The History Of Express Escrow

 

An attorney, an officer with Union Bank and a realtor came up with the idea for Express Escrow in 1975, shortly after the creation of the “Mobilehome Escrow Law[1]” by the State legislature.  The plan of these three men was to have their new company specialize in mobilehome escrows and be the best in the business.  Shortly thereafter they recruited a fourth partner to run the company.  The company formerly opened for business on July 6, 1976.

Express Escrow does residential real estate, park conversions, real property refinance escrows, but its niche has always been manufactured home escrows.  To date it has processed over 130,000 manufactured home escrows of all types.

The company has truly lived up to the ideals of its founders.  It is widely regarded as the leading expert in its field of expertise.  It writes technical articles on complicated subjects for many State associations.  Some enforcement agencies and Government Sponsored Enterprises have re-issued particular articles within their own organization for training purposes.  As a civil service, Express Escrow has volunteered many hours of time to assist consumers, lenders and enforcement agencies when it appears a felony may have been committed and our technical assistance is needed.

Despite being larger than the average size escrow company, Express Escrow has always conducted all of its operations from a single location; this allows closer control by management.  That single location serviced business from all over California.  Presently a large percentage of that business comes in from areas too far to reach by car within an hour.  This fact recognizes that the “mobilehome escrow law” is more complicated than any other type of escrow and we have an excellent reputation for doing it right.

In 2001 the employees became the sole owners of Express Escrow.  To our knowledge, we are the only escrow agent in the State owned by all of its employees.  We are thankful our original founders saw fit to reward their associates for their dedication and commitment to excellence.


[1] The HUD Code preempted state mobilehome construction laws and became effective June 25, 1976.  To distinguish which homes were built to the stricter HUD Code, HUD homes were called “manufactured homes.”  A decal on the rear of the home also gives notice if a particular home is built to the HUD Code.