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1991-07-03
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HUD-1 SETTLEMENT STATEMENT TEMPLATE
FOR USE ON LOTUS 1-2-3 V.2.0 +
WITH ALLWAYS AND A LASER PRINTER
Copyright 1991, James W. Giarrusso, Esq
This template is being distributed as SHAREWARE, not FREEWARE.
After you try it out, if you decide you don't like it or can't
use it, erase it and you owe nothing. But, with a little
practice you'll find it an indispensable part of your real estate
closing preparations. If you use and/or keep it, you are
obligated to register (using the form conveniently supplied in
the template and submit a fee of $55.00. If you're still using
the template after 60 days, rest assured that you are obligated
to pay for its support. This contribution will not only be
compensation for all the hours put into this project, but will
also encourage the never ending opportunity to keep improving the
template to serve you better! In return, you will:
1. have license to continue using the template,
2. receive the most current version,
3. receive a streamlined version used just for refinances,
4. be placed on our mailing list for occasional free
newsletters and program updates at a nominal amount, and
5. be able to receive quotes for programming customization for
such things as automatic calculation of title insurance
rates for your usual title insurance company.
If you like the template, you have permission to copy and
distribute the template in its original form to others, provided
the following files accompany the template:
RESPA.WK1 - The Template itself
RESPA.ALL - The Allways Add-In Overlay
UPDATE.DOC - Doc. file detailing improvements
RESPA.DOC - This documentation File
RESPA.ALS - The Page Layout Settings in Allways
CHECKS.PRN - Check file for Quicken Exporting
README - Brief document file with recent comments
The permission to distribute extends to other individuals,
shareware distribution catalogs and bulletin boards, provided the
charge for distribution from these sources is less than $4.01 per
disk.
1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
HIGHLIGHTS....................................... 3
INSTALLATION..................................... 4
Copying Files to Proper Location..... 4
Setting Up For the First Time........ 4
Check Your Allways Hot-Key........... 4
Entering Standard Office Information. 5
USING THE TEMPLATE............................... 6
Enter Closing Date................... 6
Enter Client Information............. 6
Moving Around the Spreadsheet........ 7
Printing............................. 7
The RESPA........................ 7
Checks to Quicken................ 7
Calculation Data................. 8
1099 Request..................... 8
Shareware Registration Form...... 8
Printing Problems................ 8
Saving Your Work..................... 9
Menu v. Macros....................... 9
MANAGING YOUR FILES..............................10
A FEW FINAL WORDS................................11
WARRANTY DISCLAIMER..............................11
2
HIGHLIGHTS
The enclosed template allows you or your staff to easily enter
all the usual information for your closing into one list of data.
The entire RESPA is then filled out for you. When something
changes the day before closing, the day of closing, or right at
the closing table, just enter the new information and presto, you
have a new, corrected RESPA!
Unlike other RESPA programs which rely on word processor based
engines, a spreadsheet based template takes advantage of the most
powerful mathematical capabilities available. Attorneys are
generally masters of the written word, but slave to anything more
than the simplest math. A spreadsheet template handles the math
effortlessly for you. The amount of variable text in a RESPA is
actually minimal, and even that is addressed in all situations.
If something comes up which is unique, you can just type in the
text as though you had a paper RESPA in a typewriter, type the
number into the column just like a paper RESPA, and the totals
will automatically update!
Flexibility isn't limited to just a single client either. One of
the real advantages of using a template is the ability to keep it
current by typing newly required language right on screen. Do
you have dusty old forms in your form files that are outdated and
useless because a bureaucrat decided to change a word here, a
sentence there? No useful computer templates ever need to be
thrown away... they get modified in minutes and keep on going!
And with all the paper you'll save, it's even the environmentally
responsible way to prepare your RESPA!
3
INSTALLATION
1. Copying Files to the Proper Location. For proper
functioning of the enclosed files, they must be placed on your
hard disk as follows:
In your spreadsheet directory:
RESPA.WK1
RESPA.ALL
CHECKS.PRN
In your Allways directory:
RESPA.ALS
These files must be in the proper location for the template to be
fully functional.
