My neighbours did this; took about 5 years start to finish (from the time they bought the trailer to the time they sold it). It apparently took some convincing of the county because they were restricted to one house on the piece of land...so having the mobile home AND the new house was against zoning bylaws. Thankfully the county agreed if the mobile home was gone when the moved into the new house. There was about a month in which they camped out in the yard because the mobile home was sold and gone but the house hadn't passed final inspection. All that being said, it worked, they have a gorgeous house and no debts. That being said, they had TONS of family to help them with the build, and she was a stay at home mom (they have 5 kids!), and dad was a trucker who would be home for stretches at a time. Personally, I built my place in a year working only evenings and weekends plus my holiday time, without an entire crew of workers. $50k wouldn't have gotten it to lock-in stage, but it would have covered my excavation, foundation and at least 1/2 of framing (except I dug my own basement and poured my own foundation....so we're talking material costs). Where there's a will, there's a way right??

I just went through this with Wells Fargo. We have decided to throw any extra $ at our mortgage to get it paid off so we can retire sooner than originally planned. We have automatic payments made on the same day each month from OUR bank to WF (as opposed to WF withdrawing the funds from our bank..I want the control).Here is what they said basically... Suppose your regular monthly payment is $2,000. If in January you send them $4,000 the "computer" reads it as two payments so you would not need to make another payment until March. If you had sent $3500, the computer knows it is extra $ (but not enough for two payments) and applies $1500 to the principle. So, as long as you are sending in less than 2 payments any extra should go to principle....he suggested leaving a $100 buffer, so using this example if you send in $3900 or less, the extra should go to principle. We have upped our regular payment. In addition, from time to time when we have extra I will just go in to my bill pay and send them extra on different days than our regular payment. I can also log into WF and can see a running statement of how funds are applied and make sure the amounts I want to go to principle are.

Hi everyone! Thank you all so much for the information - it helps me to make sure all my bases are covered before I start looking, go to get pre-approved for a mortgage, etc. My past work history is as follows: Graduated college in May 2009 June 2009 - began working in my field through a temp agency September - 2009 convinced my employer to buy out my temp agency contract and became full-time June 2011 - left my former job to begin this "full-time temporary" job, a contracted position So this June I will have had 3 solid years of employment in my chosen field, with the pay stubs and tax returns to back it up (well, tax returns for two years, but you understand...) My original contract was to run out in March; it was just extended to August 31, 2012. At that point, it may be extended for another year (likely), I will be offered a permanent position (somewhat less likely, but not out of the question), or I will be let go (from what my boss is saying, far less likely, but I do know that unexpected things can happen). Finding a lender who works with these situations is a great idea - I do work for a large, national company but their presence in my community is small. However, there are a lot of freelancers and other similar job situations in the county, so they must be working with banks somehow. Again, thank you for the input - keep it coming with whatever else I may need to consider, it's very much appreciated.

"Early twenties tends to be when you have some truly wonderful opportunities to explore life and make your way." If that's what you want fine. I wouldn't change a single thing about my life. I would make the same choices. I enlisted in the AF at 18, had DD at 20, married DH at 21 (he was 22 and just out of the AF) and we bought our first house within the year with help from his father, had DS about 8 months year later and I got out of the AF at his birth and started college when he was 4 weeks old (It was DH's last semester*) . My FIL loaned us $3500 on a $38.5K house which we repaid (he only asked for what he would've made on the money in a Money Market account) when we sold the house for $46K a few years later. Life's been good. Kids are grown and on their own, but are renting because of house prices here in northern VA. I got my degree at the age of 32 (life happened), but I make great money 17 years later. We're on our 3rd house and even in the depressed market it's worth $500K more than we paid for it 14 years ago and we owe very little on it. I'm so thankful that my FIL was willing to take a chance on his 23 yo son and the son's 22 yo wife of 1 year and loan us the money for a down payment on that first house. Those were great times then! DH was in college with only the GI bill and Ready Reserve income, I was an E4 in the AF, we had one child and were trying for our second. I loved that first house - our 1000 sq ft rancher on 1/2 acre in Gloucester County VA. It was white with black shutters, 3 BR and 2 baths and a one car garage with washer and dryer in the garage. Now DH and I have our retirement almost completely saved for (and still 10 more years to put away more money) and we have money to help the kids out (but not too too much, which wouldn't be good for them), plus money for vacations. Our credit history/score has always been perfect. To get back to the topic at hand, there has been good advice for how the son can get a credit "history" fairly quickly, and I would advise that route over buying the house for him outright, or co-signing.