My ex was going to do an alternative build too but there's nobody within a 300 mile radius of the area that will do it. She found one guy that said he would give it a shot but he wouldn't be able to begin for a year and a half. I'm not sure how it works on borrowing towards new builds like that up here. As far as I know when I last inquired for borrowing to buy just land, the requirement that I had to have a 50% down payment to borrow the remaining amount. That was just a land purchase though, there wasn't any mention of a house to be built so that could be a changing point. Otherwise for first time home buyers here, you need 5% down. Property up here is so far out of touch with reality now too. I just saw an ad a few days ago for a severed lot in the country about half an hour drive from any towns or the city and they wanted about 124k...for a half an acre lot. As it stands right now, real estate is not going to be an option for me ever unless we have a swift and viciously aggressive real estate crash and reset.