IN THIS ISSUE:

• FREE Flood Maps from Flood Insights

• New HUD 92564-CN - Available Today in ClickFORMS

• New ClickFORMS Release - v2.4.0

• How to Get Your FREE Flood Maps

• How To Open ToolBox Files Directly

• How To Copy Comparables from ToolBox

• How to Copy and Paste Comparables within ClickFORMS

• Swap Comparables - Back by Popular Demand

• New VA Client Requirements 2003 Form - Available for download

• ClickFORMS Tip #22  Right-Click for Higher Efficiency

Free Flood Maps from Flood Insights

Welcome to our Customer Appreciation Flood Map Giveaway.

With the release of ClickFORMS 2.4.0, we have added a web service for flood maps from Flood Insights. You can find it under the Services menu.  
 
With this new service, in a matter of seconds, you can get flood hazard determination information, the flood map,  census tract number, zip+4, longitude and latitude, and optionally have the FEMA flood form filled out for you automatically and added to the report.
 
In appreciation of all our great customers and for the great year we had in 2003, we are going to be providing free flood maps for the next three months – until May 1. We are calling this our Customer Appreciation Flood Map Giveaway.  To get started using the free online map service, you just need the latest version of ClickFORMS.  Please download it from www.bradfordsoftware.com/support. (All the new additions to the program are highlighted in the next section.) 
 
The Flood Maps are FREE until May 1, but if you want a good deal on maps, you can purchase early. Here is the pricing breakdown by month.

One thing we will be doing differently than our competitors, is giving you a 15 month period to use the maps instead of the normal 12. Think of them as rollover maps, if you don’t use them in the normal 12 month period, they rollover into the next quarter.
 
Besides getting a good deal on pre-purchased maps, the counter on these maps will not start until after the May 1 cutoff. So you can take advantage of the free maps we are offering and get a great deal on flood maps for the future with a full 15 months to use them - not 12 like the competition.
Plus, any purchase of additional flood maps resets the expiration on any unused maps to match that of the new ones.

So thank you for the great support you have given us all at Bradford Technologies.  Please take advantage of our Customer Appreciation Flood Map Giveaway. Its our way of saying thank you.
 
 
Jeff Bradford
 
PS. We will also be providing the flood maps in our demo versions of ClickFORMS (but probably not through May 1), so tell your friends to give ClickFORMS a try and save some money on flood maps.
 

New HUD 92564-CN - Available Today in ClickFORMS

Once again, Bradford Technologies, is the first to release new forms to its customers.

Yes - there is another new HUD form: Revised Form HUD–92564-CN,  “For Your Protection: Get a Home Inspection” This Mortgagee Letter informs Mortgagees that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has revised Form HUD-92564-CN “For Your Protection:  Get a Home Inspection.”  Mortgagees may use the new form immediately.  Mortgagees will be required to use the new form for all cases submitted for case number assignment 30 days after the date of this Mortgagee Letter. 

The letter came out on January 22, so the new form is required by February 22, 2004.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development through FHA continues to be responsive to public safety concerns by informing Mortgagees and borrowers of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Surgeon General’s recommendation for radon testing.  The revised form incorporates radon testing as one of the components of a home inspection.  HUD is not mandating a radon test for FHA insurance eligibility, however, use of “For Your Protection:  Get a Home Inspection” remains mandatory.  In addition, the form is revised to clarify the importance of and differences between an appraisal and a home inspection.

Form HUD-92564-CN “For Your Protection:  Get a Home Inspection” must be signed on or before the date the sales contract is executed (the sales contract must be re-executed if necessary) for all transactions that will involve FHA mortgage insurance on existing property. A copy of the Form signed and dated by the homebuyer(s) must be included in the case binder submitted to FHA with the lender’s request for insurance endorsement.

This new form is available in release v2.4.0 of ClickFORMS.

New ClickFORMS Release - v2.4.0

Besides offering free flood maps, there are some other major enhancements to ClickFORMS. Following is an overview. Some of these items are reviewed in "How To" detail in the next sections. 

1. FREE Flood Maps until May 1, 2004. Online flood map service from Flood Insights was integrated into ClickFORMS. See the section on How To Get Flood Maps below for details. 

2. You can now copy Sale comparables from Toolbox or Excel spreadsheets directly into ClickFORMS. See the section on How To Copy Comparables from ToolBox below. 

3. You can Copy, Paste and Clear any Sale, Rental or Listing comparable in ClickFORMS. Just right-click in any cell belonging to the comp column. See the section below on How To copy and paste comparables within ClickFORMS.

4. You can now swap any Sale, Rental or Listing comparable in ClickFORMS. Just right-click in any cell belonging to the comparable. See the section on Swapping Comparables below.

