First American Title Guaranty

we bought our house in oakland a few weeks ago and worked with first american title to handle all the rigmarole related to title transfer, closing docs, etc.
first american title company gets two stars because the people we worked with (either over email /​phone /​in person) were quite courteous. however, when i took a closer look at the closing statement, i realized there was an error in the paperwork which (if not found) would have resulted higher closing costs of ~$ 7k+ !!
1. mistakes happen. i mean — nobody’s perfect. but this particular error was pointed out by us during the signing process; i had assumed first american title would address it prior to sending us the final statement. but when they issued us the residual payment (for the overpayment during closing), it didn’t have this correction!
2. there was no apology on first american’s side, as it related to the (quite significant) clerical error. if anything, first american’s correspondence made it seem like they were trying to place the blame on the lender for the error (even though the lender’s statement clearly stated a lending credit to be applied at closing).
3. first american ended up amending the document to reflect the $ 7k in lender credits, but rather than simply correcting that one section of the closing statement, first american went back and added another day of interest to our closing costs! now, one day of interest doesn’t sound like a lot. but when you’re talking about real estate prices in the bay area, a single day’s worth of interest is a non-​trivial amount!
basically, people who buy /​refinance their homes in the bay area are at the whim of this title company, because (as far as i know) they are either the only player in the market, or have the market cornered.
buyers /​refinancers beware — read over your closing docs very closely! this should go without saying, but for those without finance backgrounds, get someone who’s good with numbers to review your lending docs /​closing statements! i can’t believe that i would have been «out» over $ 7k if we hadn’t gone over the docs, line by line, to identify the error. shouldn’t that be first american title’s job?! i wonder how much these «mistakes» have earned first american title over the years …
actually, i’m moving the review back to one star. because while i was writing this review, i pulled up the closing statement and i was reminded how ridiculous some of these closing costs are.
$ 1,870 escrow fee (for holding someone else’s money and generating an incorrect statement).
there must be a better way.

We recently bought a home and Renee Haugen was handling our loan documents. We had a very tight timeline to close on the house and enroll our daughter in her new school and Renee was amazing. She kept our case rolling and was extremely responsive throughout the process. Renee provided us top notch service and peace of mind during a very chaotic and stressful time.