Mariners Escrow Corporation

First a bit of background. I am a real estate investor who does many large transactions. I previously owned a very successful large real estate company and an escrow company.
My real estate broker recommended I use this company in order to get the Apartment building as there were many offers. I never asked the escrow fee as I assumed my broker had a good relationship with them and I would be treated fairly. When I received my closing statement, I saw the escrow fee was $ 17,000. per side. Yes $ 17,000! Before I called them back to complain, I had another very successful broker I use call them for a competitive quote. He gave them a higher sales price and let them know they were competing competitively for the deal. They quoted $ 3,500. When I called to complain they said the quote was a mistake and they quote was for a transaction equal to pennies on the dollar.
I have done this for 35 years and also received other quotes in the same range of $ 3,000 to $ 5,000. Their answer was they are not a title company escrow and they can not compete with this as they don’t get the title fee. They did however try to change the seller and I more than all the title fees, escrow and every other fee combined!
The service was average or below and would not do anything extra like a simple bill of sale. They lowered the fee to 8,000. each side, Still a big Rip!
Wish they had a zero to mark!

I’ve been a real estate agent for 10 years and have worked with over 30 escrow companies. Mariners escrow is by far the best.
I won’t go into the details of why the negative reviews are ridiculous, because that would just bore you with industry practices and standard procedures. I can say that I can easily see why these people/​customers were confused, but I highly doubt there was ever a real problem or mistake on behalf of Mariners. Most likely, they didn’t read the escrow instructions they signed, and then were upset to find out what they had agreed to.
After using my in-​house escrow company for a few years with what seemed to be a speedbump on every deal, I went back to Mariners who had never caused a problem for me in the past.
My first deal back with Mariners, and it’s a 10 day cash deal. Monday the week of closing (this week), I met the seller and escrow officer, Deborah Johnson (the best in the business) to review all remaining paperwork and notarize the grant deed. At the time, I asked the seller if she would like to close early if possible. She was excited about that idea and we gave Deborah approval pending the other agents approval. Two days later, I get a phone call in the afternoon that the buyers money was in and we are set up to record and close. I was a little shocked, but in a good way. So I asked, «did you get the other agent’s approval?» and she told me she had and the other agent was excited to close early as well.
In ten years of business, this was my fastest closing ever and only took 8 days. It was smooth, seamless, and a pleasure to have peace of mind knowing my client was in good hands.
I have lots of reviews and am an active Unilocaler. I also have a business page for Real Estate. If you want to look me up and reach out to me, give me a call or e-​mail. I’d be glad to discuss all the reasons that Mariners Escrow is excellent at what they do.

My wife and I just completed our second transaction with Mariners Escrow and we were very pleased! We sold our home in February of this year and we were so impressed with them, we used them again for the purchase of our home in May.
Linda, Brian and the rest of the team were excellent.
They were excellent with communication and very knowledgeable.
I’m not sure about the negative reviews from others, but as for us we had a wonderful experience — clearly good enough to earn our return business!
Thanks Mariners!

I enjoyed the quick response to all of my questions during the closing of my new home. Thank you for your help and professionalism. We will use your services on our future investments.

Please don’t trust a single person who gave them a good review. If this escrow company is so great then why would there be a bad review to begin with? These people must be friends and are trying to help their overall Unilocal rate.
I 100% agree with the other bad reviewers. I also had the same experience if not worse. Before my contingency deadline I backed out of escrow. However, Mariners charged me a massive bill for HOA documents and City of Newport Beach building report which they plan to deduct from my deposit.
I did some research by contacting Merit Property Management and the City of Newport Beach. I found the amount they are charging me was significantly more than the actual fees. I looked back at my contract agreements between me, the seller, and Mariners. In all contract agreements I found the fees they charged me are the seller’s responsibility, not me. I also never authorized Mariners to use my deposit.
I emailed Linda Walin. She replied days later the email went in her «junk mail» and will respond later, but never did. Two weeks later I still hadn’t received my deposit. I reached out to her several times and still no response. I eventually received my deposit back. They waived the City of Newport Beach building report fee, but did not waive the HOA documents. Since then I have contacted her several times about this matter and again no response.
Like other bad reviewers, maybe it’s their Newport Beach location. They definitely have their nose up. They think doing business means giving attitude, ignoring the customer, and charging the customer significantly more than what they should.
They do not care about customer satisfaction or loyalty just to take your money.