2. Setting Up for the First Time. It is assumed that you
know the basics of starting up your spreadsheet program. Once
that program is running, use it to retrieve RESPA.WK1. When
the spreadsheet comes on screen, you will be at the "Home"
screen.
By pressing Alt M, a menu appears across the top of the screen
just like regular spreadsheet menu choices. If you like macros
better than the menu, macro choices are parenthetically indicated
on the menu which do the same task.
3. Check Your Allways Hot-Key. Most users will have no need to
concern themselves with the template's ability to access Allways.
However, some of the earliest versions did not allow access
through the Alt-F10 key. You may wish to try attaching and
invoking Allways with the Alt-F10 method. If the choices
"Attach" and "Invoke" appear at the top of the screen (among
other choices), you may move on and skip the balance of this
section.
If you did not get access to the choices, you will have to make a
simple edit in the template for the printing to work correctly.
First, determine which key is your Allways "hot-key" (the
keystroke combination to call up Allways). It will be either
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Alt-F7, Alt-F8 or Alt-F9. Each of these correspond to a macro
language as follows:
If your Hot-Key Is: Macro Language Is:
Alt-F7.........{APP1}
Alt-F8.........{APP2}
Alt-F9.........{APP3}
You must go to cell E120, and replace the "4" in the command
{APP4} with the number corresponding to the "App" command above.
Then, erase IALLWAYS~, so the resulting line reads:
{APPn}/pcopq/prcrs
where n is the number you assigned above. Next, move cell E120
to cell E119. (/ Range Move E120 Enter E119 Enter).
Finally, save the master template as RESPA.WK1 for future use.
4. Entering Standard Office Information. Some information,
such as your name and address, the amount you charge for
recording documents, etc., doesn't usually change from closing to
closing. To reduce entry time, your working copy of the
spreadsheet can be set up with this information once, and
then be used over and over again. Enter this area by pressing
Alt & L simultaneously. You will enter your name, address (up to
three lines), and other commonly repeated information. When
finished making entries, press Enter one extra time, and you will
return to the "Home" screen. Save the file, and don't worry this
time about overwriting the master copy of the template. Keep
this information in the file saved as RESPA.WK1.
In time, you may find other information elsewhere in the template
which commonly repeats from usage to usage. You should enter and
save that information into the RESPA.WK1 master template as well.
5
USING THE TEMPLATE
1. Enter the Closing Date. The closing date is critical to
numerous calculations throughout the template. Therefore, it is
important to enter the anticipated closing date right away.
Spreadsheet date entry is unusual to the uninitiated, so the
all-important closing date is entered with a macro called Alt-D
right at the home screen. After a slight pause in the
macro, you enter the closing date in the more familiar form
of MM/DD/YR, or, say for June 4, 1991, as 06/04/91.
2. Enter Client Information. Most of the information which
should appear on the RESPA statement for any particular closing
will be accomplished by entering data in the data entry area
of the spreadsheet. You may enter the data entry area from the
template menu system Data Entry choice.
Line Sensitive Help Accessed by F6 Key. Help on any item is
available simply by pressing F6. A one line message of help
will then appear on the top of the screen. To return to
data entry, simply press F6 a second time. Spreadsheet
experts will recognize the F6 key as the {WINDOW} key, which
is the cornerstone of the help system. When you enter the
data entry area from the menu or by pressing Alt & E, the
screen is actually split vertically, with a two character
wide window to the right. When you press F6, you are
actually jumping to the window on your right. It is
extremely narrow, and can't be easily read from there, but
the full contents of the cell are readable at the top of the
screen! There was a sacrifice in cell protection to achieve
this window jumping help system. All cells in the data
entry area can now be accessed, including many which contain
critical formulas which impact results throughout the
spreadsheet. Each of these have been clearly marked with
text markers which say "FYI: (explanation) ------>". Do not
make entries into these cells.
