Chicago Title

Gerrie Brindley is a rock star. If you are a real estate agent and want a escrow/​title company who is proactive, communicative and responsive, choose Gerrie Brindley at Chicago Title!

Avoid if you can. We could not. The seller — a trust — mandated that we use them. If you want a taste of Soviet customer service, come here!
They were unable to answer even simple questions, appeared to know less about the documentation then we did, and were unfamiliar with San Francisco property laws.

5 years ago, I bought a house. Today I needed some of that documentation and called Chicago Title. Well, wouldn’t you know? Chicago was NOT my Title Company.
Why the 5 star review?
Instead of ignoring my call as some businesses might do, Richard returned my call, gave me the name of the correct Title Company AND forwarded some additional documents to make my life easier.
WOW!!! Great service for someone who is not even a customer!

In a business where I’m sure there is little gratitude shared, there is a great escrow officer, Gerrie Brindley, deserving of lots of praise.
Was extremely patient and extremely helpful in dealing with a very complicated and emotional short sale transaction.
Will continue to recommend her to all!

Gerrie was the only part of the sales process for my condo that went smoothly. She was great with the escrow process. The other people involved with my sale could learn from her: do your job well and don’t create extra work for your clients.

This is the place to go if you want to sit waiting for 30 minutes to start your signing late, have typos that will cost you 6K+ at the last second, want to have your escrow agent not follow through communications that jeopardize your loan, and then get blamed for it all. Wowza — you could better financial service from a third world drug lord.

I have used Chicago Title at 1929 Market Street for several transactions over the years, and never experienced anything like the negative reviews here would have you believe.
Charles Richards is the most accomodating, hard-​working and thorough escrow officer in the city. There may be others as good, but there is nobody better!

Charles has been the escrow officer on at least 10 different transactions I’ve worked on with buyer and seller clients and he’s always been great. Very knowledgeable, organized and accommodating with signing times etc. Always available to answer questions from me or my clients. There have been a few times when he even responded to emails on Saturdays which I found pretty surprising since the title companies are only open M-​F. I highly recommend him.

I couldn’t resist writing my own review after reading what other people have written about Chicago Title. I am a Realtor and I have had a lot of experience with escrow officers/​offices in San Francisco and I have found Charles Richards to be the best in the city, hands down.
First, regarding Cynthia’s comment. The escrow officer cannot keep a buyer from flaking out. And it’s not the escrow officer’s job to collect the deposit money. It’s the listing agent’s job to make sure the buyer deposits their earnest money. If you did not have an agent, or they did not do their job, please blame them, not the escrow office. They are a neutral third party.
I have used Charles on my own real estate transactions, and will continue to do so. I also send my first-​time buyers to him whenever possible, as he is thorough, detail-​oriented, prompt (he responds to my emails over the weekends, late at night. how many escrow officers do you know that work outside of the typical 9 – 5 hours??). But what’s best is that he is REALLY good at explaining what all of the documents are all about. Many other escrow officers will just shove a pile of loan docs in front of the buyer and expect them to sign without fully understand what they are signing. Charles is patient, speaks in lingo buyers understand, and always comes through for me and my buyers. He has always been very accommodating in terms of scheduling (but I do understand that if Idon’t schedule until the last minute, he just might be booked and you can’t blame him for that!). Ooh, and they also put all of your transaction documents onto a CD fo ryou if you ask for it. Much nicer than schlepping around a big folder of documents!

I have worked with Charles Richards for at least two years on more than a dozen transactions… he has been excellent!
I have utilized him for both buyer’s, seller’s, and people who are refinancing — all positive feedback too!
I am in a transaction with him now… and will have many more in the future…

I had a horrible experience with refinancing my property. They were not very accommodating with signing documents even though I told them upfront about my schedule problems. When I reviewed my copy of the documents, I found other peoples documents mixed in with my files with their personal information. They never contacted me to tell me the escrow was closed until I called them and they told me it was closed but I didn’t get any closing documents or check for more than 2 weeks until I called them several times.

I would not recommend this company. Financing or refinancing is full of details and involves a sizeable percentable of ones net worth. I found that they were not thorough and when the final deadlines arrived they expected the borrower to jump thru hoops even if they were making mistakes.
The loan officer told me that there was confusion because me, my husband and child were there. He stated «there was so much switching chairs» that everything was mixed up.
Give me a break, the materials should have been reviewed immediately after the meeting to guarantee that everything was correct.
I have worked with Fidelity Title a couple of times, they are much better.
In dealing with such large sums of money, customer service, is not a nice to have it is a must.