THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Qualification Amortization Buy, Rent, Sell, Lease Refinancing Comparison Acceleration Copyright 1992,94 Insight Software Solutions THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER TABLE OF CONTENTS General Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 About Insight Software Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Contents of Distribution Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Program Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Getting Started With the Mortgage Analyzer . . . . . . . . . 5 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Running The Mortgage Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Screen Layout In The Mortgage Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Common Screen Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Menu Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Data Input Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Data View Screens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Moving Around In The Mortgage Analyzer . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Menu System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Moving Field to Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Editing Within a Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Special Fixed Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Special Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Loan Qualification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Qualification Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Mortgage Schedules and Summaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Mortgage Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Print Schedule/Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Print Schedule/Summary Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Print Schedule/Summary Function Keys . . . . . . . . . 21 Default Mortgage Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Default Mortgage Insurance Inputs . . . . . . . . . . 23 Adjustable Rate Caps and Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Defining Caps and Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Automatic Rate Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Buy, Rent, Lease, Sell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Page 1 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Common Inputs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Home Purchase Information (Buy/Rent) . . . . . . . . . 27 Rent Information (Buy/Rent) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Other Factors (Buy/Rent) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Home Sale Information (Sell/Lease) . . . . . . . . . . 29 Rent Information (Sell/Lease) . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Other Factors (Sell/Lease) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Function Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Quick Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Four Function Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Solve For Missing Loan Value Calculator . . . . . . . 31 Points Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Daily Interest Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Loan Refinancing Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 FHA Down Payment Calculator . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 On-line User Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Color Attribute Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Printer Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Schedule Printing Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Miscellaneous Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Filing System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Answers To Common Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Page 2 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER General Information Disclaimer Insight Software Solutions makes no warranties or representations of any kind, expressed or implied, including any implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for any particular purpose. Insight Software Solutions shall not be liable for any errors contained herein or for any loss of profit or for incidental or consequential damages or for any other damages. About Insight Software Solutions Insight Software Solutions is located in Bountiful, Utah. Please send any inquiries, questions, suggestions or comments to the following address: INSIGHT SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS P.O. BOX 354 BOUNTIFUL, UT 84011-0354 Tel: (801) 295-1890 Fax: (801) 299-1781 BBS: (801) 963-8721 CIS: [71672,3464] Contents of Distribution Disk The Mortgage Analyzer diskette contains several files which are needed for optimal performance. Their names and functions are listed below. MORT.EXE This is the main executable program. MORT.OVR This is an overlay file required by the main executable program. MORT.CFG This contains program configuration information such as screen color, printer selections and saved header lines. This file is automatically created if not found. MORT.PTR This contains printer definitions for a variety of printers. MORT.DOC This is the User Manual for The Mortgage Analyzer. MORT.BAT This is a start up batch file for hard disks. INSTALL.EXE This copies the program to a hard disk. MORT.DAT This contains all saved client information. Page 3 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Program Support Once registered, you will receive notification of major updates and new products. Registration includes a 90 day support policy where free updates will be provided for major problems. If a problem cannot be resolved, then a refund of money will be made. Insight Software Solutions offers support through the mail, phone, fax, BBS and CIS. Please refer to the address and phone numbers on the previous page. Our official support BBS is the Rocky Mountain Software BBS (RMS). RMS can be reached 24 hours a day at (801) 963-8721 where a conference dedicated to us can be found. Our latest software products and versions, bulletins, news and message system are located on RMS under conference #4. RMS accepts modem baud rates of 1200 to 57600. Insight Software Solutions is a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principal works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442 or send a CompuServe message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007.3536. Page 4 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Getting Started With the Mortgage Analyzer System Requirements The Mortgage Analyzer is almost hardware independent. It will run on most PC systems. The minimum requirements are as follows: IBM type PC, XT, AT or PS/2 (or compatible) Hard Disk 512K Ram Dos 2.0 or higher any monochrome, color, or composite monitor virtually any printer that supports condensed printing Installation The Mortgage Analyzer may be run from either a floppy or hard disk. An installation program called INSTALL.EXE is provided to assist you in the installation of the program on a hard drive. From the A> prompt, simply type in "INSTALL". This will prompt you through the installation process. This installs The Mortgage Analyzer into a directory called "MORT" on the destination drive you specify. Alternatively, you may simply copy the contents of the floppy diskette onto the hard disk. We recommend that it be placed into its own subdirectory. Running The Mortgage Analyzer Your may run The Mortgage Analyzer from a floppy or hard drive. From your floppy, simply type MORT. From a hard drive, you may use one of two methods. The first method is to make sure you are in the root directory of your C: drive which should show the C> prompt. From here, simply type MORT and the program should run. Alternatively, you may use the following steps. First, change to the drive that the program was installed on. If you installed it onto Drive D, then you would type D: and press the enter key. Next, you would type CD \MORT which changes the directory to the one where The Mortgage Analyzer is located. Last of all, you would type MORT which will run the program. If you are running on a network which does not provide access to Drive C, then you will need to use the second method to run The Mortgage Analyzer. Page 5 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Screen