[The One and Only]

mortgage / building loan to put up house? so my parents decided to give me a piece of property.. They were originally thinking of building a new house for themselves but decided not to so they are giving it to me as a wedding gift.. My soon-to-be wife and I have saved about 100k to put towards the house.. I was wondering if banks will take the fact that you own the property already into account when applying for a mortgage/building loan?? The reason I ask is that a friend of mine recently went to get a mortgage and was only approved for 120k.. He gets paid about 20k less then me and based on the cost per sq foot in my area (hudson County, NJ) it looks like the house I am interested in building will cost about 450k.. Just wondering if and how much having the property already in my name will help with getting a mortgage/building loan. Thanks