My finance view

Home improvement is one of the fastest-growing segments of e-commerce. But the consequences of a bad decision when it comes to finding a contractor or remodeling products online are far worse than buying the wrong paperback.

What if those rave reviews you read about a contractor are ringers posted by his daughter — or if your supposedly in-stock sink order doesn’t ship for two weeks, throwing off your entire work schedule?

Follow these tips to avoid glitches and get the most for your money.

To find a contractor: Sites that are driven by consumer ratings are your best bet. That’s because you get to see what as many as hundreds of prior customers say about all the pros in your area.

Just watch for sites with anonymous postings and ads that appear in search results that look like positive ratings. In the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles metro areas, or a few counties in New York, Connecticut, and Florida, check out Franklin-Report.com, which compiles user comments into Zagat-like ratings.

Beyond those regions, a good alternative is Angieslist.com, which charges $5 a month, and uses the credit card info to prevent anyone from creating more than one login in order to post multiple revews.

To vet a contractor: The next step is to talk to former clients and visit current and completed job sites. Sadly, there are no e-ternatives to doing this in person.

But there is one key step you can do online: a background check high quality business cards. Get a report about a contractor’s licensing, bonding, insurance, bankruptcy, civil judgments, criminal background, liens, and credit rating for $13 at contractorcheck.com, run by the credit bureau Experian.

To order supplies

Sites run by home-improvement chains (such as HomeDepot.com and Lowes.com), boutique manufacturers (BeadBoard.com, Horizon-Shutters.com), and specialty e-tailers (eFaucets.com, TileShop.com) offer bigger selections than local retailers do. But the main attraction is price: Discounts of 10% to 50% aren’t uncommon.

Just keep in mind that if something goes wrong, those savings could turn into cost overruns. As with any online purchase, you run the risk of shipping damage or late deliveries, which can derail a project with multiple tradesmen working around one another’s schedules.

So order online only if your contractor okays it and provides technical specs; you’re far enough ahead of the installation date to make other arrangements if there’s a problem; the site is an authorized dealer for the brands you’re buying; and if possible, you’ve seen the product firsthand.

Otherwise, buy locally. It’ll be easier to get matching items quickly if needed, and you’ll avoid having to deal with a faraway call center if a problem arises.  

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About five years ago, I went to a talk by auto analysts who said Korean manufacturers are starting to worry their Japanese neighbors.

If that was true then, arrivals such as Hyundai’s 2011 Sonata now must be keeping execs up at night. The sixth-generation sedan raises the bar yet again for the Korean automaker with a roomy, smooth riding, well-equipped and neatly finished car priced below Japanese rivals. Not only that, but our Venetian red tester caused a number of double-takes with its stylish look.

The base Sonata GLS starts at $19,915, about $500 more than the 2010. That includes power, heated, folding side mirrors; chrome-tipped exhaust; air conditioning; steering-wheel controls for audio and Bluetooth systems (including phonebook download); power windows; remote locking; cruise control; and audio system with six speakers, CD player, XM and MP3 compatibility, iPOD and USB ports.

On the safety front you get antilock brakes with emergency assist feature, side airbags and curtains, traction and stability control, and tire-pressure monitor.

That price is about two thousand less than the Honda Accord, which along with the Sonata, ride at the larger end the midsize group. The smaller Toyota Camry comes closer in price, but isn’t quite as well equipped.

The base versions of all those cars come with 4-cylinder engines and manual transmissions, which means most people will upgrade. In the case of the Hyundai, you get a 2.4-liter engine rated at 198 or 200 horsepower matched to a six-speed manual or automatic transmission. The latter adds $1,000 to the tab.

The standard 4-cylinder gets a little buzzy when you tromp hard on the accelerator. But after a few days behind the wheel, I found it plenty powerful, even fun to drive. The 4-cylinder returns decent fuel economy 22 miles per gallon in the city, 34 on the highway with the automatic.

That’s the only engine available initially, but Hyundai has a 274-horsepower 4-cylinder turbo (expected to deliver mileage at 22/34) and a hybrid estimated at 37/39 in the pipeline.

We tested the mid-level SE, which starts at $23,315, adding the automatic, bigger alloy wheels, sportier suspension, fog lamps, dual exhaust, push-button starter, leather trim, eight-way power driver’s seat, steering-wheel-mounted shift paddles and automatic headlamps instant payday loans.

The sedan made a good first impression. Its coupe-like profile looks sharp on approach. I got in with our editor and managing editor for the first time after deadline. Randi checked out the window sticker and asked us to guess the price. I said $27,000, Ilana $30,000. Looking around at the neat fit and finish, quality materials, roomy surrounds, I said $27,000, Ilana, $30,000 – both well over the real price of $23,315.