Caution! You are free to move around the template all you wish,
and may go into the data entry area without assistance of the
menu. Exercise great caution if you come into the data entry
area this way, because many formulas can be accidentally
overwritten and lost. You are free to move into any cell,
including the formula cells. On rare occasions you may need to
override the calculations presented by the formulas. In such
a case, you could simply enter the correct number in the cell,
thereby erasing the formula.
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3. Moving Around the Spreadsheet. The Go-To functions allow
you to go right to any one of six locations on either page one or
page two of the RESPA. After choosing Go-To Page One or Page Two
on the menu (or Alt-O or Alt-T), press any number from 1 through
6. The location you'll be taken to is as follows:
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ 1 2 ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ 3 4 ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ 5 6 ║
╚══════════════════════════════╝
This feature takes you close to any specific location.
4. Printing. The Print Menu is accessed straight from the
Print choice on the template menu. Highlight the word print, and
choose one of the following:
RESPA. Prints Page One of the RESPA, Page Two, or
both, subject to your choice on a submenu which follows.
Make sure your printer is on and ready, and you have
inserted blank legal size paper into the printer.
Checks. This choice creates an ASCII text file on your
disk in a form readable by Quicken. If you have Quicken
check writing program, most of your closing checks can now
be written for you. From the menu choice, Print/Checks, a
file is automatically created in your spreadsheet called
Checks.Prn. After the file is printed to disk, you simply
need to leave the spreadsheet, (saving it first, if needed),
switch over to Quicken, log into the account you desire, and
press F2 followed by 6 (for Import). Identify the file to
be imported, (i.e. C:\Lotus\Checks.Prn). Answer No to need
for special handling, and that's it!. Eighteen common
transactions will be entered into your account, including
deposits, mortgage payoffs, cash to sellers, and many
others. Some check entry will still be required, (and some
checks may need to be deleted because they are for $0.00).
The goal is to speed up the preparation for closing, and
while 100% coverage of all possible checks can (and has)
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been programmed for testing, the execution time of searching
for all possible checks, especially to one-time payees, is
much slower than entering a few checks manually. As a
result, the template exports the eighteen most common items,
and leaves the final tinkering to you.
Data. Detailed information showing how you arrived at
your calculations can be printed for review by the Sellers
or their attorney right from the menu. (Print Data, or
Alt-C). Add this to the print-out of pages one and two for
review before closing, and the Seller's attorney will have
full documentation of the closing figures.
1099 Request. Most other RESPA suppliers place a
simple Substitute 1099 Form at the end of page one, which is
too brief to get all the information a Settlement Agent
requires, and simply does not provide the Settlement Agent
much protection from incorrect information. The form
produced by the template (1) provides a request for taxpayer
identification numbers from the sellers, (2) allows for
multiple transferors to state their relative shares of
proceeds to be reported to the IRS, (3) relieves the
Settlement Agent from liability if the supplied information
is incorrect, and (4) acts as a Substitute 1099 Form.
Shareware Registration. If you are using the template
after a sixty day trial, you are required to register your
copy. The registration form provides an easy way to supply
the essential information to register you correctly, and it
provides space for your comments, good or bad.
Printing Problems. Printing is perhaps the most difficult area
to anticipate problems in advance because of the hundreds of
printers on the market. The print macros have been set up to
correctly print on a Hewlett Packard Laser Jet IIP printer. Try
sample print-outs, and consult your printer's manual if you
encounter any undesirable results.
SAVING YOUR WORK
SAVE YOUR WORK OFTEN!!! But then, you've heard that before, and
you do practice safe computing, right?
The first entry in the Data Entry Area is the name of the file
(without the WK1 extension) as you wish to save the current
template. Place your client's last name, your file number, or
some other identifying name in this area before doing any other
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data entry for a particular client. Then, leave the data entry
area and save the file using the template menu or the Save macro
(Alt-S).