5. Changed the registration process to simplify registration of multiple users. We hope this eliminates some of the confusion regarding on-line vs. email vs. fax registration.

8. Added the “Open ToolBox Files” menu under File so you can select ToolBox files without switching from where ClickFORMS saves files to where ToolBox saves files.

10. Added the ability to change the starting page number of the report. This is set in Edit/Preferences/Document/Operations. 

How to Get Your FREE Flood Maps

The easy way to get FREE flood maps is to select Flood Insights from the Services menu. The locator window will display showing the subject address from the report. You can change this address is you like. 

Once you are satisfied the address is correct, click the Locate button. Next be patient for about 15 seconds the address is geo-coded and a flood map is created.

When the results come back, the Results tab will come to the front. It will look like this. (Be patient, it seems like nothing is happening, but all the work is being done at the server.)

At this point, you can transfer the map and the flood data into the report. If you do not have a report open, one will be created for you. Optionally, you can have the data transferred to the FEMA flood form which will also be included in the report. That is it.

You can also start the flood service by Right-Clicking in the map cell in the Flood Map exhibit form. When you Right Click you will see the Popup menu below. Select Insert Flood Map from ... to start the service.

How To Open ToolBox Files Directly

We are listening. You asked for an easier way to open Toolbox files and we provided it. Located under the Files menu is a new menu called Open ToolBox files. You will no longer have to switch folders between opening ClickFORMS files and ToolBox files.

We have even added a short cut, so Shift-Control-O opens a ToolBox report, Control-O opens a ClickFORMS report. Additionally, we have added Open ToolBox Templates which will only display available ToolBox templates. 

How to Copy Comparables from Appraiser's ToolBox

Again, you asked for it and we listened. Now you can copy comparables directly from ToolBox into ClickFORMS. Here's how to do it:

In ToolBox, select Copy Comps as shown below, select the comp in the Copy From column and then select Clipboard in the Copy To column.

Now switch over to ClickFORMS and scroll to the comp column you want to paste the ToolBox comparable into. Once you can see the comparable cells, Right-Click on any of the cells in the column. Select "Paste Sale" as shown below. You can also paste rentals ad listing. 

One other feature of this capability is that you can paste data in generic data. For instance, if you have comp data in Excel, if it is all in a row, just select the row and paste it into a ClickFORMS comparable. This is pasting "dumb" data, but as long as it is in sequence of the description cells, it will paste in fine. 

As you can see, we have added Copy Sale and Clear Sale. If you use the Copy Sale, you can also go the other way - copy and paste from ClickFORMS to Toolbox or Excel.

How to Copy and Paste Comparables within ClickFORMS

If you read the above section, you already know how to Copy, Paste and Clear comparables in ClickFORMS. These actions apply to Sale, Rental and Listing comparables.

To Copy, go to the comparable you want to copy. Right-Click and select Copy Sale. Now scroll to the comparable column where you want to paste in the information. Again, Right-Click and select Paste Sale. These copy and pastes are "Smart Copies and Smart Pastes" so they will paste in the descriptions and the adjustments. Furthermore because they are "smart", you can paste a URAR comparable into a 2055 comparable or a Condo Comparable with the correct data flowing into the appropriate cells. Additionally, where the data is common, you can copy and paste between a sale and listing comparable. Just remember its all in the Right-Click anywhere within a comparable.

One note: Copy/Paste/Clear only work on the text. These functions DO NOT copy and paste the photos associated with a comparable. Also, Undo has not been implemented yet, so if you Clear a comp, the result is final - (just don't save the report to get back to where you were.)

Swap Comparables - Back by Popular Demand

Note the checkbox at the bottom left titled "Add Edit Menu Items to Popup Responses". If this checkbox is checked, then the selected edit menus will be added, so if you don't want them in your popup responses, uncheck the checkbox. If you just want the most common, then you check the Add checkbox and then specify which of the edit menu items you would like to have. The most common are Copy and Paste. You can also add in Cell Preferences for quick, easy access to the Cell Preferences dialog.

Other menu items may be added to your popup responses depending on the type of cell that is being clicked. Such as the Flood Map cell or a comparable cell where the Copy/paste/Clear/Swap menu items are added automatically.

Now for another new addition to preferences: Automatic Page Numbering. You can turn this off and enter your own starting page number. Why would you want to do this, you ask? ClickFORMS and its Digital Container technology is very good at making data uniform. But what if you want to have two forms of the same type in the same report and each one have different data? ClickFORMS is designed to prevent this, so the easiest way to create these kinds of reports is to have two reports. The way to tie them together is to have the page numbers in sequence. By un-checking the Automatic Page Numbering checkbox, you can set the starting page number and total page count that ClickFORMS will use.