Books That Work and Hearst New Media Introduce The Homebuyer's Guide

New Software Guide Helps Prospective Homebuyers Through Each Step of the
Purchase Process

PALO ALTO, California, Nov. 21, 1994 -- Books that Work and Hearst New
Media today released The Homebuyer's Guide, a software package that
enables consumers to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives
-buying a home -- with confidence. Using an intuitive interface, The
Homebuyer's Guide provides prospective homeowners with a comprehensive
five step approach to the purchase process: Preparation, Home Hunt,
Financing, Offer, and Closing. The program manages the complexity of the
home purchase process by providing informative articles, powerful
specialized calculators, database comparison tools, and legal and
financial document preparation. The Homebuyer's Guide is a Windows
application available for around $30.00.

Powerful Tools for Each Step of the Process The Preparation section is a
clear-cut guide to real estate basics. It shows you how to assess your
finances, evaluate neighborhoods, and work with real estate agents.
Built-in software calculators help you evaluate your personal finances and
answer questions such as Rent vs. Buy and How Much Can I Afford?

The Home Hunt section offers another set of useful software tools,
including the Housing Needs Analyzer that helps you define your ideal
home. The analyzer helps you select everything from price, square footage,
landscaping, and neighborhood, to the best architectural style for your
tastes. This section also features a Prospective Homes database, already
formatted to help you track and compare all of the houses you visit.

The Financing section provides essential information on different mortgage
types, lending sources, legal policies, and tax implications. The Loan
Tracker compares mortgage options, (both fixed and variable rate), by
analyzing key details such as rates, fees, introductory periods, caps, and
steps. On your computer screen, the Homebuyer's Guide graphically portrays
the lifetime cost of each option for several scenarios. This makes it
incredibly simple for you to choose the loan that best fits your finances.
At this point the program provides an electronic version of the Uniform
Residential Loan Application, which you can complete on-screen, print out,
and submit to your bank.

The Offer section arms you with information on valuing your house,
negotiating your deal, and framing the offer. You can print out a Sales
Contract and use an intelligent worksheet to write provisions to the
standard sales contract, based on your particular situation.

The Closing section helps you track and manage the critical details of
entering escrow and taking possession of your new home. The Move-in-Cost
calculator provides a line-by-line estimate of closing costs. The Closing
Checklist takes you through the final steps. It notes every single due
date, tracks who is responsible for each document, and provides detailed
instructions for getting each task done. The section also alerts you about
critical contingencies that may crop up, and helps you prepare for each
one.

With over 5 million homes bought last year, The Homebuyer's Guide is a
valuable tool not only to individual consumers but also to real estate
professionals who assist them in the purchase process. Real Estate agents
and loan brokers can use the program to guide their customers and track
their financial options and home preferences.

System Requirements

The Homebuyer's Guide comes on 3 1/2" diskettes and requires and IBM PC or
100% compatible with a 386 or higher processor, 2 MB RAM minimum, VGA or
Super VGA monitor, and Windows 3.1. It does not require a CDROM drive. The
product is available for around $30.

Books That Work is an award-winning developer and publisher of interactive
software devoted to the home how-to market. Books That Work is based in
Palo Alto, CA. For product ordering information, contact Books That Work,
2300 Geng Road, Bldg. 3, Suite 100, Palo Alto, CA 94303; 415-843-4400.

The Hearst Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified
communications companies. It publishes 14 consumer magazines, 12 daily and
five non-daily newspapers, and numerous business publications. It operates
six radio and six television stations and the Hearst Book Group. The
Hearst Corporation also syndicates newspaper comics and features, produces
and distributes television programming, and is a joint venture in the
Lifetime, Arts & Entertainment, and ESPN cable networks. To contact Hearst
New Media, write to 959 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, or call (212)
649-2315.

Tetra Solutions, the primary software developer for The Homebuyer's Guide,
specializes in providing interactive, easy-to-use software for personal
productivity and adult education. To contact Tetra Solutions, write to 821
Alameda, Belmont, CA 94002, call (415) 802-9896, or email
tetra@shell.portal.com.

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