Looked at houses in the area I wanted to buy - over weeks/months to get a general understanding of what made sense3.)

It's great to understand how these work and how to identify them, but I wouldn't say it's a necessity in order to get started.

I understand most of the pro's involved in buying preconstruction, but I would like feedback.   

The entire concept is that by investing differently and into something you understand, you can get better results than by leaving 100% of the savings in a handful of mutual funds.There is a lot of good information here on the forums, as well as several providers of such plans who actively participate.

It seems like he doesn’t completely understand instructions etc.  

I understand what you are trying to do but not time for that yet.

@Basit SiddiqiDo you understand the diff between actual cash value and replacement?

Understand how you are going to manage it.

@Shirley Rozenshteyn I understand, it does seem like an upper scale area.

I do understand that's still more of a sellers market than buyers with it being less than 6 months but none the less, it does seem like things are starting to slow down.