Steve and his team at Chicago Title handled our real estate transaction immaculately. It was a…read morenuanced and unusual situation - an off-market sale involving a co-owner buyout and a new owner being added - and speaking as someone who appreciates a good spreadsheet, I have nothing but admiration for the way Steve put the escrow accounts together so that everything flowed seamlessly. Highly recommend.

They 'forgot' to deliver our city and title fees when we closed escrow. When we reached out to get…read morethis fixed, they gave us the runaround for nearly 4 months while we were delinquent on the payment (and a looming threat of a lien on the house). We worked specifically with Cristina and while initially responsive, we started getting a lot of "we asked our Accounting team" with no sense of urgency. We've been extremely patient with them, followed up with them once a week (to which we just got the response "I've forwarded this to the Accounting team"). She then gave us the name and number to their Accounting department (after, literally, 4 months) to work with them directly. They've stated that they accept full ownership of the mistake and have dragged their feet to fix it. This has been a total nightmare for us and I wouldn't wish this on anyone else. It sounds like the office has made similar mistakes across the board. Do yourself a favor and find literally anyone else.

Though North American covered their main tasks as expected, 2 months ago we closed a house with…read morethem as the title company and there were several parts of the closing document signing process that were wanting. First, we were left waiting 30 minutes with our mortgage broker while the office chatted with an office mate. We wouldn't have noticed, but my broker was expecting to begin and when he walked by our rep's office he found her joking with another staff member. He mentioned again that we were waiting and the rep arrived quickly after that. Their prices are relatively high ($175 for a notary? $50 Document Prep Fee? $45 Courier/Settlement Agent? All on top of a $1000+ closing fee?!?), but they're the only title company left in Benicia (Vallejo is down to one also). They could not consistently provide estimations of their costs though called repeatedly by my agent, broker, and myself with different results each time. Eventually we got someone who had our file and gave a price very close to the actual costs, but it was very late in the process. The rep misstated some of the documents as she summarized them and my broker had to point the differences out each time. Our broker had to correct a few figures the rep had incorrectly included. In the end they did what a title company is for and they answered the phone when called, they tried to do well by us and if not for their higher than usual fees we would have found them acceptable. As is, you have few options in Benicia and North American Title is not too bad, just keep an eye on the figures and read the docs yourself, you'll be fine.

If this is our "ONLY" choice, it's worth a drive. They acted like they were doing me a great favor…read moreby handling my escrow. I can only assume they don't have to do a good job because they are the only office.

I reached out to Fidelity Investment in March 2022 to discuss options for moving my 401k, 401k…read moreRoth, & my pension from financial company I worked for 33 years, plus few dollars from a prior company of 15 years. I had talked with four financial advisors including Fidelity Investments over 3 month period while retired. I was impressed with David Woodworth and opinions he had suggested. Basically, I purchased an annuity through 'USSA' through Fidelity Investments, so I would receive monthly checks for rest of my life. Plus, my other monthly income includes: social security, rental properties and mineral rights. In addition, I left some 401k $$$ in my Fidelity Investment Accounts, giving Fidelity Investment the 'Okay' to manages these dollars. I have been asked repeatedly by friends / family how much do I pay Fidelity Investment, my response have been minimum. They all look at me with a confusing expression, then I tell them %% I've made over past 2 yrs, and they all quickly say, 'I Would Pay For Their Services.' At retirement everybody's finances are different, and I just wanted to share my positive experience with Fidelity Investment, Walnut Creek and especially a Big Thanks to Mr. Woodworth. ***** Stars *****

This pertains only to the poor telephone service. I waited…read moreon hold for 23 minutes before giving up in high frustration. The robo recording kept saying how sorry it was that they were experienced a high call volume, blah blah blah. . However, 6 times during my wait I was connected to a ringing phone line-- that nobody answered, then the cycle of the robo voice began again. I made 2 more calls for a total of 3 in 2 hours, with the combined wait time almost 1 hour ! I understand everything is not instant but really, nobody to answer a waiting call for 20+ minutes ?? Unacceptable.

Teresa and Nehemiah and Lorrie were such a pleasure to work with while securing my first home. They…read morewere patient despite a few bewildering obstacles, and were always available to answer my questions or field information. Can't thank them enough for supporting me as a first time homeowner.

It's very unfortunate that they screwed up on our check TWICE. They sent me a check on May 7 but…read moremade it payable to our lender. It's a good thing I noticed and didn't deposit the check. They asked me to mail them back the check so they can issue a new one. Two weeks later, I still haven't received the check. When I called to follow-up, they said someone was pulling up my file and will call me back shortly. I waited all morning for the call which never came. When I called around 3pm to follow-up again, I was told the check was going out in the mail that afternoon. When I asked for an explanation as to why it took two weeks to send another check, I was told someone went on vacation and it had been sitting on that person's desk the entire time. WTH? In other words, if I didn't call to follow-up, God knows when I would have received the check! But the story does not end there. They did send me another check and I deposited it right away. Lo and behold, I get another phone call saying there was a clerical error -- they put a stop payment on the check. Seriously? They f*%k it up a SECOND time? It's a good thing the amount involved was just a few hundred dollars. But still!!! I've lost faith in this company and if I had a choice, I would rather not use them again...EVER! It boggles my mind how they can operate as a title company when they cannot even get their act together! I can forgive them for their first mistake...but for it to happen a second time is UNACCEPTABLE!