Randi wished for a sunroof, which is available as part of a $2,600 package that also includes navigation. Only Ilana had a complaint. Pointing at the stick-figure-shapped buttons that control air-flow directions she said, “That’s cheesy, I wouldn’t buy it just because of that.”

I thought the buttons were OK, even intuitive, but I would have made it smaller and the radio controls larger. Others thought it was a little cheesy too, but certainly not a deal breaker.

All in all, the new Sonata is an impressive car offering a lot for the money. In other words, Hyundai is coming on strong in the race to catch perennial top sellers Camry and Accord. Consider stats at autos.aol.com: No. 1 Camry sold 28,435 cars in June, a 7.7 percent increase, and while Hyundai sold 17,711 Sonatas to take seventh place among all sedans, that represents a nearly 49 percent increase over June 2009.

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Payday loans no faxing fall on the less risky side simply because the money loaned to you is a percentage of your next paycheck.

Centene posted a profit of $22.8 million, or 45 cents a share, for the second quarter, up 13 percent from $20.2 million, or 46 cents a share, in the prior-year period, as its managed care at-risk membership rose.

The health insurer reported a 4 percent increase in revenue to $1.08 billion for the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.04 billion a year earlier.

Analysts had expected an average profit of 42 cents a share on revenue of $1.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters.

Centene said its quarter-end managed care at-risk membership totaled 1,531,800, an increase of 242,800 members, or 19 percent year-over-year No teletrack payday loans.

Last month, the city of O’Fallon, Mo., approved $24 million in bonds to help finance Centene's new data center.

St. Louis-based Centene (NYSE: CNC), led by Chairman and CEO Michael Neidorff, provides managed care programs and related services to individuals under Medicaid. It reported revenue of $4.1 billion in 2009.

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NEW YORK — Simon Hallett, chief investment officer of Harding Loevner, knows a thing or two about international markets. The nearly 30-year investment-industry veteran manages two highly rated mutual funds, Harding Loevner International Equity, and Harding Loevner Emerging Markets. His firm manages more than $7.3 billion. Here are his views on the European debt crisis and the global economy:

With all the discussion about Greece and the decline of the euro, what’s on your mind?

All that we’re seeing now in Europe is a kind of a ripple effect from what began here three years ago.

We wrote to our mutual fund shareholders in October, and talked about the twin big risks that the world faced. One is the risk of higher inflation resulting from the massive expansion of monetary supplies.

That helped finance the other big risk: the contraction in assets that came as a result of terrible lending by the banks. So there’s this kind of tradeoff between inflationary pressures in the future, and massive deflationary pressures now.

We don’t know what policy is going to enable us to steer between these two monsters. There is a tremendous risk of policy errors at a time when government involvement is much, much greater. But we basically said, deflationary pressures are the ones that are going to win out over the coming years, and that has some implications for the kind of companies in which we should invest.

What can we expect now?

We’re seeing a contraction in bank assets because they made stupid loans. And equity markets, in particular, seem to be very short-sighted about where the strains are going to emerge next. Governments in Europe have too much leverage. Not just in terms of their balance sheets, but also in terms of their unfunded commitments, such as welfare benefits, and unemployment benefits. In order to fix the credit problems that the banks have, governments have to generate more revenue, so they have to push tax rates up and that threatens the economic growth. So I think we’re going to continue seeing strains on government finances, strains on the finances on anybody who has too much debt.

What kind of companies can best operate in this kind of environment?

Our philosophy is to make sure that balance sheets are strong, cash flow is strong, that management is capable, and that the competitive position is invulnerable — or at least as strong as you can possibly assure. And that this is the kind of company that can eke out fairly modest amounts of growth wherever they can find it. They’re not reliant upon very strong economies.

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Treasurys were little changed Wednesday, as investors looked for direction amid mixed signals out of Europe and the United States.

What prices are doing: Prices straddled the breakeven point much of Wedneday before dipping a bit after the afternoon release of the Federal Reserve’s upbeat minutes.

The benchmark 10-year note fell 2/32 to 101-7/32, pushing the yield up to 3.36%. Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.

The 30-year bond dropped 3/32 to 102-12/32 and yielded 4.24%; the 2-year note inched lower to 100-14/32, with a 0.76% yield. The 5-year note was down 7/32 to 101-26/32, yielding 2.11%.

What’s moving the market: Treasurys struggled to find direction Wednesday as investors weighed mixed signals in Europe and the United States.

Germany announced it would ban some "naked" short selling and said its banks are not on the brink, which helped the euro rise against the dollar for the first time in several trading sessions. The euro hit a fresh four-year low on Tuesday, but rose 1.5% against the dollar Wednesday.

