A local bank at times will do a land / lot purchase, you most likely will never obtain a mortgage. If you purchase a land/lot there are many issues to be concerned with your long term plan is great. However speaking direct with an agent in your area to your advantage.
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Anywhere within 20 miles of where you live has little or no viable unencumbered building land. Believe you and me any such land was snapped up years ago by developers. The only way to consider what you are thinking of would be to buy a run down property and rebuild. Many of the local builders have been doing that in recent years but the slow down in the market has mwent that there are such properties available at the moment. Trouble is that the purchase price is going to be higher than naked land and when you add your building costs you are looking at a substantail investment.
Yes it is possible to buy land with a mortgage but a lender is not going to lend very much against it. A mortgage guy can give you a better idea but I doubt they will lendmore than say 50%.
You can get construction loans but again thats a difficult field for someone such as yourself without any track record. you would have to hire a general contractor who could work with you in obtaining the financing and quite honestly that would be a difficult task.
Again the only real solution for someone like yourself is to buy a small house in a top town, build up the equity in that home as quickly as possible and then build up, out or whatever else you want to do when funds are available.