re: Better to buy a lot up front or finance with home?

I bookmarked this thread for future reference. My wife and I are getting ready to buy a lot. My brother builds houses, but he's not a licensed contractor, he works for one and builds houses on his own. In Louisiana, you're allowed to build one home for personal use every year without needing a contractor or contracting license. So he will build most of the house, with my help on the weekends and he and I will work together to contract out the stuff we can't do. About the only thing we'll need to sub out is land prep, slab, plumbing and electrical. Possible sheetrock, just because we both hate doing it. But most of the cost of these sub-outs are materials anyway.

I'm definitely going to have to come back here and ask hawkeye more about the 6 month thing.