All depends on your market and how long you anticipate the house will sit.

Avoid buying during the end of year holiday season or agree with the GC prior to starting when it needs to be done by, I just didn’t like having the property sit idle for whole month of December.3.

Here are my takeaways for anyone sitting in that same position I was in 2.5 years ago: 1. 

We saved monthly for over a year and in the fall of 2018 we purchased a half acre of land with a 1990s model single wide house trailer on it for $15,000 from a local real estate investor who had abandoned the project after letting it sit on the MLS for a year at 40k and needed money for another project.

@Adam Cade @Conor Shea I'm going to comment on this, even though @Jon Lallande is sitting downstairs in my kitchen.

That's a tall ask for that kind of financing from 5 different people in my opinion, I would first try to figure out if they have a loan on the property, if so it is unlikely they would accept zero down payment as they'd have to keep paying the mortgage which realistically is going to be more than 3% so they make 1% on their money which is less than it sitting in the bank. 

You should sit in on these conversations.

Those sitting on piles of cash are getting crushed by inflation.

The house sits on about 1 1/2 acres and has an incredible view of a beautiful golf course hole.

It's in a quiet neighborhood in Katy, and the neighbors seem nice, but I'm just a little paranoid.