Nahid was the seller's agent when we bought our house. After living in the residence for some years…read morenow, we have discovered a lot of things that were not exactly true, or were covered up. The seller's inspection was a joke. We spent over $100k taking care of failing infrastructure problems that were either left out of the inspection or with seemingly false suggested mitigations. We had our own inspection done after purchase, and the inspector found a large number of issues that call into question the integrity or competence of the seller's inspector. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS AGENT WITHOUT INSISTING ON YOUR OWN INSPECTION. The property was apparently listed much too high for some time, and the seller was forced to drop the price significantly. Even then it stayed on the market for a long time, until we put in an offer, which the seller accepted. Our agent found out through the grapevine that after our offer was accepted, Nahid started shopping around trying to find a taker at the old listing price in a last ditch attempt to make more money. This is unethical behavior at least, perhaps illegal. I wonder what she would have done if she had found a taker at the higher price even though we already had a deal with the seller? Use caution if purchasing from this agent, though if you're a seller who doesn't care about ethics and wants maximum dollar for your property, perhaps this might be the agent for you.

Decided to dig a post hole and put a massive real estate sign in our yard pointing to one of her…read morelistings. The sign isn't really the issue. It's the fact that she didn't bother to even let us know it was going up.

I had a phenomenal experience with Dianne as a first time home buyer. I had been referred to…read moreanother lender with Draper & Kramer. While my initial conversations with that lender started out well, and I found him to be charming and funny, after our non-contingent offer on a home was accepted I was shocked by the differing numbers, quotes, and estimates of down payment and cash to close figures. On a tight budget with our first home, I found this to cause me significant distress and anxiety. Enter Dianne (2-3 weeks til closing), who salvaged my sense of trust, brought joy back to the process of buying our first home, and stayed consistent and clear from beginning to end. Her team was efficient, friendly, and effective. I cannot recommend Dianne & her team more highly. I am so incredibly grateful to Dianne for taking on our complex situation and moving us toward close with grace, nimbleness, effectiveness and speed. I could only wish I had started the process with her. Thank you, Dianne!

It's been a few years since I've written a review about this amazing human and her team, so here it…read moregoes! Dianne helped us refinance twice in the past year to take advantage of lower rates. She is incredibly responsive, knowledgeable, and honest. I always leave our conversations feeling more equipped and ready to made a well-informed decision about our home loan. I know it's been an incredibly unique and busy year for Dianne, but she always took time out to address our concerns directly, including making herself available to talk in the evenings. And of course, they always help us lock in a great rate. Dianne's team is also wonderful to work with. Everyone is kind, responsive, and thorough, and they kept us well-informed along the way. I can't say enough good things about Dianne. Trust that you are in good, extremely capable hands.

I wish I could give negative stars here. When we bought our TIC a couple years ago, Kilby was the…read moreagent selling the property. We didn't have a realtor, so she "assigned" us one from her agency. (I know, we were naive at best here). Turned out Kilby was running the whole show. The negotiations on the mortgage dragged out for 6 months and there was a "miscommunication" on our down payment. We agreed to 10% and the papers showed up for closing and we were put down for 15%. We were already living in the unit as a rental (also not right - the building was Ellis acted before and we didn't know that) and we were more or less stuck - we'd sold our other place and were in quite a jam. All of this because there was some private promise between the seller for our unit, Kilby and another owner in the building about money back out of the building. We really love our home, but her unethical approach to things left some very bad feelings amongst the owners of the building from day one. I would strongly discourage anyone from working with her - ever.

I worked with Kilby on the sale of my Grandmothers house. My experience with her from beginning to…read moreend was wonderful. We lived out of state and when my Grandmother passed away we needed to find a realtor. It was hard for us to make it out to San Francisco and when we did it was very short notice. We found time one weekend and called several agents (this was a Saturday afternoon)... Kilby was the ONLY one who was understanding of our time constraints, as we needed to return to Reno that afternoon, and come out on a moments notice to meet us at the house. As I was still dealing with my Grandmother's passing I wasn't sure I wanted to sell. She said she understood and gave me her information. Over the coarse of many months I had to fight off realtors that I had called that day to get off their email lists and for them to understand I wasn't ready. Kilby on the other hand was very understanding, she did not push or pester and was always available if I had questions. Finally it came time to sell the house. She was very caring and respectful of the situation. It was hard for me to go through the house and empty the contents. Kilby handled getting it completely cleaned out and ready for sale. I didn't have to worry about a thing. I was also very thankful that she was willing to run back to her office in the evening to get faxes that I sent or documents that my fax machine messed up so that she could resend them. Toward the end of the sale process I was scheduled for a major surgery and Kilby helped get documents together early for me to sign before I went in and made arrangements to help with the closing so that I was not having to deal too much with things during recovery. I have to say that my husband gets transferred every few years so we have had a few houses to sell and buy in the last few years... this sale was the most stress free real estate experience we have had. I would (and have) highly recommend Kilby. If only every realtor was this on the ball!

Made the entire process worse. Did not look into liens, past due bills, had wrong names on title…read moreand documents. I almost lost several thousand dollars as a result. A lien on the house was actually paid for by the seller and First Am was showing me I had to pay it... Still dealing a year later with issues that should have been dealt with by them. e.g. past due garbage bills which I could have easily checked myself with a phone call, but expected them to do it. If you wind up with this company, I advise to look into EVERYTHING yourself. Essentially, all this company does is type your address in the computer and print out whatever comes up. They do not do anymore than that, outside of screwing up documents.

Absolute mess of a company. Got nothing but the run around for weeks. The left hand doesn't know…read morewhat the right hand is doing. Avoid.