HouseWare v1.0 Documentation

Thank you for choosing HouseWare to crunch your mortgage numbers with.  We hope you'll find our screens easy to navigate.  The following are a few general notes on selected screen fields.  

Qualify screen
    Debt ratios - these are common bank guidelines on how much monthly mortgage debt and monthly overall debt a lender normally allows.  Expressed as a percentage of gross income.
    Annual taxes - use this field if the property's taxes are known (zero out the Millage and Assessment % fields).
    Millage - if the annual tax is not known, enter a known or estimated value for school, county and local tax millage.
    Assmt % - if the annual tax is not known, enter a known or estimated assessment percentage. The assessed value of a property is normally 25-45% of its appraised value.
    Closing cost estimate - estimate of common closing costs such as title insurance, appraisal fee, application fee, survey, etc... 

Prepay Summary screen 
    Loan Amount - the original loan amount, not the remaining balance.
    Prepay Amt - the regular, monthly prepayment amount applied strictly to principal.
    Start prepaying at pmt # - payment number to begin prepaying from.

Prepay Target screen
    Target month and ccyy - the month and year to have the mortgage paid off by.

Refinance screen
    Total Mortgage Payoff - the total of the remaining balances of all mortgages and home equity loans on the property.
    % of loan allowed for cashout (and no-cashout) - these vary by lender, but are usually 75 for a cashout loan and 80 for a no-cashout loan. Loans are generally considered cashout when the requested amount is greater than the payoff or when Points and closing costs are included in the loan.
    Current MIP - monthly mortgage insurance premium, a fee usually charged when less than 20% was put down on the original loan. This will be dropped from the New TI field (taxes and insurance) if the refinanced loan is no more than 80 percent of the appraised value of the property.
    Mthly home eq. payments - total of all monthly payments on all 2nd mortgages and home equity loans.
    Loan amount requested - Normally equal to the Total Mortgage Payoff, but may be higher if the loan is cashout. If points and closing costs are included in the loan, be aware that the actual New Mortgage will be greater than the Loan amount requested.
    Is this a cashout loan? - says which loan limit will be used to determine how much can be refinanced.

Selling screen
   For sale by owner costs - if not sold through an agency, estimate the costs of selling on your own (advertising, marketing, etc..). 
    Legal and other fees - legal or other miscellaneous costs.
    Required for sale costs - costs of repairs that either an inspector or a buyer wants done before agreeing to a sale.
    1st mortgage balance - remaining balance, not the original loan amount. 
    Home eq./2nd mtg? - remaining balances on any home equity or other mortgages against the property. 

Miscellaneous
All screens are pre-filled to show the proper format of the input data.
Pausing over most entry field names provides "hints" about the field.
Note for printing (registered version): To create a more legible output and to reduce printer ink or toner usage, only the field names and their values will be printed using the Print button.