Layout In The Mortgage Analyzer Common Screen Lines There are several common screen lines found in The Mortgage Analyzer. This includes the first, second, twenty-third, twenty- fourth, and twenty-fifth lines. The first line contains the current date and time as specified by DOS; it also contains the product name and version number. The second line is part of the box surrounding the user work area; it generally contains a centered title describing the function of the current screen. The twenty-third line is the status line--it shows the status of the Help, Caps, Scroll Lock, Num Lock, and Insert keys. The twenty- fourth line is the prompt line. It indicates what you are supposed to do for a given input field. The twenty-fifth line is the Function Keys Status line. It shows what Function Keys (F1, F2, ...) are available for use and what their particular functions are. Menu Screens Menu Screens appear as a list of numbered items. A movable highlight bar indicates the current menu selection. Data Input Screens Data Input Screens contain fields or areas which can be changed. These fields are generally preceded by a label indicating what type of value is needed for the field. Data View Screens Data View Screens contain scrollable text for your viewing. Where applicable, the text can be scrolled up and down and left and right. Indications of the current location in the text are given on the left side of the status line. Page 6 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Moving Around In The Mortgage Analyzer Menu System Menus appear as a list of numbered options. To select the option desired, press the associated number. An alternate method of selection is to use the arrow keys along with the key. One option is always highlighted and indicates the current option. To change the current option, press the UP and DOWN arrow keys to move the highlight bar. Once the desired option is highlighted, press the key to make the selection. Moving Field to Field Moving from one field to another field can be accomplished by many different keystrokes. Listed below is a summary of the keystrokes available and the functions they perform. ENTER KEY: Moves the cursor to the next logical field. RIGHT ARROW KEY: If the cursor is on the last editing character of the field, this key moves the cursor to the right of the current field. LEFT ARROW KEY: If the cursor is on the first character of the field, this key moves the cursor to the field to the left of the current field. DOWN ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor to the field below the current field. UP ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor to the field above the current field. PAGE DOWN KEY: Moves the cursor to the last field on the screen. PAGE UP KEY: Moves the cursor to the first field on the screen. TAB KEY: Moves the cursor to the next logical field. TAB LEFT KEY: Moves the cursor to the previous logical field. RIGHT ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor to the field to the right of the current field. LEFT ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor to the field to the left of the current field. Page 7 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Editing Within a Field Editing within a field can be accomplished with many different keystrokes. Listed below is a summary of the keystrokes available and the functions they perform. RIGHT ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor one character to the right. LEFT ARROW KEY: Moves the cursor one character to the left. HOME KEY: Moves the cursor to the beginning of the field. END KEY: Moves the cursor to the last character in the field. BACKSPACE KEY: Moves the cursor to the left one character and erases that character and shifts all trailing characters to the left one space. INSERT KEY: Toggles between insert mode and typeover mode. DELETE KEY: Erases the character under the cursor and shifts all trailing characters to the left one space. ALPHA/NUMERIC KEY: Outputs the character where the cursor is and moves the cursor over to the right, one space. If insert mode is on, then all trailing characters are moved to the right, one space. Special Fixed Fields There are certain fields which have fixed values. When the cursor is moved to these fields, a window of choices appears. Each choice has either an associated number or letter next to it. Pressing the associated number or letter automatically makes the desired selection and moves the choice into the input field. Special Function Keys There are a number of special function keys which perform a variety of tasks. These keys are as follows. KEY: This key always takes you back one level from where ever you are. For example: if you enter a screen from a menu, then the key will take you back to that menu. KEY: This key is the help key. It toggles off and on whether help messages should be shown with each input. Page 8 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER .. KEYS: These other function keys may or may not be active and have different functions in different parts of the program. Brief explanations of what these keys do are displayed on the screen in the Function Key line. Detailed information is given under the documentation of each particular screen as to which Function Keys are active and what their function is. Page 9 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Loan Qualification Loan qualification allows you to determine if a person can qualify for a given house. In addition, you may determine the maximum amount that a person may qualify for. Qualification Inputs REPORT TITLE: This field is a title line printed on the top of the report. This uses a line on the report only if something is entered; therefore, you can fit more of the report on a page if the title is left blank. PROVIDED FOR: This field is for personalizing the report. This uses a line on the report only if something is entered; therefore, you can fit more of the report on a page if this is left blank. Please note that if you are saving and restoring client information, that the filer system distinguishes information by this name; therefore, you should specify a name when saving clients. PROVIDED BY: This is for personalizing the report. This uses a line on the report only if something is entered; therefore, you can fit more of the report on a page if this is left blank. QUAL OPTION: You are allowed two qualification options. QUALIFY PURCHASE allows you to enter the information on the home you wish to purchase and determines if you can qualify for the appropriate loan. MAXIMUM QUALIFICATION determines how much of a house you can afford. COUNTRY: You may select the country where you are providing the mortgage. Fields and reports will have slight variations depending on the country. Currently, the United States and Canada are supported. MORTGAGE TYPE: This is the type of loan you want to qualify for. This can be a Conventional Loan with a fixed interest rate, a Conventional ARM Loan with an adjustable interest rate, an FHA Loan (Federal Housing Administration) or a VA Loan (Veterans Administration). It is more difficult to qualify for a conventional loan. Lenders usually prefer ARMs making it easier to qualify for them. FHA and VA loans have less stringent qualification ratios. For Canadian mortgages, a C.M.H.C. (Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation) option is given. CMHC INS PERCENT: This only appears for the country of Canada. This is the percentage of the loan that is required by the Page 10 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER C.M.H.C. for insurance purposes. PURCHASE PRICE: The price of the home you want to buy. If you are refinancing, then enter the approximate value. DESIRED MORTGAGE: The amount you want to finance--it is the purchase price minus any down payment. YEARS IN MORTGAGE: The number of years in the mortgage (typically 15 or 30 years). INTEREST RATE: The interest rate on the mortgage. If you plan on using an ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgage) or a Stepped Rate Mortgage or Buydowns, then enter the initial interest rate. PROPERTY TAXES: Your estimated annual real estate taxes. Be sure to enter the annual amount--the computer will automatically figure out the monthly amount. HOME INSURANCE: This only appears for the country of United States. Your estimated annual homeowners insurance amount. Be sure to enter the annual amount--the computer will automatically figure out the monthly amount. HEAT ALLOWANCE: This only appears for the country of Canada. This is your estimated monthly heat allowance. MORTGAGE INSURANCE: This is your estimated Mortgage Insurance. You may press the F2 Estimate Mortgage Ins Key to have it estimated for you. Typically, the Mortgage Insurance is based on your Loan-to-Value Ratio. The Loan-to-Value Ratio is the amount of the loan divided by the value of the house. For example: Mortgage = 90,000 and Purchase Price = 100,000 then Loan-to-Value = 90% or 90,000 / 100,000. Typically, if the Loan-to-Value ratio is 80% or less, then no Mortgage Insurance is needed. At 90%, the Mortgage Insurance is usually around 0.30% of the loan amount. Above 90%, it is usually around 0.44%. ASSOCIATION DUES: This is any condominium or homeowner association dues you may have. This amount only applies to condominiums or homes which have shared common areas. 