First American Title Insurance Company - National Commercial Services

We worked with Shelby today on the closing of our refinance. She made the process quick and easy while always being friendly and explaining the documents. Thank you Shelby for a great experience!

Receptionist was very rude and condescending. She made me feel very stupid, I had more questions to ask and I didnt even want too bother with it.

I will not be using First American Title Company again and I do not recommend them based on my experience. The loan officer (Carole) seemed pleasant & professional. There were several questions that I asked her prior to closing. She answered some questions & others she replied with 'that's a good question for your realtor.' I respected the fact she has good professional boundaries. My questions weren't difficult ones & I didn't mind asking multiple people to get the right answers. My expectation is if someone doesn't want to do other people's jobs than that means they must have more time for their own job - this allows them to do their job well.nThe lender I used had their own issues. My understanding of the title company's purpose is to provide checks and balances and to offer a neutral space to complete a large financial transaction. The title officer & title company failed to protect my best interests and failed to catch things sooner rather than later. The week of closing (several days prior to scheduled close), the title officer emailed me and asked which lender I was going to go with - I was considering changing lenders so she had disclosures from multiple companies - I promptly responded I chose not to change lenders because I do not want to risk any delays, I am sticking with lender F.nThe day of scheduled close, I wired the amount requested by title officer prior to our arrival. We waited in the receptionist area for 30 minutes. I assumed all parties were working to get all the correct information in all the right places. It turns out lender F sent an incorrect disclosure, this was not the title officer/company fault but she was not aware of it until the lender went through their final checks and informed her of the error. As such, I had to submit another wire. The unfortunate part here is my bank headquarters is on the east coast and they completed wires for the day 20 minutes prior to this call. Now, I had to pay another wire fee & the wire would not be processed until the next business day - 3 days later, the following Tuesday due to the holiday weekend.nThe title officer was visibly frustrated and apologetic throughout this day of the scheduled close and she deflected all blame to the lender. She even stated some confusion may have occurred because multiple lenders sent her disclosures. This clearly demonstrated a lack of planning on her part because I told her which lender I would be closing with. She would have benefited from removing the other lenders documents from my file. Higher management on both sides (lender & title company) got involved to try to get us our house keys. I appreciated the effort but ultimately no one was willing to take any risk despite their missteps.nThe title officer and title manager were very complimentary of one another - it was clear they have a longstanding relationship. If they were both really excellent than these issues would have been avoided. The title officer stated she wished things happened much smoother for us as she has also has multiple kids. And she stated she would be happy to help us in any way she could with our move as her family includes a realtor and professional mover who are all very familiar with the local area. I responded that a Handyman referral would be great.nShortly after closing and receipt of keys, I emailed the title officer requesting a 15 min. discussion to recap the events & any Handyman referrals would be great (realtor's referrals were busy through the month).nOver a week has passed and I have yet to receive a response. If the title officer spent half as much time & energy in properly preparing for our closing as she did in her face to face apology than closing would have been a much better experience, saving us time, money & hardship - we paid an additional wire fee, 3 additional nights at a hotel, and had the extraordinary emotional strain of not being able to settle into our home prior to our child's first day of Kindergarten.

Our Escrow Officer was Blake and we had no issues working with him. He was polite, efficient and very good at his job. He answered all of our questions and was very easy to communicate with. Based on our experience, we'd recommend First American Title Company and in particular, Blake.

Great company to work with! Joan was very helpful!