Stewart Title of California, Inc. El Paseo, Palm Desert

My wife and I recently worked with Tamara Blackford at Stewart Title and had an extremely disappointing experience from beginning to end. We rarely leave bad reviews but felt compelled to do so in this case. We worked with Tamara at Stewart Title in the Spring of 2022 on the purchasing a property in Palm Desert (this being our third and final property purchased in a quick turnaround 1031 exchange). From the beginning, Tamara was hard to get a hold of and had poor communication skills via email and phone. She would not get back in a timely manner or sometimes not at all. Given the importance of our 45-day 1031 deadline, open detailed communication was of the most importance to make this a smooth process. Tamara at Stewart Title did the complete opposite throughout this whole process and made this experience very difficult and far from smooth. Tamara at Stewart Title did not do her job from start to finish. Tamara would not follow through with providing important details and problem-solving regarding our purchase that involved a cloudy title. She never even confirmed that this issue was resolved. Tamara did not recognize the mistype error on the escrow paperwork regarding property type which lead wasted time and energy on our end…going as far as stating all the paperwork would have to redone at our expense. Again, showing no accountability and continuing to deflect blame on anybody else. We were already through signing all of the final documents with the notary when these details were discovered after the fact by another company involved in the escrow process. This could have easily cost us losing this property, running out of time for our 1031 exchange, and costing us thousands of dollars. Tamara would not provide HOA material when requested several times after we were almost nearing the end of escrow. She complained about scanning this information because it was “too many pages” and told us that the only option was for Stewart Title to mail a hard copy at our expense or for us to pick the hard copy up personally when she was aware that we live over a hundred miles away. We found out later that same day that her office had scanned and already electronically sent these documents to other parties involved. This went as far as not even communicating whether we officially closed escrow, even after all of these major mishaps. We had to email and call more than once to get confirmation that we had officially closed, and never responding directly to our emails/calls but only after our realtor sent an email asking for confirmation. Once again disrespecting and ignoring our involvement in this purchase. Tamara made us feel as though we were not important whatsoever and that we were merely an annoyance to her throughout the whole process. Rather than handling these issues that arose professionally, taking accountability in her part of these major issues and mishaps, Tamara was defensive, unprofessional, and condescending. She went as far as to tell us that we didn’t understand how the real estate/escrow business worked and saying we didn’t do this all of the time. When in fact, we had just completed the same process for two other properties with two other title companies that were completely professional, communicative, and a pleasure to work with. We understand things happen and issues arise but we also understand that how you communicate and solve those problems are of the most importance. So long story short, add incompetence, rudeness, lack of communication skills, and you get Tamara at Stewart Title. Given all of this, we wanted to make sure people were aware of how she works before getting involved with Stewart Title. Purchasing a property is already a stressful venture, so having a team that cares and communicates is so important. And that is why we felt compelled to write a review. Our experience with Tamara at Stewart Title was horrible and we want to warn others so that they don’t go through the same experience.

We recently we t through Stewart Title for a refinance and the whole process was so easy, the people we worked with were very helpful, professional, and everything was handled in such a timely manner and so very convenient.

All details of a property transfer were handled on schedule, making it worry free for the buyer, and seller.

I rarely write or leave reviews but Stewart Title was so bad that I was happy to take the time to do a review. If I could give no stars that would better represent Stewart Title's performance. I reached out to have them help with the closing on a home I was buying in Palm Desert. They started out okay. They sent me an email with what they needed then soon thereafter went to poor or slow communication then became nonresponsive to calls and emails to the point that I had to reach out to another title company handle the closing. It was Palm Desert Escrow who jumped right on it and handled my closing quickly and professionally.

Tamara and her team are the BEST! They have worked magic to insure we've closed on time. They truly care about their client and know how stressful it is for everyone involved. They are amazing!

Highly professional, courteous representative provided information on how the process works, fees involved and supportive information too. Thank you.