2ND MORTGAGE PMT: This is the MONTHLY payment on a 2nd mortgage. If there is not a 2nd mortgage, then enter zero. GROSS MONTHLY INCOME: This is the total of all your income. This amount should include salaries, bonuses, commissions, interest, dividends, etc. This is your monthly income. If you know your Page 11 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER gross annual income, then divide it by twelve. Last year's income tax return may be helpful. SPOUSE'S PERCENT: If the gross monthly income includes any of the earnings from the spouse, then enter the percentage of the spouse's income that is included. For example, if the gross monthly income is $4000 and the spouse's portion is $1000, but the spouse earns $2000, then the percentage would be 50% (1000/2000). CAR PAYMENTS: This is your monthly car payment if you have one. If you have less than ten car payments left, then this is usually not required. ALIMONY/CHILD SUPPORT: This is any alimony or child support payments you make each month. CREDIT CARD PAYMENTS: This amount is the total of all the minimum payments for your credit card accounts. OTHER LOAN PAYMENTS: This is the total monthly payment of all other loans you may have. This may include other mortgages, student loans, personal loans, etc. Function Keys F4 KEY (VIEW/PRINT): This function produces a Qualification Analysis Report and displays it in a window on the screen. Once in the window, the report can be scrolled within the window vertically and horizontally by use of the arrow, PgUp, PgDn, Home and End keys; it can also be sent to the printer by use of the F2 Key (Print). The viewed report is identical to what the printed report will look like with the exception that the printed report may use condensed and bold print. F9 KEY (QUICK CALC): This simply pops up the quick calculator. See the documentation about the quick calculator for usage. Page 12 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Mortgage Schedules and Summaries Mortgage Inputs TITLE: See "title" under Qualification Inputs. PRODUCED FOR: See "produced for" name under Qualification Inputs. PRODUCED BY: See "produced by" under Qualification Inputs. SPECIAL OPTIONS: This feature consists of twelve choices which are as follows: None, Recurring Extra Payment, Variable Extra Payment, Double Principal Payment, Variable Payment, 13 Monthly Payments Per Year, 26 Half Month Payments Per Year, 52 Quarter Month Payments Per Year, Growing Equity Payments, Solve For Extra Payment, Balloon Payment and Comparison of 2 Mortgages. None is for producing a basic amortization schedule. Recurring Extra Payment option adds the ability to specify a constant extra amount payable towards the principal each month. Variable Extra Payment option adds the ability to specify a different amount each month of extra money to be paid towards principal. Double Principal Payment option displays what doubling the principal payment each month does to the loan (it cuts the loan period almost in half). Variable Payment option adds the flexibility to specify whatever payments you would like for every month of the mortgage. 13 Monthly Payments Per Year option allows you to specify a month where two normal payments will be made (typically reduces a 30 year mortgage to 21 years). 26 Half Month Payments Per Year option allows you to specify two months where three half payments will be made (typically reduces a 30 year mortgage to 21 years). 52 Quarter Payments Per Year option allows you to specify four months where five quarter payments will be made (typically reduces a 30 year mortgage to 21 years) Growing Equity Payments Option allows you to specify a percentage that the mortgage payment is to go up each year. The extra money goes towards the principal and accelerates the loan. Solve For Extra Payment option allows you to specify the month of payoff desired and the monthly extra payment required to make this happen is automatically calculated. Balloon Payment option adds the ability to show the loan for a short period of time and then what one final payment would be to pay off the loan. Comparison of 2 Mortgages option allows two complete and separate Page 13 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER mortgages to be compared side by side. Typically, this would be used to compare two similar loans to see how a slight change impacts the loan. COMPARISON: A comparison will produce a pair of schedules side by side. The first schedule will be the standard mortgage schedule. The second schedule will illustrate the results of the special option. For example: if using the Recurring Extra Payment option, the second schedule would illustrate the effect of paying a constant extra payment towards the loan. LOAN TYPE: The type of loan you want. There are 3 main types supported. These are Conventional (Conv), Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Veterans Administration (VA). Some of the differences are as follows: Qualification: It is usually easier to qualify for FHA and VA loans than it is for Conventional Loans. Financing: FHA and VA have restrictions on the maximum amount that can be financed. These change periodically and from region to region. Conventional Loans usually require a larger down payment. Mortgage Default Insurance: FHA MIP required on all loans. VA Funding Fee required on all loans, however, a larger down payment can reduce this fee. Conventional Loans will usually drop this charge if the down payment is 20% or more otherwise insurance is usually required. PURCHASE PRICE: The price of the home you want to buy. DOWN PAYMENT: The down payment you plan to make on the loan. This does not include any points, closing costs, etc. MONTHS IN MORTGAGE: The number of months that payments will be made. This is typically 360 (30 years) or 180 (15 years). INTEREST TYPE: This provides for four common mortgage interest rate methods. They are FIXED, STEPPED, ADJUSTABLE and RESET. A fixed rate uses the same interest rate throughout the entire length of the mortgage. A stepped rate mortgage typically starts the interest rate out below the prevailing rates and over a period of a few years, rises each year until it peaks and levels off. An adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) allows the interest rate to be adjusted each and every month. The rate typically is adjusted once every six months or year as specified by the margin. The adjustment is made depending on the prevailing mortgage rates at the given time. A reset rate allows two different interest rates on the mortgage; the first is a lower rate and lasts for usually 5 or 7 years, then the second rate Page 14 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER takes over and remains until the completion of the loan. INTEREST RATE: This is the interest of the loan. For STEPPED, ADJUSTABLE and RESET types of rates, you may press the F2 INTEREST key to enter additional rates. For an ADJUSTABLE rate loan, you may also press the F3 key to adjust Caps and Margins. CLOSING DATE: This is the date that you close on the house. Closing is the process of "signing the papers". Daily interest is calculated and applied to the closing costs based on the difference in days between the closing date and the origination date of the loan. The closing date is the date that the papers are signed and the origination date is the date that the loan actually starts. FIRST PAYMENT DATE: This is the date that the