I reached out to RTR, they referred me to another contractor which gave me a bid that would increase the construction cost by 100K - or they offered to buy as is and I would take a 160K loss.It is terrible to fell this dumb!

I’m in northern New Hampshire where we regularly get to -20 degrees during January and February.

@Jonathan Greene you didn't, that comment was more in reference to other responses on the thread.

Does anyone have any recommendations or something they can refer me to. 

I learned the drywall was cracking in October, but I'm not local to it so I wasn't checking it regularly.   

HELOANThis takes second position and is a closed end loan, meaning it's given as a lump sum similarly to a "regular" mortgage.

So I would ask what you care the most about depending on the type of deals you do.I do think checking references and reviews is important as that's sometimes overlooked and some lenders are notorious for switch & baiting. 

When you say the suburbs, are you referring to Jackson, Plain, North Canton, etc?

I'd much prefer to put $60K on a down payment and closing costs so I have $50K to fix it up.So a couple of questions: 1) Am I mistaken in thinking those kind of lower down payment products are out there for regular folks like us? 

This is a great read and references some of the points that other people in this thread have mentioned about building a team.