Category: Finance

New Construction Quad Cities

Quad cities is the bursting market with opportunities. With booming development in between Chicago and Des Moines, QC is the top favorite for many. The lack of custom homes is a challenge in the area and the demand for new construction homes is rising rapidly. Realtors and builders are working along with property seekers to accomplish the new construction homes in Quad Cities. If you are a first time home builder, you are prone to many challenges. Here are some insights.

Quad Cities

Quad Cities may first look like typical MidWest area where nothing ever happens. 🙂 However, QC is developing rapidly and everyone is having hard time to cope up. John Deere, Alcoa,  and local school districts, are some of the major employers in the area. Greater Quad  Cities is also seeing  many new manufacturing, construction, highways, bridges, and small business developments.  Prospective home owners in the QC are seeing shortage of new homes. Some are surprised to find the cost of living in the Quad Cities same as cities such as Dallas, TX or Columbus, Ohio. Some big city home owners are amazed to see the quality of the homes we get in our area when compared to the price they put in the big cities.

New Construction

Home is one of the largest investments and many of us have a very careful approach for a new construction property. Buying an existing property with established facilities and landscaping is a popular choice. Due to the shortage in the Quad Cities, many opt for a new construction which turns out to quite daunting to some. 🙂

  1. Budgeting: Home owners must have a clear budget on the new construction based on the family income. Down payment, mortgage, property tax, HOA fees if any, and home improvement costs must be considered before starting out for a new home. Expect to cross the budget during the complete construction process. 🙂
  2. Area and Builder: Choosing the lot according to your preferences such as proximity to work and school districts is crucial. Next step is choosing a builder who can complete your dream home. Select a new construction builder or a general contractor who specialize in custom homes. It is better to choose the builder with appropriate permits and insurance. Some builders offer to take the construction loan for you or others may direct you to the banks that offer construction loans. Anyway, you end up paying the construction loan interest. 🙂
  3. Contract: A contract need to be signed after reviewing the estimations. You can choose to have a realtor based on the builder. Some avoid realtors to escape the cost of seven percent. Most builders in the QC charge a builder commission fee from ten to fifteen percent. Your negotiation skills may come in handy at this time. Other components are charged same by most builders depending upon who they subcontract. It may be essential to add change clauses and late delivery clauses.
  4. Design: Expect one or two months to finalize the design. Some initial idea is needed as how much square footage the home is going to be after leaving the required offsets. Type of vault, Room sizes, bathroom placements, media room, and any customized options need to be brainstormed at this time. Owners may not be surprised that the design keeps on changing as the construction progresses. 🙂
  5. Selections: Home owners are required to select many aspects of the house. The basics such as foundation or drywall material will be common in the area. Some external selections such as roofing or siding may be mandatory depending on the HOA or city rules. Crucial selections that have huge impact on the final cost include flooring, cabinets, electrical fixtures, landscaping, plumbing fixtures, appliances, paint colors, and so on. You can upgrade to advanced options or select the basic ones provided by the builder. It may seem confusing and daunting, but it is required to look up the options and check out the samples and reviews before finalizing. It will be like a selection marathon where as soon as you are done with selecting one item, you will be presented with more options to finalize another! 🙂 You will always skeptical about how the total cost is going to change if you choose a particular selection.
  6. Waiting: This is the most killing aspect of new construction homes. Expect delays as the new construction is extremely dependent on weather and labor. Rains are the show stoppers for all exterior work. Any high end work is dependent on the availability of the labor. If one of the subcontractors who committed has any emergency, that task will be delayed. This is true with big and small builders alike. Phased out tours are planned for big builders and small builders let you visit every day.
  7. Locking the mortgage rate: You are required to lock the mortgage rate before 30, 60, or 90 days of your closing. Banks and financial institutions do allow some time to lock and if any delays occur, you need to notify the bank so they can extend the rate lock for another 30 days for a charge. Banks also do require you to finalize a home insurance provider before processing the loan pre-approval. Skip this step if you are paying cash. 🙂
  8. Appraisal: Banks send for a neutral appraisal before processing the mortgage. The appraisal is a mandatory process which will decide how much that property can be valued for. The entire appraisal depends on many factors such as similar homes sold in the area during past six months or the facilities such as wood flooring or deck.
  9. Inspection: The property needs to pass several inspections from city and HOA. Those approvals are necessary and also assure that the property is being built in a safe and acceptable manner. Any recommendations must be completed before closing. An Occupancy Certificate will be issued if all the requirements are met. A Temporary Occupancy Certificate may be issued which must be corrected later.
  10. Closing: A final walk thru before closing is suggested with all the involved parties. Check every light, tap, door, and so on to note any discrepancies that need to be fixed. Your banker and realtor will prepare all the necessary documents required at the time of closing. All documents can be shared electronically and signed on the closing day. You are required to pay the down payment and closing charges at this time. If you have opted for a for-sale-by-owner, you both can hire individual lawyers who can take care of the paper work. It is your responsibility to check for the accuracy of the paperwork as the lawyers do tend to have mistakes in their forms.
  11. Post-moving checks: Once you move in your new home, keep checking the house interior and exterior for any issues. Within the one year warranty that is common in the Quad Cities, you can ask for any faults or bad installations. Note down the warranty period on the appliances and HVAC so you can seek out the fixes. Minor cracks in flooring, walls, paints, and so on can be fixed.

