Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers real estate automation software (see article below), an application for local and remote backups, and a Web clipping service with an optional iPhone counterpart. Don't miss the next issue.
Automate Your Real Estate Closings
By Neil J. Squillante
In today's real estate market, buyers and sellers want their lawyers to work more efficiently to reduce costs. That means you can either wring your hands and reminisce about the good old days or you can streamline your closings so that you can undercut the competition without reducing your profitability. If you choose the latter strategy, you'll need some help from your trusty PC.
Easy HUD ... in One Sentence
Easy Soft's Easy HUD real estate closing software automates the entire real estate closing process, enabling you to enter information once and create all the statements needed for a transaction, including HUD-1 and HUD-1A.
The Killer Feature
For real estate lawyers, the job doesn't end when the parties sign the closing documents. Other responsibilities include disbursement of and accounting for client trust monies and reporting sales proceeds to the Internal Revenue Service on form 1099-S.
With Easy HUD, you can electronically file 1099-S forms, and also print copies for the seller. This automation reduces the risk of error while also eliminating the time required to re-enter closing data.
Other Notable Features
Easy HUD doesn't only fill in forms for you, but performs calculations as well for more than 40 jurisdictions (if your state is not included, Easy Soft will add it for you). Easy HUD can handle just about any situation, including transactions with two loans, and up to 8 buyers and 8 sellers.
If you handle many similar transactions, you can create templates for HUD-1 and HUD-1A and share them throughout your firm. You can output completed forms in PDF or Word format. A case log lists all transactions and their status.
An integrated ledger can automatically adjust for pre-disbursements, earned deposits, and mortgage yield spread premiums. You can combine or split checks, print checks, and print an itemized ledger for each real estate closing.
Easy HUD integrates with two other offerings from Easy Soft — Easy Trust for managing client trust accounts, and 1099-S electronic filing service.
What Else Should You Know?
According to Easy Soft, Easy HUD's automation can reduce the time required for preparing closing documents by 70%. Easy HUD runs on Windows and costs $149.50 for a one year license with tech support and upgrades. Additional annual licenses cost $49.50 each. Learn more about Easy HUD.
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