IN THIS ISSUE:

• Happy Valentine and President's Day to all of you

• ClickFORMS v2.4.1 Update available

• New ClickNOTES v5.8 is now available

• Appraiser Directory improvements

• HUD Special Announcement - Training

• Appraisal Today 2004 National Conference

Happy Valentine and President's Day to all of you

From all of us at Bradford Technologies, happy Valentine's Day! May you and your love ones be filled more with love, happiness and success.

In observance of the President's Day, our offices will be closed this Monday, February 16th.  We will re-open with normal business hours on Tuesday, February 17th. If you have any technical support issues, please email us at support@bradfordsoftware.com as we will monitor our email.

ClickFORMS v2.4.1 Update available

ClickFORMS v2.4.1 Update is available for download.  This is a small download to update version ClickFORMS v2.4.0, so you must download and install this first!

The big news here is that the new WinSketch 7.8 is now included.  This includes many improvements and fixes to problems that you may have encountered.  Give it a try.

There is also a new form: VA Client Requirements

A brief list of additional changes follows:

• Swapping Comps - Site and basement text no longer convert to '0' swapping.
• Swapping Comps - Fixed the re-calculation of adjustments when swapping.
• When entering ranges, such as "300-400", the resulting number is not truncated to 300.
• Editor - Pressing Home key now works properly.
• Editor - Insert Mode is now signified by text "Insert Mode" in the Status bar.
• Auto Adjustments - Added Building Gross Living Area adjustment for 2-4 report.
• Auto Adjustments - Sales Adjustments are no longer used or calculated for Rental comparables.
• Maps - Map Labels - Changed "Comp" to be "Sale" to match "Rental" and "Listing".
• Map Tool now creates Location, Rental and Listing maps.
• Map Tool now asks if you want to add additional map forms of the same type so you are not    confined to one location map, for instance.

ClickNOTES v5.8 is now available

What's New in ClickNOTES v5.8?

1. The format of the program has changed a little. It is more menu driven now, with buttons to toggle between the sketch and the form sections. Also, on the "Welcome Screen," you can now directly start a new file or open an existing one.
2. Added a response editor. The Response Editor (under the "Edit" menu) allows you to adjust all the features of each response. For example, you can change the number of columns of data to be displayed, whether it should skip to the next field after a selection is made, whether to use the first or second part of an abbreviated field, skip to the next field ONLY if the response selected is greater than 1 character (good for number fields), and change the separator type to use for multi-select fields (where you might want it to stay in the same field to allow multiple selections).
3. Added text-editing standards for "Cut," "Paste," "Copy," etc. in the Edit menu.
4. Added an option to calculate room counts for each floor based on the sketch data. In the "Options" menu that displays during the sketch, there is now a "Set Room Counts" option. When you use this, it will look for key room types, such as "DR" (Dining Room) and enter the data. "Of" (Office) and anything with "Room" in it, including anything you manually enter, will be added to the "Other" count. If, for example, "DA" (Dining Area) is chosen, the Dining Room count will display "Area" rather than a number.
5. You can now CLOSE a file and stay in the program.
6. Individual VC-sections now available directly from a menu when in ANY VC page (there are three sections for the HUD-VC, but you will not notice them as different pages once in any of them).
7. Color scheme has been changed to make it more readable in different lighting conditions, particularly outdoors.
8. Fixed problem where long text was not converted in the sketcher (on the PDA, it shows as G3 but is supposed to be converted to "Three-Car Garage" when transferred to the desktop but was translating to "Three-Car ").
9. Made ready for the next generation of processors. Now it will run faster on newer devices and speed nominally improved on current devices.

How do I upgrade?

ClickNOTES has a feature that checks for updates automatically. However, you must be connected to the internet and be a registered user before you attempt to check for updates.

There are two ways to check for on-line updates.
1) From the Utilities Menu in ClickNOTES, click on Online Updates
2) Click on the ClickNOTES Tray Icon once, then select Check for ClickNOTES Updates.

Appraiser Directory improvements

In response to popular demand, the Appraiser Directory may now be searched by county.  Better yet, you may add additional counties up to a total of three.  Now, when a search is run by county (the default), the search engine will find all appraisers that have listed that county in their service area.

To simplify this transition, we have automatically populated the county field with your home county.  So you may add two additional counties, or you may remove that and add three other counties if you wish.

All previous search methods are still available to you.

HUD Special Announcement

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development will be conducting a national training program for members of the home mortgage industry on its single family mortgage insurance programs from March 8 through 12 in Orlando, Florida.  The training program will give lenders and other participants a thorough understanding of FHA programs, policies, and procedures, and will provide an opportunity to interact with the senior FHA staff who will be conducting the sessions.

Other training sessions will be held in Philadelphia, Denver, Atlanta and Santa Ana during this calendar year.
 
For more information on dates and locations please visit: http://www.fha-training.org/

Appraisal Today 2004 National Conference

Ann O'Roarke has just announced this year's National Conference and posted all of the details on the Appraisal Today website: http://www.appraisaltoday.com.  Link from the dark blue bar near the top.

Over 400 appraisers attended last year's conference!

This year the conference is August 5-6 in South San Francisco.

Here is a summary of the program, straight from Ann's newsletter:

Price:

- Conference - $195 for one day Conference - $265 for both days ($30 off the regular $295 price!)

- Pre-conference 7-hour National USPAP Update - $150

- USPAP and Conference - $395 for 3 days (Best Buy - $50 off!!) - Special prices good through 5/31/04

 

Here's the session lineup:

- Residential forms - what's new?

- Is USPAP good or bad for commercial appraisers?

- How to use the latest appraisal technology

- Residential appraisal reviews - who, what, and how

- Commercial appraisal hot topics - 2004

- What's new at Fannie Mae? - New forms, of course!

- The future of residential appraising

- Commercial appraisal liability - what you need to know

- Is USPAP good or bad for residential appraisers?

- Residential appraisal hot topics - 2004

- How to increase commercial appraisal report production

- Computer hardware and software - what to buy and how to keep it working

 

I will also have a pre-conference 7-hour USPAP Update class on August 4.