first payment is due. It is the date upon which the loan schedule is created. All payments are based upon this date--it should not be less than a month after the closing date or more than 2 months after the closing date. ORIGINATION POINTS: This is the fee that the lender charges for processing your loan. 1 POINT is equal to 1 percent of your loan. For example: 2 points on a $100,000 loan would be $2,000. DISCOUNT POINTS: To receive a lower interest rate on your mortgage, you can pay discount points to the lender. It is the concept of buying down your interest rate. You pay more money up front so you pay less all the way along. If you do not plan to stay in your house for a long period of time, then it is generally not wise to buy down your interest rate very far. 1 POINT is equal to 1 percent of your loan. For example: 2 points on a $100,000 loan would be $2,000. PROPERTY TAX: This is your annual real estate tax assessment. Assessments are usually between 0.75% to 2.0% of a home's value. HOMEOWNERS INS: This is your yearly homeowners insurance premium. OTHER CLOSING COSTS: This is the amount of money to be paid to close on your house. This amount should include such items as: Appraisal, Credit Report, Inspection Fee, Documentation Fee, Attorney's Fees, Title Insurance, Transfer Tax, Recording Tax, Survey and Termite Inspection. DO NOT include the following: Loan Origination Fee, Discount Points, Odd Days' Interest, Mortgage Insurance, Homeowner's Insurance and Real Estate Taxes. These are all accounted for elsewhere. Page 15 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER MRTGE DEFAULT INS: This is the Mortgage Default Insurance. It insures the lender against default and foreclosure. You may specify the type you want to apply to the loan. The plan names listed would normally apply to following types of loans: MI 30 Yr Fix = Conventional 30 Year Fixed Rate MI 15 Yr Fix = Conventional 15 Year Fixed Rate MI 30 Yr Adj = Conventional 30 Year Adjustable Rate (ARM) MI 15 Yr Adj = Conventional 15 Year Adjustable Rate (ARM) FHA MIP = FHA Loan VA Funding = VA Loan A "User Defined" option is available where you can define your own plan for the specific mortgage you are working on. PLEASE NOTE that the rates used for conventional are typical, but will vary from lender to lender. The FHA and VA charges and fees do change periodically (usually every couple of years) and will not remain current without periodic upgrades to the program. EXTRA PAYMENT: This field appears only with the special option of Recurring Extra Payment or Variable Extra Payment. This is an additional amount of money which is to be applied to the principal of the loan each month--it accelerates the mortgage and pays it off early. For Variable Extra Payments, the F9 PAYMENTS Key is available to add different payments. VARIABLE AMOUNT: This field appears only with the special option of Variable Payment. The monthly payment is normally determined by amortizing the original principal at the given interest rate for a given duration. The Variable Payment field, however, lets you override the monthly payment amount. You can specify whatever amount you want to pay towards the loan. This option allows total flexibility in the amounts you wish to pay towards your loan. A notation to the right of the periodic payment will indicate either flat payments or variable payments. "Flat Payments" means that the monthly payment shown is for every single month during the term of the mortgage. "Variable Payments" means that it has been specified at some point to use a different monthly payment. Variable payments are made possible through the F9 PAYMENTS function key. MNTH UNTIL BALLOON: This field appears only with the special option of Balloon Payment. It allows the number of months to be specified before the balloon payment is to be made. EXTRA PAYMENT MNTH: This field appears only with the special option of 13 Payments per year. When this option is selected, there are 13 payments made a year. One month of the year will have an extra payment made. This field is to specify the month that will have the extra payment. Page 16 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER 3 PAYMENT MONTH: This field appears only with the special option of 26 Bi-Weekly Payments. When this option is selected, there are 26 half-payments made a year. Two months of the year will have 3 payments made and the rest will have 2 payments made. This field is to specify one of the months that will have an extra payment (3 payments). The other month to have 3 payments is computed automatically at 6 months from the month chosen here. 5 PAYMENT MONTH: This field appears only with the special option of 52 Weekly Payments. When this option is selected, there are 52 quarter-month payments made in a year. Four months of the year will have 5 payments made and the rest will have 4 payments made. This field is to specify one of the months that will have an extra payment (5 payments). The other months to have 5 payments are computed automatically at 3 month intervals from the month chosen here. PAYMT GROWTH RATE: This field appears only with the special option of Growing Equity Payments. The Payment Growth Rate is the percentage at which to increase the monthly payment each year. By increasing the payments each year, your payment can go up with increases in salary, etc; the extra money goes towards principal and pays off the loan early. A 4% yearly increase will pay a typical 30 year loan off in 15 years. MONTH OF PAYOFF: This field appears only with the special option of Solve For Extra Payment. This is the month when you would like to have your mortgage paid off. By entering the month, the recurring extra amount required to pay off the mortgage early will be displayed. Please note that this extra payment is based on a fixed interest rate. If you are using variable rates, then this extra payment may not pay off the loan as specified. STARTING MONTH: This field appears only with the following special options: 13 Payments Per Year, 26 Bi-Weekly Payments, 52 Weekly Payments, Growing Equity Payments and Double Principal Payments. This is the month that you want the acceleration method to start. This is useful if you know when you will be able to start making extra payments or if you have an existing mortgage where you want to start paying extra on the mortgage. ENDING MONTH: This field appears only with the following special options: 13 Payments Per Year, 26 Bi-Weekly Payments, 52 Weekly Payments, Growing Equity Payments and Double Principal Payments. This is the month that you want the acceleration method to stop. This is useful if you want to apply extra payment to your mortgage for a limited time only. Page 17 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER EXTRA PAYMENT: This field appears only with the following special options: 13 Payments Per Year, 26 Bi-Weekly Payments, 52 Weekly Payments, Growing Equity Payments and Double Principal Payments. This allows you to make an additional payment on the mortgage above and beyond the selected acceleration method. For example, it is now possible to make double principal payments each month AND make an additional $100.00 extra payment each month. Function Keys F2 KEY (INTEREST): This function key is available only if the Interest Type selected is Stepped, Adjustable or Reset. For the Stepped Rate, this pops up another screen which allows you to enter an interest rate for each year in the mortgage. For the Adjustable Rate, this pops up another screen which allows up to 120 interest rate inputs. Each interest rate is numbered. By this method, you may enter different interest rates for each month of the mortgage. The new F2 key (DUP) will duplicate the previous value and advance the cursor--this allows easy duplication of interest rates without having to rekey them. Please see the section on ARMs for more capabilities. For the Reset Rate, this pops up another screen which allows you to enter two interest rates and the year when the second rate takes over. F3 KEY (CAPS): This function is only available if the Interest Type selected is Adjustable. This brings up a new screen which allows you to enter the Caps and Margins associated with the adjustable rate. If you are using a predefined mortgage plan, then pressing the F3 Key will show what the current Caps and Margins are for the given plan. You will not be allowed to override the