Created by: Daniel Hellerstein, danielh@crosslink.net, 13 June 2003

Version 1.05 of two housing related calculators:

  Home2Buy: Financial calculator for buying a 2nd home
  ReFinance:  Display financial implications of a house refinance

Short Disclaimer:
  Home2Buy and ReFinance are freeware. It is not warranted, or otherwise
  guaranteed to be reliable or accurate. Please see the bottom of 
  the text for the details.

Contents:
  HOME2BUY.CMD -- The program
  HOME2BUY.HTM -- Tips and Hints for HOME2BUY
  HOME2BUY.IN  -- Sample parameter file 
  READ.ME      -- This file

  REFINAN.CMD -- Stand-alone "refinance" calculator
  REFINAN.HTM -- Html interface to S_REFINANCE.CMD
  S_REFINANCE.CMD -- SREhttp/2 addon: refinance calculator

Synopsis:

  Home2Buy will compute a variety of financial facts concerning
  purchasing a 2nd (vacation) home.

  Home2Buy has a variety of features, including:
     * accounts for mortgage interest and proprety tax income tax deductions,
     * incorporates rental income and expenses, including depreciation
     * returns from saving your money, rather then buying a property,
     * appreciated value of the property

  Thus, in addition to the price of the property, there are a number of
  other parameters that you can adjust -- such as the interest rate,
  the per-week rent, the apprectiation rate, and your marginal tax rate.

  ReFinance will compute and compare the financial implications of
  refinancing your home (displaying 3 loan plans at once). 
  It has many option, such as supporiting ARM loans,
  and allowing you to take out a home-equity loan.


Home2Buy Usage:

 As an addon:
   Home2Buy is best used as an addon for either the SREhttp/2, 
   or the SREhttp for GoServe, web servers (for OS/2). If this describes you,
   simply copy HOME2BUY.CMD to you "addon" directory, and invoke it with a
   "/HOME2BUY?" request from your web browser.

 Notes:
  *  When run as an addon, the HOME2BUY.HTM and HOME2BUY.IN file are NOT used.

  *  Home2Buy creates a "scenario summaries" data file in your server's
     temporary directory. If this data file is deleted, summaries will be
     lost. Otherwise, Home2Buy will be uneffected.

  Standalone:
    Home2Buy can also be run from an OS/2 command prompt (and, though we 
    haven't tested it, by REXX interpreters on other operating systems).  
    If this describes you, simply copy all 4 files to a directory on your 
    machine, and run HOME2BUY.  

    In standalone mode, Home2Buy will ask for a parameter file -- by default,
    it uses HOME2BUY.IN.  HOME2BUY.IN is fairly well documented, so
    it should be easy to get started. You should also look at HOME2BUY.HTM
    for hints and tips.

    In standalone mode,  Home2Buy uses NetScape to display results. If
    NetScape.EXE is not in your PATH, you'll need add NetScapes directory
    (typically, x:\NETSCAPE\BIN) to change your PATH!

ReFinance usage:

  Standalone:
     Copy REFINAN.CMD to a directory, and run it from an OS/2 prompt.
     There are a number of user changeable parameters at the top of
     REFINAN.CMD -- change these to customize the size of the loan
     the interest rates, closing costs, etc.

  SREhttp/2 Addon:
       i) copy REFINAN.HTM to a web accessible directory (say, x:\www)
      ii) copy S_REFINANCE.CMD to your SREhttp/2 ADDON directory (say, x:\sre2003\srehttp2\addon)
     iii) Hit REFINAN.HTM with your web browser, and fill out the form.


Longer Disclaimer:
  Home2Buy and ReFinance are meant to give the user a general sense of the 
  financial factors relevant to a decision to purchase a second home, or to 
  refinance a home. 
  Niether program is guaranteed to be accurate. 
  They  might even be wrong in important details. 

  Therefore, these programs are offered without ANY WARRANTY or ASSURANCE
  of reliability. If the programs conclusions should be flat out wrong,
  and cause you any kind of harm, we are NOT TO BLAME!

  That said ... we've made a good deal of effort to check  
  both the accuracy of the calculations and  the relevant regulations,
  and we've used it in our financial considerations. If you find
  bugs or other problems, please contact us (at the above address).