Sterling West Escrow

Sterling Escrow’s Desiree Goodman, and her staff, Samantha Silk, and Trevor Reif did an exceptional job with my closing. I was selling my condo and they did excellent work (didn’t lose anything, never asked for the same item twice, and answered calls and emails promptly).

It was such a pleasure working with Rita Kumar at Sterling West Escrow during the sale of my house. She made the whole process easy to understand and was so nice with all of my questions. I will definitely call Rita at Sterling West if I need an escrow company again!

We had the recent pleasure of working with Sherri Allen at Sterling West Escrow. She is wonderful! She made everything easy and painless. Matter of fact, I asked her if we could special request her help again when we purchase our next property for our 1031 exchange!

We just closed on our condo. townhouse, & having moved here from the East Coast where we owned 3 homes before we moved here, I can say the experience was the most stressful & difficult we’ve ever had. In the midst of all the stress & strain, Sterling Escrow’s Desiree Goodman & her staff stood out as beacons of kindness, thoughtfulness, professionalism & efficiency. In fact, when the bank who were the primary source of all our aggravation (!) were stone walling a bit again, Desiree stepped up to the plate & suggested a way to resolve the situation to everyone’s satisfaction – on our behalf. She didn’t need to do it, & we were so grateful! We couldn’t recommend her (& her staff) more highly – & meeting her yesterday to sign all the paperwork was the icing on the cake.

I have been a Los Angeles real estate agent for 30 years. I’ve had the pleasure and benefit of knowing and doing business with Desiree Goodman for 20+ of those 30 years.
Let’s be honest. When people read a letter of recommendation they want to know the source of that recommendation is unbiased. But if you want unbiased I can’t be. I am biased. That’s the whole point. Desiree has earned it. I have been ferociously loyal to her since our1st transaction back in the early 90’s.
Unless you are a realtor, you probably don’t have a firm grasp on the utter and critical importance the rolean escrow officer plays. But boy all it takes is just one transaction andone very quickly learns how crucial it is to have a solid bench of playersin your corner for a transaction; realtors, lenders, underwriters, titleofficers… and the escrow officer is certainly no exception to that rule.
Where do I start in praising Desiree, and where do I stop? Both challenging questions, but in the interest of brevity I’ll just keep it to the bulletpoints:
* Extremely professional while still having personality, beingenjoyable and even «fun» to work with.
* Outstanding client relations! A true chameleon. She can manage and speak the language of a very high level attorneys or business manager, and then turn around and be patient explaining loan docs to a nervous Nellie buyer.
* Very knowledgeable, problem preventer, problem solver.
* Highly organized, efficient & accountable.
*Intuitive
* Rarely makes mistakes, but will always take responsibility when it happens
* Excellent and dedicated staff, not «clock punchers»
* Fairly and competitively priced
* Excellent office location, very central & even validated parking
Let it be said that sometimes due to outside factors, escrows can have a lot of last minute emergencies or things that need massive amounts of attention to close on
time. Desiree can keep her cool when all else is on fire around her and is a strong leader in escrow logistics.
Slightly off the record, being a Coldwell Banker agent our firm prefers (but never insists) we use our own, self-​owned escrow company, — and while they are a very fine company, I still prefer Sterling West Escrow because they are quite simply the best. Additionally on that note, SterlingWest will always be neutral, which by definition, is what escrow is supposed to be.
In closing, I stand by every word I have written, and if you’ve made it this far I invite you to take it one step further and call me ifyou’d like. I would be more than happy to sing my Desiree praises to anyone who would listen. I am proud to call Desiree my escrow officer of choice, and more important, my true and dear friend.

Great service with friendly folks. Samantha is the best :)

Desiree Goodman and the Sterling West Escrow team are rock stars. The are the dream team for the ultimate Escrow experience. Desiree managed my deal beautifully. She communicated clearly, was accessible (which is BIG deal for me) … and all around true professional. I highly recommend Sterling West Escrow!

We were in a rush to close on our new home, Krisann Peterson was totally amazing and helped us get it done in record time — 20 days. She produced the EPIC amount of paper work for us to sign and helped us every step of the way. She’s so professional and reassuring. Our realtor was incredibly impressed! We met a few of the other people in the company to and they were lovely. Thanks so much guys!