plan values. Please see the section on ARMs for more detail. F4 KEY (VIEW/PRINT): This brings up the Print Schedule/Summary Screen. This screen allows for several options on how your schedule is to appear. Please refer to the section on this screen for more information. F5 KEY (SUMMARY): This function calculates the mortgage and produces a summary page of all mortgage information selected. F6 KEY (HOA): This brings up a new screen which allows you to specify any Homeowner Association Fees that may apply to the mortgage. F9 KEY (PAYMENTS): This function key is available only if the special option of Variable Extra Payment or Variable Payments has been selected. This pops up another screen which allows up to 100 Page 18 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER payment inputs. Each payment is numbered. New function keys appear, indicating how to change payments above 100. There will be enough inputs and function keys to cover the duration specified for the mortgage. By this method, you may enter in different payments for the entire span of the mortgage. The new F2 key (DUP) will duplicate the previous value and advance the cursor--this allows easy duplication of payments without having to rekey them. Page 19 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Print Schedule/Summary Print Schedule/Summary Inputs The Print Schedule/Summary screen allows for a variety of options which affect the way the schedule and summary are to be printed. The fields are listed below with their respective functions. PRINT DESTINATION: Allows you to specify where the schedule is to be sent--it can be sent to the screen, printer or to a file. The schedule appears on the screen as it will appear when it is printed. When viewing the schedule on the screen, function keys are available to send the schedule directly to the printer without having to come back and change the print destination to the printer. SCHEDULE DETAIL: Specifies the schedule detail--it allows you to show each and every month or to view yearly results. YEARLY BASIS: Allows you to select how the cumulative totals of the schedule are to be displayed. They can be displayed on either a calendar or fiscal year basis. A fiscal year basis displays the totals at exact yearly intervals. For example, a loan paid monthly which starts in March would show totals each March. If a calendar basis is chosen, totals would be shown at the end of each calendar year. For example, a loan which starts in April would show totals each December or end of the year. CUMULATIVE VALUES: Allows you to show each line of values as cumulative totals from all previous years or months in the schedule. CUMULATIVE TOTALS: Only applies if you are using a monthly schedule and you are not using cumulative values. Selecting "Yes" here will show the totals after each year as a cumulative total. Selecting "No" will show the totals for each individual year. DOLLAR VALUES: Specifies the use of dollar values in the schedule. If "no" is selected, cents appear in the figures. You would normally use dollar values if you prefer working with whole numbers or if you are working with a very large mortgage where the numbers start to merge when showing the cents. DATE FORMAT: Specifies the format in which the dates will appear in a report. For example, a date of October 23, 1992 would appear as follows: MM/DD/YY = 10/23/92 DD/MM/YYYY = 23/10/1992 MM-DD-YY = 10-23-92 DD-MM-YYYY = 23-10-1992 Page 20 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER MM.DD.YY = 10.23.92 DD.MM.YYYY = 23.10.1992 MM/DD/YYYY = 10/23/1992 YY-MM-DD = 92-10-23 MM-DD-YYYY = 10-23-1992 YY.MM.DD = 92.10.23 MM.DD.YYYY = 10.23.1992 YYYY-MM-DD = 1992-10-23 DD/MM/YY = 23/10/92 YYYY.MM.DD = 1992.10.23 DD-MM-YY = 23-10-92 MMM YYYY = Oct 1992 DD.MM.YY = 23.10.92 DD MMM YY = 23 Oct 92 SEQUENCE COLUMN: Allows you to specify the left column of the schedule. The options produce the following columns: "Date Only" "Payment Number Only" "Date & Payment Number" PMT PMT DATE NUM NUM DATE -------- --- --- -------- 10/25/94 1 1 10/25/94 11/25/94 2 2 11/25/94 PAGES TO PRINT: Allows you to specify what part of the report you would like to view or print. You may choose either the schedule, summary or both. The summary can be viewed directly form the main Mortgage Input screen by use of the F5 KEY. TAX ANALYSIS: Allows you to have a tax savings analysis done on your mortgage. This is based on using Itemized Deductions in the current U.S. tax code. Additional columns appear on the schedule indicating the potential tax savings. If a special option comparison is selected, then the tax savings will be based on the special option side of the comparison. Due to column limitations, the tax analysis is unavailable for the special option of Mortgage Comparison. TAX BRACKET: Only appears if Tax Analysis has been selected. This is the tax bracket of the person who is obtaining the mortgage. This will illustrate the portion of the payments that can be returned or saved through declaring the mortgage as a deduction on the individual's taxes. POINTS TAX DEDUCT: Determines when and if any tax deduction is allowed on the points paid. The points are typically fully deductible the first year on a first home. The points are typically deductible over the life of the loan on a second home. It is unusual for points not to be deductible. Print Schedule/Summary Function Keys F4 KEY (START PRINT): This function starts the actual printing of the schedule or summary. Based on the print destination, it either sends the schedule to the screen, printer or an ascii Page 21 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER file. Page 22 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Default Mortgage Insurance Mortgage Default Insurance insures the lender against default and foreclosure. This is typically charged on FHA loans as a front end premium. Most conventional loans require this insurance if the loan-to-value ratio is greater than 80%. Annual renewal insurance is a premium which is added each year based on a percentage of the outstanding loan; this is typically between 0.4% and 0.8%. Many times this premium will be dropped once the loan value ratio drops to around 70 to 80 percent. Default Mortgage Insurance Inputs INSURANCE TYPE: Allows you to specify the method that the mortgage insurance is to be applied. Annual Renewal Declining insurance is a premium which is added each year based on a percentage of the outstanding loan. This is typically between 0.4% and 0.8%. Annual Renewal Level uses the initial loan balance each year for calculating the insurance premium. Many times this premium will be dropped once the loan value ratio drops to around 70 to 80 percent. A Front End premium is a charge that is made once when the loan is taken out. USE % OF LOAN: Only appears with the Front End Premium option. Depending on your choice here, you may have the mortgage insurance calculated as a percentage of the loan or you may enter the actual premium. MORT INS PREMIUM: Only appears with the Front End Premium option and if the Use % of Loan field is "N". This is the premium to be charged for the mortgage default insurance. PERCENT OF LOAN: Only appears with the Front End Premium option and if the Use % of Loan field is "Y". This is the percentage of the loan that will be taken to compute the mortgage default insurance. ADD TO LOAN: Only appears with the Front End Premium option. Some mortgages add this premium directly to the loan balance while others charge this as a closing cost item. FHA mortgages usually have this charge added into the loan amount while conventional loans typically do not. FIRST YEAR CHARGE: Only appears with the Annual Renewal Declining and the Annual Renewal Level options. This is the first year premium based on a percentage of the initial loan. This is usually between 0.3% and 1.0%. A higher loan-to-value ratio usually has a lower percentage. 15 year loans usually have lower Page 23 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER percentages while adjustable rate loans usually have slightly higher percentages. MONTHLY CHARGE: Only appears with the Annual Renewal Declining and the Annual Renewal Level options. This is the monthly premium based on a percentage of the remaining balance of the loan. This is usually between 0.25% and 0.5%. A higher loan-to-value ratio usually has a lower percentage. 