New construction homes are definitely a thrill to enjoy but do expect some out of pocket expenses every month. You will be tempted to make changes with the change in seasons. Peer pressure in terms of improvement and buyer remorse  when property bills arrive are common side effects. An extra fan, an upgrade in the doors, added landscaping, and so on will be needed in the first year or every year. 🙂 Let me know any other tips for new construction homes in the Quad Cities.

The Death of Crypto Currency

Investors were all frenzy earlier this year with the enormous growth of the Crypto Currency such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum. Working on the blockchain methodology and peer-to-peer payment systems, the Crypto were attractive as an alternate currency. The lack of fees for local and international transactions proved to be a rebellious way of paying. However, the software fork updates this month has made the Crypto Currency loose billions of dollars.

Crypto Currency

Crypto Currency is a term widely used for digital currency or virtual currency which is independent of any bank or financial institutions or country. It is just a process of continuous verification of transactions through software and hardware code. For every verified piece or block of code, a unit of digital currency is issued. Some Crypto Currency such as the Bitcoin and Ethereum have become the official currencies in some parts of the world. Organizations and regular stores have started accepting the Crypto Currency as a means of payment. Individuals with appropriate technology set up are able to mine the Crypto Currency in their homes. Some opt for pool mining, some investors set money in exchanges, while some buy the stocks reserved for the Crypto.

Crypto Currency can be bought with real-time currency worldwide. Several exchanges such as GDAX and Coinbase have made buying the Crypto Currency easier. In some parts of the world, Crypto ATM’s are made available for users with which they can buy the digital currency. There are fees for the transactions on the exchanges. Anonymity of users and transactions are possible in the Crypto networks. High security of the software and hardware have led to billions of transactions. Users may see a delay between when the time of order and the processing of orders due to the continuous verification.

All exchanges follow minimum Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering policies. Since the network is driven by software and users themselves, the investments are not secure. Recent software glitches made users loose money due to the issues. The exchanges do not guarantee the money lost in the wallets. Also, during the software updates or forks, the money may be lost which cannot be recovered.

Investment

This year, the IRS has exempted transactions in Bitcoin up to $20, 000 in Coinbase. New regulations are being developed worldwide for regulating Crypto Currency. Billions of users are investing in the Crypto Currency due to the rapid growth. Bitcoin has risen from around $100 to up to $4000 since its inception in 2009. Similarly, Ether which is preferred by the organizations also seen a huge growth from about $8 to around $403 this year.  Early investors have seen growth up to 400 per cent. Short term investors have lost some amount due to the volatility of the Crypto Currency.

The network users and miners have started to have disagreements on how the transactions were processed. Some believe that the transaction processing can be outsourced to third parties for faster processing. Some say that all transaction processing must be within the network. Several updates of the software fork SegWit have been introduced in to the system. Investors do withdraw their money during the updates as the software may be unpredictable. In the past, users of MtGox, a popular exchange, lost all their money due to the difficulties in the exchange. All exchanges lock the withdrawals during the software updates.

With every update and the differences in the system, investors are suspicious about the Crypto Currency network. Some believe that after the network is stabilized, the Crypto will reign. Some are getting in to panic mode and avoiding Crypto altogether. Finally, the Crypto Currency has huge scope to grow as it fell rapidly this year. Users can invest while it is in low and hope it will rise again from death.  Let me know your experiences with the new found luck – Crypto Currency. 🙂

 

Build Credit History With The Public Savings Bank Secured Visa

For individuals with no credit or those who have experienced a negative credit event like divorce or foreclosure, establishing credit history can be a real challenge. Without proper credit, everything from a car loan to an apartment or even a job can be denied.

When faced with problem credit, many people rely on prepaid cards to manage their daily expenses. However, prepaid cards simply provide access to your own money, not credit from a lender. These cards do not report to credit bureaus and do not help re-establish credit history. People need to demonstrate on-time monthly payments on a credit card in order to rebuild that important credit history.

So how can someone who cannot get a credit card rebuild their credit?

The Public Savings Bank Secured Visa offers people with low credit or no credit the opportunity to re-establish their credit history and work towards improving their credit score. Individuals make a deposit into an FDIC-insured account that acts as a security deposit. They can then make purchases anywhere Visa is accepted or take cash advances up to the deposited credit line amount, currently between $300-$2000. Payments are reported to all three major credit bureaus (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) so customers can begin to establish credit immediately.

The Public Savings Bank Secured Visa does not require a credit check or even a checking account to apply. Customers can fund their account via Western Union, ACH, wire transfer, check or money order. The card has no annual or monthly fees, and offers 0% APR for 6 months. Rush shipping is available so customers can begin using their card just days after funding their account.

Building good credit is critical at a time when credit is getting harder to obtain. This card allows the customer to build good credit while enjoying all the benefits of a Visa card at very favorable terms.