Buy a land!

[C-Bag]

Not to mention the HUGE rigmarole of getting approvals by the various state and county depts that are made to drain your pockets. It's way more cost effective to fix up a existing place than build from scratch for just the reasons Paul mentions. What most don't understand is the land is usually the easy/cheap part. And if you can't afford that you could lose momentum. I saw this happen first hand with a piece of land that was really affordable next to a good friend who wanted me to buy it. It went through 2 different people over 10yrs until someone could afford to push it through all the way. I'm glad I didn't go for it because it would have killed me.