Just got off the phone with Stewart Title and the conversation was so unsatisfying I decided to go straight to Yelp and type it up.
Doing a refi on my home. Evidently one of the few things I can "shop around" for are title insurance and escrow services. So, in trying to save money (of course, right?) that's what I did.
It seemed that the person on the other line couldn't be more uninterested in helping me out. This stuff is new to me. I don't know all the terms and how things work. I expected them to explain what they do and how much it would cost. To the contrary I had to keep asking questions and the answers were all terse and short, and I had to continue asking for clarification. In the end, I felt like I was bothering them or they were super busy and my call was an annoyance to their day. It felt like I was asking them for a favor instead of asking to pay for a service. When I asked how much it would cost, their answer in a very disaffected tone was "So around $1200... oh perhaps plus a couple hundred more for miscellaneous costs. It's all the same with all the companies". You really can't tell me how much it's going to cost? Is this some very esoteric service with an unknown charge?
So, I know I just spoke to one person (perhaps they were having a bad day), and I can't vouch for them completely as a company, (perhaps they would have done a good job), but I suppose that one person does represent them. Needless to say, I'm going with First American, and I don't even think the service there was all that great either, but it was better. read more