15 year loans usually have lower percentages while adjustable rate loans usually have slightly higher percentages. STOP AFTER XX LOAN-TO-VALUE RATIO: Only appears with the Annual Renewal Declining and the Annual Renewal Level options. This is the loan to value ratio when the mortgage default insurance is to drop off. This is usually around 70% to 80%. Specifying 0% means that the insurance will never drop off. Page 24 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Adjustable Rate Caps and Margins Adjustable Rate Mortgages usually have predefined limitations regarding the way the interest rate can vary. The rate can usually change once at the end of a given period (margin) and can only change a certain amount (cap). The Mortgage Analyzer provides the ability to define the Margins and Caps and also gives the flexibility to play the "what if" game using the defined Margins and Caps. Defining Caps and Margins The Caps and Margins can be defined inside a mortgage plan in the configuration section. See the configuration section for more details. You may also define them at the time you are entering mortgage information in the Schedule/Summary section. If the interest type is selected as Adjustable, then the F3 KEY (CAPS) appears. Pressing the F3 Key will bring up a new entry screen with the following inputs: INITIAL PERIOD: The number of months that the initial interest rate in the ARM is guaranteed. ADJUSTMENT PERIOD: After the initial period of the guaranteed interest rate has expired, this is the number of months that the next change in interest rates is guaranteed. This is sometimes known as the Adjustment Period. ADJUSTMENT CAP: The Adjustment Cap for the ARM. It is the maximum amount that the interest rate can fluctuate after the initial or an adjustment period has expired. LIFE CAP: The Life Cap for the ARM. It is the maximum amount that the interest rate can fluctuate over the life of the loan. Automatic Rate Adjustment When working with adjustable rate loans, the Schedule/Summary input screen will show the F2 KEY (INTEREST). Pressing the F2 Key will bring up the interest entry screen. Here you may change the rate for any month of the loan. However, a new F9 KEY (CAPS ADJUST) appears. Selecting the F9 Key will allow you to project interest rate changes based on the Caps and Margins of the loan. The pop up box displays the current Caps and Margins and has the following fields. OPT: Displays the options available for automatic adjustment of interest rates. Option 1 is for setting up the worst case Page 25 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER scenario for the ARM. Option 2 also assumes a continual rise in rates, but only half as fast as option 1. Option 3 allows you to specify any desired rate increase while option 4 will reset all the rates back to the default. XXX: Only appears with the Adjust rate every XXX months by YYY until ZZZ option. This specifies the number of months that will be used for each incremental rate increase.'; YYY: Only appears with the Adjust rate every XXX months by YYY until ZZZ option. This is the amount to increase the interest rate for each adjustment period.'; ZZZ: Only appears with the Adjust rate every XXX months by YYY until ZZZ option. This is the maximum rate increase amount. If the current interest rate is 8% and you specify the maximum rate increase (ZZZ) to be 6%, then the rates will continue to increase until they reach 14% (8+6). Page 26 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Buy, Rent, Lease, Sell This section allows you to compare the financial advantages/disadvantages of whether you should buy a home or rent. It also allows you to compare the financial advantages/disadvantages of whether you should sell your home or lease (rent) it out. Common Inputs TITLE: See "title" under Qualification Inputs. PRODUCED FOR: See "produced for" name under Qualification Inputs. PRODUCED BY: See "produced by" under Qualification Inputs. OPTION: Allows you to select one of the comparison options. Options available are BUY VS RENT or SELL VS LEASE. Home Purchase Information (Buy/Rent) PURCHASE PRICE: The expected purchase price of the home. DOWN PAYMENT: The down payment on the home. For a conventional loan, this is usually between 10 and 20 percent of the purchase price. FHA loans use a formula which increases with the amount of the loan. This is typically between 3 and 5 percent of the purchase price. VA loans usually do not require a down payment. INTEREST RATE: The expected interest rate on the mortgage. YEARS IN LOAN: The number of years in your loan. This is typically 15 or 30 years. MONTHLY HOA FEE: The MONTHLY fee for a Home Owner Association. Home Owner Associations are for groups of houses or Condos where there are common areas (Club House, tennis court, park, etc) that are maintained by the association. ESTIMATED CLOSING COSTS: The estimated closing costs that you expect to pay on the home. If you are unsure what to enter, then you may want to estimate it at 2 or 3 percent of the purchase price. ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX: The estimated property taxes that will be due each year on the home. Page 27 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER ANNUAL HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE: The ANNUAL cost of your homeowners insurance. This is often referred to as hazard insurance. ANNUAL MAINTENANCE COSTS: The expected cost to maintain your home each year. This would include any repairs and maintenance that you would not normally pay for if you were renting. ANNUAL PRICE APPRECIATION: The expected rate at which the value of the purchased property is expected to rise. This same rate will be applied to the property taxes, homeowner insurance and maintenance costs. MORTGAGE INSURANCE FACTOR: The default mortgage insurance on the home. This is represented as an annual percentage of the purchase. On a conventional loan, if the down payment is greater than 20%, then the insurance is usually not required, otherwise the insurance is typically between 0.30 and 0.50 percent. For an FHA loan, this is usually 0.50 and is usually not required for a VA loan. Rent Information (Buy/Rent) RENT PER MONTH: The expected rent that you would pay on the rental unit. ANNUAL RENT INCREASE: The expected annual rate of increase on rent. Other Factors (Buy/Rent) INCOME TAX BRACKET: Your estimated tax bracket. This is used to determine the portion of your mortgage payment that may be deducted from your income taxes. Please note that mortgage interest and property taxes are usually deductible as itemized deductions in the current U.S. tax code. If you do not have enough itemized deductions to offset the "standard deduction", then your mortgage will not help with your taxes and you should list your tax bracket as zero. ALTERNATE INVESTMENT: The estimated rate of return you can expect to get if you were to place your money in a savings vehicle such as a savings account, mutual fund, money market account, stocks, etc. The difference in mortgage payments and rent will be factored into the equation using this rate. INFLATION RATE: The estimated annual inflation rate that will be experienced over the life of the mortgage. Page 28 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Home Sale Information (Sell/Lease) SALE PRICE: The expected sale price of the home. LOAN BALANCE: Your current loan balance on the mortgage. It is the amount you still owe. INTEREST RATE: Your interest rate on the mortgage. YEARS REMAINING: The number of years that are left in your loan. MONTHLY HOA FEE: The MONTHLY fee for a Home Owner Association. Home Owner Associations are for groups of houses or Condos where there are common areas (Club House, tennis court, park, etc) that are maintained by the association. ESTIMATED CLOSING COSTS: The estimated closing costs that you expect to pay on the sale of the home. Most closing costs go to the buyer, but you will probably be required to pay some also. If you are unsure, you may want to estimate it at 1 or 2 percent of the sale price. ANNUAL PROPERTY TAX: The estimated property taxes that will be due each year on the home. ANNUAL HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE: The ANNUAL cost of your homeowners insurance. This is often referred to as hazard insurance. ANNUAL MAINTENANCE COSTS: The expected cost to maintain your home each year. This would include any repairs and maintenance that you would