Welcome to BP @Marlowe Quart!

Jarred

I built a custom home last year in Northern NH for about $180/ft but that had a private well and septic with higher end finishes (quarts, custom cabinets, radiant heat, wood floors, ceramic tile, cathedral ceilings)

There are some big players here and they usually have their finger always in the cookie jar.

Jarred

IF you fall and hit your head hard enough on it,,,it well might be termed 'HARD' .It might be termed hard if you drop a glass jar of sticky pickle juice, shattering your 'day' and making clean up the order of the day!!!

So I know how jarring it is the first time this happens.  

Beautiful kitchen with quarts counter-top and center island, very popular exotic tigerwood hardwood flooring.

I'm not familiar with your chosen area to invest in, but with that kind of seed money, there are a number of areas I am familiar with where you should be able to get where you want to get within a 5 year window.Just don't spend any of that money...use it to infinity, but NEVER spend your seed money.Agreed about not dipping in the cookie jar. 

We could have gotten the pre-approval upped if it wasn't a holiday weekend, cashed out some equity on a car loan and hauled the change jar in for the difference on downpayment.