Where is Your Escrow Money?

Just up the road a bit in Vero Beach, Coastal Escrow Services closed up shop. Another title company closing? Hardly news these days, but this closing is particularly noteworthy.

Attorney Ira Hatch, owner of Coastal Escrow Services, had made his book of business by convincing Treasure Coast Brokerages to avoid the hassles of dealing with FREC by allowing his Title company to hold escrow in exchange for the opportunity to do closings. Ira Hatch was quite successful in his venture, with numerous real estate companies taking him up on his offer. It is reported that Coastal held escrow for some 900+ closings last year alone.

Earlier this month, Coastal stopped answering the phones – lights were on, but no one was home. Also missing were the millions of dollars of deposits being held in “trust” for clients of brokerage firms from Port St Lucie to the Sebastian Inlet. Coastal also did property management escrows and held security deposits for rentals all over town.

So before your deal ends up in a future “Worst Real Estate Story” , you need to know where that escrow money is going and make sure you can Trust your Trust account holder.

Read More about Coastal Escrow:

The Story Breaks

A bit more about Coastal

The Realtors get sued

6 comments on “Where is Your Escrow Money?”

  1. Terry Barnhart, P.A. Reply

    How can we, as agents, determine if the escrow representative/account is secure?

  2. Marie J. Montgomery, P.A. Reply

    Beth, I was amazed when you mentioned this at the Pinecrest office today. I learned this evening that friends of mine who have rental propereties in that area lost $7,000. I also heard, unconfirmed, that he was not a member of the Florida Bar. And, that he had performed a similar scheme in New York.

  3. Beth Butler Reply

    It is frightening – to answer you Terry – look no further than EWM… money is safer with us than just about anybody else. Know your escrow agent…

    Marie – I heard he had been disbarred from Florida – its in one of the articles I included, I think

  4. Mariana Montero Reply

    Yesterday afternoon ( after I heard the story in our meeting) I called a friend in Vero Beach, and she told me one of the associates from her office had also lost his escrow with Coastal……

  5. Patty Payan Reply

    Keep us posted if you learn the amount he ended up running away with. It must be millions.

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