TRID, you are required to obtain our fees so that you can accurately disclose them to the borrower within the 3-7 days of the borrower making application. Failing that, if you used fictitious numbers just so that you could meet your mandatory TRID timeline (which I know a lot of loan officers do because of the volume of loans they are working on), you were then obligated to re-disclose our fees to the borrower and allow them the said 3-7 days to accept them or shop the fees. When you finally reviewed our fees prior to closing, the system allows you another bite at the apple to re-disclose the correct figures to the borrower as TRID requires instead of incurring a cure credit. That may have delayed the closing, but the option was there for you. I know it is frustrating. It is for us as well. However, this is the system that we have to work with and right or wrong, the burden of reporting those fees to the borrower accurately rests on you as the loan officer under TRID. It just sounds like a couple of steps got missed/overlooked.

We strive to provide the best possible customer service, accurate information, and timely responses to all parties in our closing transactions. Based on my review of the file and the customer comments at closing, I believe Brett, Maria and our staff did just that. However, I appreciate your comments and the opportunity to correspond with you so that we can improve our services as needed. There is always room for improvement. It is unfortunate that there was that last minute glitch and that you now feel it requires a less than favorable review. However, when you do submit your review of our title company and our services, I hope that you will do so honestly and accurately.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss this further, I look forward to an opportunity to speak with you directly. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me. "

Her email only gives an excuse why she overcharged. The cost of title insurance is nowhere customary, to charge over $1500.