not normally pay for if you were renting. ANNUAL PRICE APPRECIATION: The expected rate at which the value of your home is expected to rise. This same rate will be applied to the property taxes, homeowner insurance and maintenance costs. Rent Information (Sell/Lease) RENT PER MONTH: The rent that you will charge on the house. ANNUAL RENT INCREASE: The expected annual rate of increase on rent. Other Factors (Sell/Lease) INCOME TAX BRACKET: Your estimated tax bracket. This is used to determine the portion of your mortgage payment that may be deducted from your income taxes. Please note that mortgage Page 29 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER interest and property taxes are usually deductible as itemized deductions in the current U.S. tax code. If you do not have enough itemized deductions to offset the "standard deduction", then your mortgage will not help with your taxes and you should list your tax bracket as zero. ALTERNATE INVESTMENT: The estimated rate of return you can expect to get if you were to place your money in a savings vehicle such as a savings account, mutual fund, money market account, stocks, etc. Function Keys F4 KEY (VIEW/PRINT): This brings up the Buy/Rent/Sell/Lease Print Input Screen. This screen allows for several options on how the report is to appear. Listed below are the fields. PRINT DESTINATION: Allows you to specify where the report is to be sent--it can be sent to the screen, printer or to a file. CUMULATIVE VALUES: Allows you to show each line of values as cumulative totals from all previous years in the report. DOLLAR VALUES: Specifies the use of dollar values in the reports. If "no" is selected, cents appear in the figures. PAGES TO PRINT: Allows you to specify what you would like to print. You may print the report, explanation or both. The explanation is simply a text file that explains how to interpret the report. Page 30 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Quick Calculator The Quick Calculator can be selected as option three from the main menu or by the F9 (QCALC) Key from one of the input screens. This option is used to calculate a variety of mortgage calculations and for simple math functions. The Quick Calculator contains its own menu. You can select a loan value to solve for, a four function calculator or a specific mortgage related calculator. Four Function Calculator The four function calculator simply allows you to type in numbers and add, subtract, multiply, and divide them. The result is displayed and can then be used as one of the next numbers in a calculation. Solve For Missing Loan Value Calculator This feature consists of four "solve for values". By selecting one of these values to solve for, inputs appear which you must enter to solve for the selected value. These values and inputs are listed below. PRINCIPAL: Allows you to solve for the principal amount of a loan when given the monthly payment, duration and interest rate. PAYMENT: Allows you to solve for the monthly payment of a loan when given the principal amount, duration and interest rate. DURATION: Allows you to solve for the duration of a loan when given the principal amount, monthly payment and interest rate. INTEREST RATE: Allows you to solve for the interest rate of a loan when given the principal amount, monthly payment and duration. Points Calculator The points calculator simply calculates the amount of money that the points will cost based on the loan amount. The fields are listed below. Pressing the F2 KEY will calculate the value of the points. PRINCIPAL: The loan amount. POINTS: The number of points that are to be applied to the loan amount. Page 31 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Daily Interest Calculator The daily interest calculator simply calculates the amount of daily interest to be paid on a given loan. The fields are listed below. Pressing the F2 KEY will calculate the amount of daily interest. LOAN AMOUNT: The amount of the loan. INTEREST RATE: The interest rate of the loan. DAYS: The number of days for which to calculate interest on the loan. Loan Refinancing Calculator The loan refinancing calculator estimates the amount of money to be saved in the first year of the refinanced mortgage; it also determines the number of months that it will take before the money saved pays back the cost to refinance the mortgage. The fields are listed below. Pressing the F2 KEY will calculate the described values. INITIAL MORTGAGE: The loan amount of your current mortgage. TERM OF MORTGAGE: The original number of years scheduled to pay off your current mortgage. AGE OF MORTGAGE: The number of months that you have already paid on your current mortgage. OLD INTEREST RATE: The interest rate on your current mortgage. REFINANCE COSTS: The cost to refinance your mortgage. NEW INTEREST RATE: The new interest rate that you will obtain on your refinanced mortgage. FHA Down Payment Calculator The FHA down payment calculator estimates the amount of money you will have to make as a down payment for an FHA loan. You simply enter the loan amount and press the F2 Key (Calculate). The fields are listed below. LOAN AMOUNT: The desired loan amount. Page 32 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER On-line User Manual The Mortgage Analyzer provides the capability to review this manual on-line. The manual review is accessed from option number six from the main menu. Once option six is selected, the user manual is loaded into memory and displayed on the screen; you can scroll through at will by use of the arrow keys and PgUp and PgDn keys. The manual can be printed by your printer by pressing the F2 key. The file "MORT.DOC" contains the user manual--it is in standard ASCII format and can be read in by virtually any editor or word processor. It can be printed by simply using the Dos Print command. (PRINT MORT.DOC) Page 33 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Configuration The configuration section allows you to configure the program to work with the printer of your choice, to work with the colors of your choice, to select default schedule printing options and to set miscellaneous options. Option number six from the main menu brings up this menu. The menu contains four options. The first is to allow you to change the colors used in the program. The second is to select a printer and set up specific printer options. The third is for selecting Schedule Printing Defaults options. The fourth is for setting up miscellaneous functions and data in the program. Color Attribute Selection Selecting the color attribute option brings up a screen with a list of all the different areas where different colors are used and a displayed list of color to choose from. These are listed below with a brief description of what areas are effected by the specified color attribute names. Listed below the attribute names is a list of active Function Keys which can help in setting up your colors. SCREEN ATTRIBUTE: The color that the screen uses everywhere except for the following special areas. This is the most common color. FIELD ATTRIBUTE: The color that input fields appear in while they are not being edited. This distinguishes them from normal text on the screen. EDIT ATTRIBUTE: The color of an input field while it is being edited. This helps identify where you are at on the screen. FKEY ATTRIBUTE: The color that the FKey line appears in at the bottom of the screen. ERROR ATTRIBUTE: The color that error messages pop up in. MENU NORMAL ATTRIBUTE: The color that pop up scrollable selection windows appear in. MENU HIGHLIGHT ATTRIBUTE: The color that the highlighted selection of menus and pop up scrollable selections appear in. STATUS ATTRIBUTE: The color that the screen title appears in. Also the color of the Caps Lock, Num Lock, Insert, Scroll, and Help status. Page 34 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER F2 KEY (SHOW COLOR): Displays the current color specified in the field where the cursor is located. The color is displayed in a window in the bottom right corner. F3 KEY (OTHER COLORS): There are 256 colors available, but only 128 of them are displayed on the screen at one time. The F3 Key toggles between displaying the different sets of 128 colors. F4 KEY (DEFAULT MONO): Automatically sets all the fields to the default colors selected by Insight Software Solutions for a monochrome monitor. F5 KEY (DEFAULT COLOR): Automatically