We recently sold a home. We did choose the escrow company. Neither we, nor the buyers, used an agent/attorney. We did the same thing when buying our new house. No agents or attorneys involved and the sellers chose the escrow company. These days, with the Internet, it really is tremendously easy to fill out all the paperwork correctly and do everything yourself. The total time we spent from beginning to end was a few hours total, which saved tens of thousands of dollars on each transaction. 10/10 I’d forgo using an agent/attorney next time as well.
Not only that, you absolutely should shop the optional services (like title, escrow, etc.) We saved thousands in fees because me and my agent made a couple of phone calls to get competing bids after the seller (really the sellers agent) tried to direct us to a very expensive set of options.
Go for it. But unless you pay (or it is a cash-only deal), it's a violation of federal law and the buyer can come after you later on for 3x the cost. End of story.
Oh wow, I've only ever sold to cash buyers & come to think of it my preferred title company wasn't even a point of negotiation. I suppose it does protect the buyer more, I just like working with a competent and fast title company