But this assurance from German officials did little to assuage investors, who are wary about the strength of Europe’s banks, and Treasurys rebounded.

The government-backed bonds turned lower, however, after the Fed raised its outlook for economic growth and reduced its estimate for the unemployment rate.

Investors view Treasurys as "safer" assets in times of economic uncertainty because they are backed by the U.S. government. In recent weeks, the euro zone’s debt concerns and worries about the sustainability of the shared currency have caused riskier assets, such as stocks traded in global markets, to plummet, boosting the government-backed bonds.

What analysts are saying: "Everyone’s focused on the euro problem," said William Larkin, a portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management. "The flight to quality has caused a lot of volatility in the treasury market."

Analysts have said that Germany’s ban on short-selling is an effort to protect banks from the damage of speculators can cause. But following the announcement, European stock markets fell and U.S. stock markets traded lower as investors continued to move money out of riskier assets, such as stocks and commodities, and into relatively safer ones.

"They would have been better off having a press release, detailing the rationale of the ban and its connection to the larger austerity plans," Larkin said. "It looks like a patch, panic. It doesn’t look coordinated."

At yields lower than 3.5% on the benchmark 10-year note, Treasurys are quite expensive, Larkin said. But the trend is unlikely to change in the near-term, as uncertainty clouds Europe.

"As long as fear is out there, Treasurys will trade expensively with very low yields," Larkin said. 

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The foreclosure plague may have finally reached its peak in April 2010 — but don’t expect delinquency statistics to plummet anytime soon.

The total number of foreclosure filings — notices of default, auction notices and bank repossessions — fell by 9% from March to April, and 2% compared with April 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac, the online marketer of foreclosed properties.

This is the first time that has happened in the history of the report, which goes back to January 2006.

But the number of homes repossessed during April is at an all-time high of 92,432. That is a 45% increase over April 2009. If repossessions continue at this pace, more than 1.1 million homes will be lost in 2010.

"There were two important milestones in the April numbers that show foreclosure activity has begun to plateau, but at a very high level that will not drop off in the near future," said RealtyTrac CEO James Saccacio.

Saccacio said he expects the pattern to become the norm for many months, with the overall numbers of filings staying high, but not increasing, and repossessions remaining at record levels.

The reason that repossessions can rise while filings hold steady is that lenders are working through a backlog of delinquent properties, taking more of them through the entire process to repossession, rather than letting them linger in limbo.

Walkaways

The numbers of repossessed properties, also called real-estate owned or REOs, have been boosted by a spike in the number of homeowners voluntarily giving up their homes because their the value has dropped so precipitously.

These "strategic defaults" now account for nearly one in three foreclosures, according to a recent report from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management. That’s up from 22% 12 months earlier.

Some homeowners walk away when they are "underwater," owing far more than the value of their home, because they realize that they will never recoup the losses. The further homeowners fall underwater, the more likely they are to leave.

About one in four U.S. homeowners is underwater, according to CoreLogic, a financial data provider. Nearly 5 million of those borrowers owe mortgage debt that exceeds their property values by 25% or more. The total of negative equity in these deeply underwater borrowers is a whopping $655 billion.

Foreclosure epicenters

Nevada continues to rank as the worst-hit foreclosure state, with one of every 69 households receiving some kind of filing. That’s nearly six times the national rate which is one household for every 387 receiving a filing.

Arizona had the second highest rate; Florida the third; and California the fourth. California, the largest state in the union, had nearly 70,000 filings, more than any other state. Michigan, where the vast number of foreclosures can be traced to job losses and economic turmoil, recorded more than 19,000.

The metro area market that recorded the highest rate of foreclosure filings in April was Las Vegas, where one of every 60 homes was delinquent, Second was Modesto, Calif., with one in 101, and neighboring Merced, where one in 104 homeowners was in some stage of default. 

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The National Federation of Independent Business is backing U.S. Sen. John McCain in his primary race against former Scottsdale Congressman J.D. Hayworth.

NFIB represents small businesses and tends to take a conservative stance on taxes and regulations.

NFIB likes McCain’s position on taxes and opposition to union-backed efforts to make it easier to organize.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry also backing McCain in the senate race.

“Small businesses are the engine and lifeblood of our economy, providing the vast majority of jobs and opportunities for people across Arizona, and I am proud to have the support of the NFIB,” said McCain in a statement. “I fight every day to get government out of the way of our dynamic private sector and get our economy moving again. I admire the important work of the NFIB, and look forward to partnering with them to ensure that our small businesses thrive and become engines for job creation once again.”

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Source: KV Pharmaceutical Co.

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It’s official: Californians will decide whether legal marijuana should be used to plug the state’s $20 billion budget gap.