sets all the fields to the default colors selected by Insight Software Solutions for a color monitor. Printer Selection The printer selection brings up a menu which has several options. The options are to Select A Printer, Delete A Printer, Add A Printer, Modify A Printer, and to adjust Miscellaneous Printer Options. Below the menu items is a list of the current printer specifications. Selecting a printer brings up a list of printers. Simply use the arrow keys to highlight your printer type and press the key. If your printer is not listed, you may try several of the printers listed to see if your printer is compatible with one of those listed. If it is not, then you may enter your own printer definition for your exact printer. Deleting a printer definition should not be used very often. Simply use the arrow keys to select the printer definition to be deleted and press the Key. You will be prompted to verify that you really want to delete the printer definition. Adding a printer definition can be difficult if you are not familiar with printer control sequences. Selecting this option brings up a printer input screen; it asks for a printer name along with many different printer control sequences. The printer control sequences need to be entered in hexadecimal notation. If you are unable of performing this task, Insight Software Solutions is willing to set up your printer definition for free if you are a registered user and you send Insight Software Solutions a copy of the control codes out of your printer manual. Modifying a printer definition brings up the same screen as Adding A Printer definition, you may then change any of the Page 35 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER fields desired. If the printer name is changed, the changed definition will not be overwritten but will appear as a new printer definition--this allows you to create a similar printer definition without rekeying all the control sequences back in. Miscellaneous Printer Options allows you to specify several different items. These items are as follows: Use 8 Lines Per Inch allows for more information to be put on a page. The default lines per inch is 6 which allows for 60 lines per page. By selecting 8 lines per inch, you increase your lines per page to 80. Top Margin allows for a top margin on your reports. The reports normally start printing on the first line of the page. PLEASE NOTE that laser printers and some ink jet printers should leave the top margin at zero. Left Margin allows a larger left margin. The reports are centered on the page. However, if a larger left margin is desired (for punched holes, etc) then it can be specified. Pause After Each Page allows you to insert new pieces of paper if your printer does not have continuous form paper. Use IBM Graphics instructs the program to use the IBM graphic characters for producing solid lines and boxes. If your printer does not directly support these characters, then an "N" should be entered here. Printer Port allows your printed output go to either LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3; this is helpful if you have more than one printer connected to your computer. Bypass Printer Check allows you to bypass all printer error checking. There are rare cases where the printer error checking can cause an error message to display even though there really is not an error. Certain hardware like an automatic printer switching box or some software spoolers may cause this. You may turn the error checking off by selecting "Y" here to avoid this rare problem. CAUTION: If your system works with the error checking on, then DO NOT turn it off. If there is a real printer problem, the computer could get hung and require a reboot. Flush Print Jobs instructs the program to open and close the print file for each report sent to the printer. This option is primarily intended for use on networks. Some networks require that the print job be closed before it prints (or it will wait a significant amount of time prior to printing) and yet other networks may throw garbage out to the printer if this option is selected. If you are experiencing printing delays on your network, try turning this option on. Schedule Printing Defaults Page 36 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER The Schedule Printing Defaults section brings up a screen identical to the Print Schedule/Summary screen. In this section, you choose the values you want to use most frequently in the Print Schedule/Summary screen. The values chosen here in the Schedule Printing Defaults will be those which appear automatically in the Print Schedule/Summary screen when the program is initially run. Please refer to the section on Print Schedule/Summary for more specific detail on the fields. Miscellaneous Selection The Miscellaneous Configuration section allows you to adjust the program and the reports and schedules to your preference. There are several inputs which follow. Permanent Schedule Header Lines allows for up to 3 header lines that appear at the top of each schedule page before anything else. Typically these lines would be set to your company name and address, but can be set to anything. They do not need to be retyped each time the program is run--they are saved and retrieved each time it is used. Program File Path Names allows you to specify the location of certain files on your hard drive. The Mortgage Analyzer normally looks for these files in the current directory unless a path is specified here for them. These files include the "Printer Definition" file, the "User Manual" file and the "Saved Client Information" file. Turn Sound Off allows you to turn off most sound affects. Bypass Logo At Start allows the initial program startup screen to be bypassed when the program is run. Erase Numeric Fields will clear a numeric field of its current value when you type a digit as the first thing you do when editing the field. Erase Alpha Fields is identical to the "Erase Numeric Field", but applies to fields that allow normal alphabetic text. Page 37 THE MORTGAGE ANALYZER Filing System The Mortgage Analyzer provides the capability to save and retrieve all information that has been entered in the Mortgage Schedule, Qualification, Buy vs Rent, Sell vs Lease and Closing Estimation Input Screens. To invoke this option, select option 4 from the main menu--this will bring up another menu. The menu allows you to load saved client information or save out the existing client information you are working on. Multiple clients are distinguished by the name specified as the client. When saving client information, if a client by that name already exists, you will be prompted to either not save or to overwrite the existing client information. Retrieving client information is simple. A list of all saved client names will appear. You can scroll through the client names and by pressing the Key, load in the highlighted case. Saved client information can be marked for deletion by pressing the F2 (MARK A CASE) Key. This simply puts a little box to the left of the client name. You can mark as many as desired for deletion. No client information is deleted until the F3 (DELETE MARKED CASES) key is pressed. Pressing the F3 (DELETE MARKED CASES) Key still gives you one more chance to back out before deletion begins. Answers To Common Problems Problem: The reports do not print out correctly on my printer. Solution: Make sure that the correct printer driver has been selected. To select a printer driver, you enter the configuration menu. Select "Printer Selection", then select "Select A New Printer Default". Choose the appropriate printer. If your printer is not listed, then it is more than likely compatible with another printer listed. Almost all printers fall under one of the following printers: Epson, IBM Graphics Printer or HP LaserJet II. Problem: Every time I try to print, the program tells me that my printer is either off-line or out of paper. Solution: The program attempts to make sure the printer is okay. Some networks, spoolers and hardware fool the program into thinking that the printer is not okay. There is an option in the program to bypass this printer error checking. You must turn it on. To turn it on, do the following: Enter the configuration menu, Select "Printer Selection", then select "Alter Line Spacing, Margins & Misc". This brings up an entry screen. Change the "Bypass Printer Check" to a "Y". Page 38