The "Home" screen provides important information on the save
status of your work. Provided you use the template menu Save
choice, or the Save macro "Alt-S" features, the current name of
the template is displayed, along with the name the template will
be saved under if you access the "Save" feature now. This helps
prevent accidental overwrites of important files. A WARNING is
displayed if the name to be saved is RESPA.WK1, because this is
the master copy of the template. However, there is no impediment
other than the warning to making customizing changes in the
RESPA.WK1 for your own use.
The time and date of your last save is set forth near the bottom
of the screen, and the date of your last save is permanently
located in the summary window at the bottom right corner of the
screen.
5. Menu v. Macros. In previous versions, the template relied
heavily on macros. There were so many macros, though, that
the menu was cluttered and, ultimately, couldn't even fit on a
single screen anymore! To solve that problem, the template now
uses a menu system. By pressing Alt M, a menu appears across
the top of the screen just like regular spreadsheet menu
choices. If you still like macros better than the menu, menu
choices parenthetically indicate which macros can still do the
same job.
Printing Page 1, for example, looks like this on the Print Menu:
Page 1-Alt P
It's your choice... menu or macros. Use the menus for awhile to
learn your way around, but keep your eye on those macro choices
to speed your usage.
9
MANAGING YOUR FILES
Keep this one overriding principal in mind when managing files...
never save the original template with information in it for a
particular client. Put information in, and then save the file
using its own name. You'll want to use the original template
over and over again, like pulling a fresh blank form out of your
form files.
There are probably as many ways to manage files as their are law
offices, so you should feel free to choose the method most
sensible to you. The following is but one way of handling
these files.
Keep a copy of RESPA.WK1 on a hard disk ready for use. The file
should already have Law Office Information completed for your
office, (see more on this below) and any other customizing you
may want to add. When contracts are completed for a new client,
call up the RESPA.WK1 file, immediately go to the Data Entry
Area, and type the client's last name next to the question that
says, "NAME OF THIS FILE". Then, immediately leave Data Entry,
and use the template's own menu system to save the file or press
Alt & S to save the file using the new name. By doing this,
the original RESPA.WK1 is unchanged, and you have a complete new
spreadsheet just for one particular client. When finished
working on a particular client's RESPA for the day, copy the
RESPA onto a floppy disk labeled just for that client and that
file. CAUTION: If the same client has more than one RESPA in
progress, the new file will overwrite the old file. Move the old
RESPA onto a floppy to avoid being overwritten.
If you have a floppy disk system, the same applies provided
either (1) there is room on the floppy containing RESPA.WK1 to
save another spreadsheet or (2) you swap floppy disks before
pressing Alt & S.
10
A FEW FINAL WORDS
Remember, this is NOT your attorney, realtor or title insurer. It
is just a very fast adding machine with some word processing and
database-type merging. It's your responsibility to know enough
about your closings to fill out the forms completely and
correctly.
What started out as a little job to make closings quicker, easier
and more accurate has become a very productive project.
Improvements are an ongoing process, so if you have questions,
comments or constructive criticism, I'd be happy to hear from
you.
James W. Giarrusso, Esq. Compuserve
309 Omni Drive ID# 71600,232
Somerville, NJ 08876
(908) 359-0341
WARRANTY DISCLAIMERS
No warranties are made, either expressed or implied, with respect
to the template accompanying this documentation, its quality,
performance, or merchantibility for fitness for any particular
purpose. This template is licensed "as is." The entire risk as
to the quality and performance of the template is with the buyer.
In no event will I be liable for direct, indirect, incidental or
consequential damages resulting from any defect in the template
even if I have been advised of the possibility of such damages.
Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of implied
warranties or liabilities for incidental or consequential
damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to
you.
Lotus and 1-2-3 are trademarks of Lotus Development Corp.
ALLWAYS is a trademark of Funk Software, Inc.
HP and IIP are trademarks of Hewlett Packard, Inc.
Quicken is a trademark of Intuit, Inc.
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