Mortgages Tab

The Mortgages tab on the Affiliate Setup screen allows you to set up various default settings for mortgages, mortgage payments, and delinquency letters.

Payment Confirmation pane

When you click on the Due Date for a closing fee or mortgage payment, Keystone fills in the appropriate due date, amount due, and, in the case of mortgage payments, the allocation of the payment to late fee, escrow, other debt, and principal.

When you make no adjustments to this data before it is entered, this is known as a ‘one-click entry’.

Keystone provides a confirmation message that asks you whether you want to save what has been entered on the screen or cancel it. You can set the level of Payment Confirmation you want on this tab. Setting Payment Confirmation to One-Click Entries means the Save question will appear only for one-click entries (this is the default). Setting it to All Entries means the Save question will appear for every entry. With no confirmation, the Save question will not be displayed and the entry is automatically stored when you close the screen or go to a new record.

Defaults pane

• Default Mortgage Term field - You can enter the default mortgage term in the Default Mortgage Term field. The mortgage term is expressed as the number of months in the mortgage. When a new mortgage is created for a homeowner, this value is entered automatically into the homeowner’s record. You can change an individual homeowner's mortgage term  from this default, if necessary, on the Mortgage/Payments Information screen.
• Grace Period field -  Use this field to set the default grace period (expressed in days) for mortgage payments. The mortgage payment is not considered late until the homeowner goes past this grace period. You can override this default value for individual homeowners as needed.
• Late Fee field - Use this field to set the default late fee for mortgage payments that are unpaid after the grace period ends. You can override this default value for individual homeowners as needed.

Loading Mortgage History

Checking the Loading Mortgage History box disables certain functions in Keystone - such as automatic calculations - so that you can enter historical mortgage data. For more information, see the Loading History Check Box section.

If you check the Loading Mortgage History box, you must come back and uncheck it before resuming your normal, day-to-day data entry.

Delinquency Letters pane

Keystone also allows you to set up the criteria that will be used to automatically flag homeowners for specific delinquency letters when their payments are late. You can also set up letters for homeowners under Special Payment Plans. You can manually assign those letters as needed for homeowners on those payment plans.

You can create any number of templates to serve as the basis for letters for mortgages that are in various stages of delinquency. However, some default delinquency letters are already included with Keystone. Their names, locations, and definitions are shown in this pane.

The letter number '0' is reserved and cannot be used in the Ltr field for delinquency letters.

To add a new delinquency letter

1. Go to the new record line in the Delinquency Letters pane.
2. Assign a number to the letter in the Ltr field.
   The number for this letter should correspond to the stage of delinquency a mortgage is in. For example, the number 1 should correspond to the first notice sent, 2 to the second notice, and so forth.
   
   For letters that will be used for homeowners under Special Payment Plans, assign those letters a number higher than all of the standard delinquency letters.
3. Enter a brief description of the delinquency letter in the Name To Post field.
   This description is posted to the homeowner’s log and is shown on all Keystone screens and reports that display delinquency notice histories for homeowners.
4. Enter the range of months late that will flag the homeowner for the delinquency letter in the two Months Due of Principal + Escrow fields.
   The > (greater than) field defines the earliest point at which the corresponding letter should be used. The purpose of the <= (less than or equal to) field is to define the latest point at which the corresponding letter should be used.
   
   Example 1: Your affiliate wishes to send the first late notice in the first month after the principal plus escrow is late. Set the > field to 0.0 (for 0 months, or the first day it is late) and the <= to 1.0 (for up to 1 month after the due date).
   
   Remember, mortgage due dates in Keystone are always on the first of the month. However, the homeowner is not considered delinquent until after the grace period, which is also defined on the Mortgages tab.
   
   Example 2: Your affiliate wishes to send the first default notice when the principal plus escrow is behind between 30-60 days. Set the > field to 1.0 (for 1 month, which will be the first day after it is one month overdue) and the <= to 2.0 (for up to 2 months after the due date). This generates the notice after the principal plus escrow is one month overdue but not more than two months overdue.
   
   For letters that you plan to use for homeowners under Special Payment Plans, set both of these Months Due of Principal + Escrow fields to 0.

These numbers must be contiguous. In other words, for example, if Ltr 1 is set to a lower bound of 0.0 months and an upper bound of 1.0 months, then the next letter (Ltr 2) should have a lower bound of 1.0. The lower bound of one letter should be the same as the upper bound of the one before it. However, the upper bound of the last letter in the list should be set to 0.0 to indicate there is no upper limit for the final delinquency letter. By doing this, a delinquency will always be covered by one of the letters. Otherwise, if the Months Due equals something not within any of the specified ranges, it will set the Ltr number to 0, which won't trigger a letter.

5. Click the Browse button next to the Location field of the letter you are adding to find and enter the location of the letter template file on your computer or server .
   
   The Location field shows the location on your computer or server of each of the letters defined in the Delinquency Letters pane. KTF:\ is shorthand for the location of the Keystone Templates Folder, which can be set on the Help/Documents/Templates tab of Affiliate Setup.

To modify the default settings for an existing delinquency letter, simply go to that letter in the Delinquency Letter pane and edit the fields similar to the instructions above. For more information about modifying the actual text of a letter, see the Creating or Editing a Template with Microsoft Word section.