Province Mortgage Associates

First, I’ll say that the only other review on here is just not quite helpful enough. I hope I can provide more useful information! In case you’re thinking this review is too long, here’s the cheat sheet: go to Ed!
Here’s the long version:
I was referred to Ed Collins by a friend’s husband who works for a local organization that helps first-​time homebuyers. We didn’t qualify for his help, but he referred us to Ed. We did a lot of homework regarding mortgages (well, to be honest, my husband did the homework for the both of us), and we talked to our bank, a credit union, and to Ed at Province Mortgage. (You can read about our credit union experience in my other review.)
One big requirement we had was that we wanted to pay our PMI in one lump sum, plus we wanted to get a good interest rate (who doesn’t?) and I wanted to be able to pay my mortgage on a biweekly basis so that we could shave off some payments at the end.
Our bank told us that we couldn’t pay off our PMI, but that it would be part of our mortgage for 8 years, then it would be taken off. The credit union wanted us to take two mortgages out — one for 80% of the house cost with a decent interest rate, and another for 15% of the house cost, but with a higher interest rate. The rate offered by our bank was crazy high (AND required a high bank balance to get that crazy high rate). Ed was able to find us a mortgage that would allow us to pay our PMI in advance, would let me pay biweekly and pay early at no cost, and was at the best rate of all three options.
So, he found us a good mortgage match. That’s one huge part of it. But I mentioned we were first-​time homebuyers, and we were frequently asking questions throughout the process. Ed was patient, knowledgeable, and very responsive the entire time! He helped us through the whole process, and Melanie, his loan processor, was great, too!
Even better? When I talked to friends who’d gone through the homebuying process, they said they were surprised by all the fees that were tacked on at the closing. (Frankly, we were terrified by that fact!) Ed, though, showed us everything that went into our mortgage, settlement, and closing costs, and we saw the HUD-​1 days before the closing. (My friends said they hadn’t seen the HUD-​1 before their closings, so the closing was the first they’d seen of everything.) We even noticed that the couple we were buying from had not seen their HUD-​1 before their closing on their new house, which was a few hours after ours. We got no surprises — it was exactly as promised.
The upshot? We felt really prepared, and Ed really did a great job. I have no qualms about recommending him to my friends based on our experience.