My brother is about to head to college and I was thinking about perhaps putting a down payment on a triplex were he could live, after showing my parents the money he will spend on rent during his 4 years ( about 14400$ since rent around the university is about 300$) they have decided they could pay half the down payment (10k) if I instead don't charge him to live there.

Cash offer for your note is half face value.  

For example, rent out your current place, move into a duplex, and rent out the other half.

Also, we like to get two years from the construction loan so that we have an extra year and a half to sell the home.

I can get more than half of this investment $$'s on year1 (60% of the investment on year1 with depreciation, rest in remaining 5-6 years) combined with potential tax benefits (30% Federal tax benefit on Solar).3.

Is it judicial or non-judicial (statutory)What are the mile-stones in the process (Lis pendens, Notice of Default, Sale notice, etc)Once you have a grip on that, come back and we can answer specific questions about where to look for public records and on specific strategies.Good luck.

I know people who make two or three times that with no kids who have trouble saving half that.Like @Dan Heuschele mentioned, I would recommend going the house hack route.  

Just look up REIA on Meetup.com within miles of your location.  

We'd like to move back home when the house is done so we would be about 60 miles away from the house if we chose to rent it out.

Now 1/3 of global production is tech and half of that you can commute to from your front door.