Desiree and her team at Sterling West Escrow are experts in their field and as good as it gets in the industry. They are professional, organized, knowledgeable and excel at customer service and are always available for their clients. Desiree works with some of the top agents in Los Angeles, but her team is also able to guide inexperienced home buyers through the escrow process. Know that you’re in good hands with Desiree and her professional team.

Desiree Goodman, Trevor Reif and the whole team at Sterling West Escrow are simply put as good as it gets in this business. I am a Realtor and have been working with Sterling West for 7 years now, conducting every escrow I can with them. Not only is everything done quickly and with the utmost professionalism and good cheer but Desiree has gone out on a ledge for me many times, going above and beyond to ensure that an escrow closes on time and that any issues are ironed out with the minimum of drama.
My clients love working with her and so do other agents who I introduce to the company. Desiree and Trevor send out regular updates about where we are in the escrow process to all parties — I never have to chase them as they are always one step ahead of the curve.
There are many things that I love about what I do for a living and I can honestly say that getting to work with the Sterling West team on a regular basis is very high on that list. I cannot recommend their services enough.

I had a very unpleasant experience with this company. The person who handled my account maybe felt that I was asking too many questions and sent me a very unprofessional angry email in response to my question. She really just went off and I was shocked by how angry it was. I was a first time buyer and understandably did not understand some of the charges on my closing cost statement. Even is she were frustrated, she could have handled it in a more professional manner. That was a couple of years ago. Now I’m re-​financing my home with a different escrow company and what a difference in customer service! I would not recommend this company to anyone.

My husband and I were involved in 3 escrows with 3 different escrow companies last month and I can honestly say that Sterling West Escrow stood out as the most professional and efficient of all. Desiree Goodman is phenomenal. She prevented any issues from arising by anticipating everything and handling everything ahead of time. The entire escrow was smooth and uncomplicated — I cannot say ths for the other 2.
A huge shoutout to Desiree and her fabulous team. You are the only company we will insist on using in the future. Thank you!

I am a real estate Broker. I had my first transaction with Sterling West Escrow in January 2004 and over the years I have dealt with over a dozen escrow companies. Desiree (whom I affectionately call «Amazon Queen of Escrow») and her fantastic team are a delightful, knowledgeable, highly competent and focused group with an uncanny ability to foresee potential issues before they turn into points of contention. They have a great system, they do a lot of the work that with other escrow companies falls on my lap, they communicate greatly and often with all parties involved.
Sterling West Escrow helps me keep my sanity when dealing with multiple escrows. I dread it when I have to deal with another escrow company. I just know dealing with another escrow company will somehow either add complexity or work for me. As a broker, the last thing I want is resolving issues arising from third party services. I must say unequivocally and without the shadow of a doubt, Sterling West Escrow, is the Lexus of escrow services at Camry prices.
And dare I say that if Desiree wasn’t into escrow, she would have probably been a great comedienne? Hilarious, high energy, optimistic but at the same time warm and caring. The decision to use Sterling West Escrow is really easy because I receive top notch escrow services, I look good with our clients and other professionals and I also get free entertainment for the same competitive rate! Shhhhh! Don’t tell her how much I love Sterling. She may raise my rates!!!

(I am very aware that when somebody posts only one review, it seems like that person must be a friend of the business or a plant. I am not, it’s just I don’t tend to write this sort of thing and am a bit lazy)
So you pick an escrow company because your Realtor recommends them, which means it starts with how much you trust your Realtor. I trust mine, who is a friend, and who has worked with these guys for some time (even at their previous business association) and trusts them to get things done well and to not tack on a lot of extraneous fees.
This is the first time I have sold a home in California, so my experience with Escrow agents is limited to this sale. When selling your home, it feels like all you do is sign papers endlessly and, unless you have done this a lot before, it feels like everybody knows what is going on except you. At Sterling West they were willing to sit down with me and explain everything and I never felt rushed. They were always available to answer questions.
I felt that they were really well prepared, and whereas it is inevitable that you will be sent a constant trickle of additional documents as the sale proceeds, I felt like it was because additional issues came up with the buyer and not because Sterling West had forgotten or overlooked something.
Desiree Goodman is a delight and her associates were great.
With what I could tell, my agent/​friend was right, there weren’t a bunch of ambiguous fees and all went really smoothly.