We recently purchased a house and the seller used this office for escrow. We closed and recorded on the intended day, but there was a distinct lack of communication and repeat issues.
Prior to closing we requested a copy of the draft deed, which contained both misspellings in our name and misstated how we intended to take title. We immediately sent Chicago Title our corrections that same day, Tuesday. The mobile notary arrived Friday morning and the
documentation provided had the same uncorrected errors. Not a showstopper, but annoying.
We did not get an estimated final settlement statement from Chicago Title until that same Friday morning, when we signed our documents. We then immediately called our banks to initiate the wires (about 8:45 am Pacific time). We acted as soon as we could based on when Chicago Title provided information, which seemed to be enough time for a Monday recording. However, we proceeded to receive several emails over the course of Friday afternoon informing us that they had not received our second (smaller) wire. We provided Chicago Title the information we had, and asked them to confirm when they received our second (and final wire), which they did not do. Nor did they tell us that our lender needed to provide additional interest over the weekend, or why. On Monday we were informed the funds were released and the documents sent for recording. We requested to be made aware of when the documents were recorded so we knew when we could get the keys. No response. Our agent had to text Chicago Title inquiring if the deed and deed of trust were recorded so we could take possession. After recording we requested a copy of our grant deed, deed of trust, and the actual final settlement. We initially only received our deed of trust. We had to follow up to get our grant deed and again to get our final
settlement as buyers. They did, however, send us the sellers' final settlement for some unknown reason.
The seller chose this escrow company and maybe they have had better experiences in the past. For us as the buyers, this office was a black hole of information. At no point did we know where we were in the process despite frequent requests for updates. The only time we got proactive communication was when the escrow office wanted updates on a wire. Once they presumably received the wire, Chicago Title went back to radio silent. Would not be our first choice in the future. read more