California residents are expected to vote this year on whether legalization should be approved to raise nearly $1.4 billion in state revenue. That’s based on an estimate from the State Board of Equalization, a tax administration agency.

"It would be another source of revenue for the state," said Anita Gore, spokeswoman for the board. The board has not issued an opinion on legalization as a means of easing the state’s budget crisis, she added.

California Secretary Debra Brown confirmed on Wednesday that enough signatures had been collected to put AB 390, a marijuana legalization bill, on the ballot for Nov. 2. A press release from the secretary said that legalization proponents submitted 694,248 petition signatures for the bill, easily surpassing the required 433,791.

"The momentum for reform has grown exponentially since we introduced the bill last year," said Quitin Mecke, spokesman for Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, the lead sponsor of the bill. "We’re excited about the prospect to reform drug laws again."

Mecke noted that California was the first state to pass legislation allowing medicinal marijuana, 14 years ago.

Unlike prior legislation that has passed in California and other states, this form of legalization is not restricted to medicinal use of marijuana pay day loan lenders. The bill proposes that marijuana be regulated and taxed in a similar way to alcohol.

According to the bill, people would have to be 21 years or older "to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use." Californians would not be permitted to use the drug in public or within the presence of minors, and would not be allowed to possess it on school grounds.

Most importantly, as far as the budget gap is concerned, the bill stipulates that the drug would be subject to a sales tax. An additional retail fee of $50 would be imposed on every ounce that’s sold.

The State Board of Equalization estimates that the state could raise $1.382 billion in annual tax revenues from legal marijuana. The figure is based on estimated revenue of $990 million from the retail fees and $392 million from sales taxes.

"With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move towards regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense," Ammiano said in a press release when he first proposed the bill last year.

Also, Mecke said that legalization could prompt the state to "reallocate" more than $300 million in law enforcement spending away from non-violent drug activity to address violent crimes.  

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This is a weekly roundup of promotions, appointments and employee accomplishments in the Birmingham metro area. For more People on the Move, check out the Birmingham Business Journal’s print edition each week. Send announcements to ccrawford@bizjournals.com.

ACCOUNTING

Anna Kathryn Ellis, director of business development at Payroll & Benefit Solutions, was named Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce Ambassador of the Year.

CONSTRUCTION

Doug Jeffords with Jeffords Associates of Birmingham was awarded a contract to monitor and provide owner’s representative services for the construction and renovation work at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville. Jeffords is former vice president of construction for Colonial Properties Trust.

LEGAL

Charlie Waldrep, founding partner of Waldrep Stewart & Kendrick law firm, will speak at Faulkner University Jones School of Law on April 7 about establishing a law practice. Waldrep started his firm in 1978. Waldrep concentrates in representing public agencies with a primary emphasis in civil litigation.

Amy K. Myers, an attorney with Haskell Slaughter Young & Rediker LLC, presented a seminar entitled “Temporary and Permanent Visa Options for Professionals: An Overview of Strategies” on Feb. 27 at Baptist Campus Ministries in Birmingham. The program discussed key immigration strategies for highly educated foreign nationals seeking to work in the United States.

Sirote & Permutt attorneys Harold Apolinsky and Craig Stephens, along with expert financial planner Stewart Welch, recently co-authored and published the third edition of J.K. Lasser's New Rules for Estate and Tax Planning. Apolinsky is an estate planning professional. Stephens is co-chair of the firm's Estates, Wills, and Trusts practice group. His practice focuses on representing individuals in the estate planning process, with a focus on tax minimization strategies.

MEDIA

Luckie & Co. Senior Vice President Mike Murphy has been awarded a 2009 Silver Medal by the Birmingham chapter of the American Advertising Federation. Murphy was nominated for the award by longtime friends and colleagues at Luckie. Murphy joined Luckie & Forney in 1980 as the head of the South Central Bell advertising account. Today, he leads a department of 15 people who work primarily on direct marketing for AT&T. Murphy is also the head of Luckie & Co.’s San Antonio office, which opened in 2007.

UNIVERSITIES

Gary Warner, the director of research in computer forensics at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has been named the country’s “Most Popular Security Blogger” after a vote of information-security peers and blog readers in Secure Computing Magazine. Warner’s blog, CyberCrime & Doing Time, is read by thousands each month. Site visitors range from information-security insiders to media members who report on the technology beat to novice computer users concerned about cyber crime threats. Read the blog at http://garwarner.blogspot.com.

University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing professor Marti Rice has been elected president of the Southern Nursing Research Society. Rice joined UAB School of Nursing in 1997 and teaches research methods, statistics and child-health theories and concepts and emerging child-health issues in the Leadership Education in Child Health Nursing program, a grant funded by the Maternal Child Health Bureau.

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