Old Republic Title

We use Old Republic Title for our refi, thanks to the San Carlos team and Ann Palermo for taking care of us. Trowbridge Insurance Agency sends clients to them because they provide great service.

I’ve worked with Jennifer Shade for several years. She’s incredibly knowledgeable and easy to work with — and we’ve had some difficult transactions.
She’s always there to help — even if the transaction is not being processed by her office. Sometimes I need a second opinion when an agent has chosen another title company to work with.
Ann Palermo is one of my favorite people. She always — always — has a smile and an offer of support each time I see her. It’s really nice to be able to run marketing ideas by her and get a feel for what’s working in the industry today.
Real estate is a relationship business. We’ve created very strong relationships with each other and make a great team working together.
Thanks, ladies, for always being a pleasure to work with.

The team at Old Republic is beyond great. They go out of their way to provide great service. From Toni, to Jennifer to Christine and all of their assistants… they all are the best escrow officers around. They also have Felix, who just helped me figure out an easement issue on a property and within minutes, it was solved… he also found an inconsistency with an old CC&R as well. Very impressive and it’s this type of service that sets them apart from other title and escrow companies. 5 stars.

I have done 5 transactions with Jennifer Shade this year so far. She is prodigious, I promise! She makes sure the final details are handled and only involved me when she had to. In fact, one time she very kindly came to the home of my 90 year old client so he could sign his closing papers. Jennifer has always been sensitive to my clients needs. She takes the time to explain all fees and the process of closing. I will continue to use ORTC and I would highly recommend this office and Jennifer Shade for their/​her professionalism; they know the title business! Cheers! Stephanie Nash, Alain Pinel Realtors — Woodside

Why the negative reviews? These ladies are amazing.
I’ve worked with other title/​escrow companies and Toni Fonseca and her team (Rachel and Ann) are THE BEST. These ladies make title/​escrow easy as pie. Toni knows everything. Seriously. Whenever I have a question, or my client has a question, I can rest assured knowing that Toni is a wealth of knowledge and will be able to explain everything in a manner so that my client can make the best decision possible.
They are an absolute joy to work with. Upbeat, friendly, responsive, easy to get a hold of when you need them, and of course knowledgeable– What else can you ask for?
Toni, Rachel and Ann are seriously the best which is why I refer clients to them again and again.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for a while, because we closed back on Sunday, September 8, 2013. Yes, SUNDAY. We were anxious to make the promised date for the close of escrow. So Rachel Solidum, the assistant to Senior Escrow Officer Toni Raygosa-​Fonseca, suggested she come in on Sunday for us to sign papers. She was so thorough and professional, and even apologized for being dressed in her 49ers shirt because she and her husband were on their way to a game as soon as we finished. We told her we were just so pleased that she took time out of her day off for us. Anytime you deal with multiple parties giving estimates for closing figures they can change as the process moves forward. Rachel always kept us up to date with any changes. My husband and I would highly recommend Old Republic Title, and especially Rachel Solidum!

We had used this this title company once before for our refinance and don’t really have anything bad to say, hence the two stars
However, we recently went with them again when we sold our condo per the buyer’s request. This time our experience was awful. Our Escrow officer happens to be the branch manager and she wasn’t transparent at all during signing, nor was she forthcoming with various charges.
There were lot of hidden charges that we were not made aware of. We were asked to give them our credit card info so that they can order HOA Demand, etc but were never forthcoming as to the exact costs, what they will be charging, etc.
On the closing day when we went to their office for signing, they had added an additional HOA late fees which was not included in the prelim HUD statement that they emailed us the day earlier. They also had added additional HOA demand update fees and automatically paid through our credit card without our consent. This update fees was due to a mistake done at their office and shouldn’t have charged us in the first place. But they just tried to sneak this into our closing settlement. We had to chase them every step of the way to get these two charges taken off.
And finally, when the escrow was closed, they did not wire the mortgage payoff funds to my bank until the next day, apparently the escrow officer was off that day and she could balance the account and wire the funds the next when she returned. This caused us an extra day of interest.

I would really like to say at least one positive thing about how this escrow officer Christine handled my transaction, alas, I wasn’t able to find one no matter how hard I tried. My phone calls and emails went unreturned. Once I was able to get my escrow officer on the phone, she sounded annoyed and arrogant, at times rude. My agent’s requests went unanswered for days, and lender’s instructions weren’t followed, resulting in delays and me having to come out of pocket for rate lock extentions. Documents they prepared had mistakes and were not corrected in timely manner. I felt that they didn’t appreciate my business at all. My transaction was NOT handled in professional manner by the very least, and I would not recommend using them. Even my Realtor who gave them a shot called it a mistake and vowed not to ever use them again.

I too had issues with mistakes during my closing. We literally got four different prelims with tons of errors, including three different closing costs on the day of signing. I ended up paying $ 30 to change the check twice and wiring them the balance when I showed up with the wrong amount.
After the signing and two days before closing, I got a call from my new insurance company saying the escrow company needed me to raise my coverage by X amount. I got that taken care of, only to have the escrow company call my realtor the next morning and tell her I still needed to raise the amount (even though the insurance company had already faxed over the updated information). When the escrow agent finally called me after playing a needless game of telephone tag, she complained that the insurance company was being difficult to work with and I should fix a bunch of things she was being paid to do.

I needed some paperwork from the sale of my house 2 years ago. Called and spoke to a very nice woman who emailed me everything I needed — and even stayed on the line to make sure I’d received it!
All done in about 5 minutes! I had been dreading it for weeks, figured I’d have to drive the 40 miles and spend hours — couldn’t have been easier.
This mirrors how I was treated at the time of the sale — nice professional folks.

We bought our home recently and used this title company per the seller’s request. Our experience was awful — there were mistakes that should not have been made, eg. mis-​spelling, typos, incorrect info, filing our stuff in another customer’s file. They were also unresponsive (didn’t return emails, voicemails), tardy and we had to chase and shepherd them every step of the way to closing.
As it is, home-​buying is stressful enough, the title company should not be a roadblock to a smooth closing. Especially when they charged us $$$ for it.
If I can, I would give them NO star on Unilocal