He wants the money up front for a 2-3 week delivery.

You may have read recently about Carnegie Mellon Universities' research into providing microneedle drug delivery patches for the Covid-19 vaccine.

The shipping and delivery times are often extraordinary. 

Home delivery types?

Try to talk to a real estate agent or the mail delivery people in the towns you visit.

Here are the rules for a "Secondary Property" per Fannie MaeSecond Home PropertiesThe table below provides the requirements for second home properties. 1      ✓Second Home Requirementsmust be occupied by the borrower for some portion of the yearis restricted to one-unit dwellingsmust be suitable for year-round occupancythe borrower must have exclusive control over the propertymust not be rental property or a timeshare arrangement1cannot be subject to any agreements that give a management firm control over the occupancy of the propertyIf the lender identifies rental income from the property, the loan is eligible for delivery as a second home as long as the income is not used for qualifying purposes, and all other requirements for second homes are met (including the occupancy requirement above). 

Less obvious ways to find deals, make friends with postal delivery drivers, they know when life changes happen and may be able to link you up to sellers.  

Perhaps this could help with pricing and timing of delivery.

$1000 is an arbitrary number, the whole point was essentially charging at least double for guaranteed priority delivery times.

Nothing more than 10%, with the payment tied to start of construction, site mobilization (depending on what you're doing) or receipt/delivery of project materials.