I have been a Real Estate Broker since 2001 and have closed many escrows with lots of different companies. Dealing with Mariners Escrow has to rank among the worst experiences I have ever had to deal with. I represented a buyer on the purchase of a small condo for an investment. I don’t know if it’s because they are located in Newport Beach or the purchase price but they definitely had an attitude as if they didn’t care about our business. They were hard to get hold of and difficult to get clear information from in a timely manner. Payoffs were not requested on time and my buyer had to bring in A LOT more money than expected to close. Worst of all I felt like they did not act as neutral party and heavily favored the listing agent and seller which is not supposed to happen. Finally, they charged my buyer a lot more than standard escrow fees because as the escrow officer stated «it was a short sale and a lot more work.» That’s Bullshit. You don’t pass the cost on to the buyer and short sales aren’t that much more work for escrow. I will never use them again. Too many other honest escrow companies out there that take care of both parties in a transaction equally.

I have been a real estate agent in the area for nearly 8 years and find that Mariners Escrow is my choice for escrow services. I have had to have my buyers use other companies in the past due to agreeing to the sellers choice of services and not one has ever compared to the accommodation and customer service not only I receive but my clients as well! I have dealt with multiple officers who work here and not one has let me down. Knowing that they provide such great care and effective response time, I refer all my clients to them. My past buyer actually went back and had Mariners facilitate her re-​finance because of how happy she was!
Sounds like I need to have more of my professional peers jump onto these review sites and share their opinions and positive experiences working with Mariners! All of my previous offices recommended I use their services and I find they are the most professional and polite of all the companies I have worked with.

These «escrow» people know absolutely nothing!
They call themselves professionals, but really are incompetent. We had to chase down the previous owner to pay for the tax on the house that we just bought, because these «professionals» forgot to take out the tax payment for the house and stead paid the seller the amount of money that should of gone to paying the tax on the house we just bought… wouldn’t return our calls and we are getting the run around. Really don’t know what they are doing. I never had such clueless people. Not accountable for their actions. Now we have to pay for our over due tax on our home and hope that the previous owners will live up to his words and pay us back. That money should of been taken out of escrow!
Going to report them to the state board, because they specifically told Title Company not to pay tax??? Something is not right here… they are located near the beach, but they smell fishy. Whatever you do, be careful with these people because they are not good at what they do. Unprofessional, unaccountable, unreliable, unaccountable (act as if they did nothing wrong at all). Be warned!!! And save yourself the hassle

0 stars. Negative stars. Just because these people are in Newport Beach, they think they own the world. I had to deal with this incompetent office unfortunately for my cousin. Half of the time he works in New York, because of time difference, I had to handle quite a number of things for him during his purchase of a condo. The seller BTW chose this escrow company, so my cousin had to suck it up.
Sin #1 — they don’t return my calls
Sin #2 — they don’t reply my emails
Sin #3 — the escrow officers are not knowledgeable, they don’t know their own responsibilities, and have asked me to deal with problems arising from other aspects when my cousin is PAYING them to do their own job
Sin #4 — unaccommodating. My cousin flew back from NY to sign some papers, he arrived at John Wayne Airport (15 –20 mins away) at 330pm and was told that NO ONE, absolutely NO ONE will let him sign the papers if he arrives at 401pm, even though the office closes at 5.
Sin #5 — wow, they called me! To retrieve some paperwork from my cousin’s loan company FOR THEM, get this, ON THE DAY OF CLOSING! When they should have sent a messenger to get them themselves!
Sin #6 — they don’t know how to read. yes, pathetic. I had to show them where to look to find the info that was «missing».
Sin #7 — «Oh, that is not our job, you need to figure that out yourself.»
Sin #8 — «Oh, we charged you twice? it must be your mistake. We would never do that. «
Sin #9 — As soon as my cousin left the office and was at John Wayne already, they called him and told him that they FORGOT to have him sign something. Can you say incompetent?
My cousin did buy me a Vuitton Monogram Canvas Galliera for all the pain and suffering I went through. Was it worth it? I love the bag, but… I think not.