What you''re considering is an immigrant tradition- To pool family money to help a new immigrant purchase a home. 

If I could use a USDA 524 Loan, construct a duplex, refinance when project is complete with a traditional mortgage, and then sell/rent the other side while I live in the property then it just may work out for me.This is a brainstorming  session for me and I was wondering if anyone had any tips at all or if this strategy seems viable? 

A traditional lender probably won't even do a mortgage for less than 75,000, I think that's typically their line.

Do a commercial loan instead of a traditional.

Let's use some real numbers from a friend's project that was recently completed - she used a hard-money lender and went the traditional route of 25% down on the property and footed the bill on the reno costs.The property cost $320K - she had to come up with $80K out of pocketThe renovation costs were $120K - all out of her pocketAll told, she had to tie up $200K until the project was completed and soldHad she gone with this new way, she could have acquired the $320K property for $32K (down) and had ALL $120K in renovation costs completely financed. 

We are exploring brrrr and traditional mortgage methods based on what’s works best.

So accessing the equity through a HELOC would be easiest by keeping them in your name.You can go with a traditional refi approach. 

I tried to get a traditional mortgage and was approved but when the bank appraised they said around 60k of work needs to be done in order to get a conventional mortgage on this property.

Hi Kristy,If the only problem is the lending, then you could potentially look outside traditional lending. 

@Adrianne G. most MLS services are focused on servicing the main sector of the market which is traditional buyers and sellers.