Help/advice on first time purchase on property with cash

[Blake Willis]

So my friend and his family own a very successful construction company. They have a piece of property they are going to sell to me for 60k to live in. I’ll get the deed then go get a HELOC and they will do all the work to fix the place up through the HELOC. My issue is my 60k is all cash I’ve literally saved for 15 years of landscaping with my family, graduations, casino wins holidays, just all around extra money that doesn’t come from my actual job that I’ve had forever. Even though they think that me paying them that much cash should be ok and nobody will say anything since they go through a lot of money, I was just wondering what is an alternative that will give me peace of mind knowing everything I’ve saved for years and years doesn’t get taken away. Can’t they just sell me the property for dirt cheap and I can just pay them the cash and they can do what they want with it? I know there’s gift tax you have to pay as well if you sell a house for $1 so can’t I just give them the money for that as well? They paid 60. The building is worth 82 and the total value with the land is 147. This is Literal Cash that I’ve saved for years and years anytime I gotten paid from my other job landscaping every summer. ( I was paid in cash ). And also like I said graduations, holidays, casinos, anything that I didn’t need to put in the bank to pay a bill was put to the side as a nest egg in case something ever happened with banks. I’ve lived off my regular job that I’ve be working for 14 years and well I guess my egg got pretty damn big after so long. I’ve had steady income for 13 years and the only bill I pay besides a phone bill or subscription things is my car payment I’ve had since 2011. I’ve lived at home since and don’t have any business or other properties that I profit from in anyway to show suspicious activity. And yes some of the cash I saved came out of my direct deposit check when I’d withdraw cash from and add to the pile so who’s to say I didn’t do that for 13 years until it just accumulated to what I have now? Any advice is appreciated. My options would be to the one I stayed above or go hey a loan for 60k which I think is fairly easy for me and just pay them in cash to do all the work to the property. Would that be better? Any help or advice is appreciated. Thanks.