Need help w/ options for owning 3 houses next to each other

[Adam C.]

Hi everyone this is my first time posting here but have listened to the podcast for a few months now. I'm hoping I can lay out my situation here and some people with more experience that I can give their opinion.

Last year I bought a couple acre piece of vacant land with the goal to build my dream house on for my growing family. This lot was a flag lot with minimal frontage that opens up in the back. There is a 3 unit apartment in the front on a separate parcel. 

This past winter a 3 bedroom ranch with 4 acres next to my vacant land went for sale and I decided to buy it and move my family there. We still were planning on building one day and having this home only added extra acreage to my other vacant lot if I split the home and part of the acreage off of it. 

This past summer the owner of the 3 unit rental approached me that he is planning on selling his apartment within the year and offered it to me first since I own the vacant land behind it as well as living in the ranch next door now. 

I currently have a mortgage on the ranch for $230k at 3.625%. It would be appraised at about $350k. I am told if I split the land off the back of the ranch and add to my vacant parcel to build on I will have to refinance with the new lesser acreage lot or risk the bank finding out. I already researched a partial lein release and it became a dead end process right now. A refinance would be the easiest path.

I have enough cash in an investment account that would allow me to build our forever home in cash, roughly $500k, on the vacant land. This has been our goal from day one. I am in a situation now where I do not want to sell the ranch after building the home because it will be in front of my forever home. I can keep a mortgage on it and rent it out after we move out of it. I would also like to buy this 3 unit apartment also in front of my forever home in which the seller is asking $250k. 

This scenario would leave me with my forever home in the back of the property, preferably without a mortgage, and 2 rental properties, the 3 unit and the ranch, in front of me. 

I am here to ask about the financial aspect of this. I have the 500k ready to use towards building the new home. I could buy the 3 unit rental now however the down payment would be roughly 70k or 30% my lender said because it is a 3 unit. I don't have this 70k unless I take it from the budget for the new build, and I am trying to build the new house with cash, no mortgage. I am trying to figure out the best way to make this all work since I will have to probably refinance the ranch soon in order to remove some of the acreage. The whole kicker is coughing up the 70k right now to buy the 3 unit. I'm trying to see what the best plan of attack here is since we want to start building this new house this spring and I would rather not deal with any banks on the new build If I don't have to. 

Does anyone have any tips on this process and what you would do in my situation?